New Vita HBL Exploited Game Announced

[Tom Bombadildo]

Dear Sony, it has come to my attention that one of the PSP games available on the playstation Vita has a vulnerability that could lead to the execution of external code by some malicious users. Therefore I am writing this blog post so that you can patch the game or remove it from the PSN store as soon as possible. Preferably, I suggest you take the money from your clients first, and prevent them from downloading the game afterwards, just like you did with Motorstorm Arctic Edge, 3 weeks ago. This way it will be a win-win situation for you, and you can always blame it on the hackers later on....

...The name of the game is Everybody’s Tennis. It is also known as Minna no tennis in Japan. Thankfully the game is not available on the US Vita store, so this should limit the problems on your end. I heard however that these hackers have prepared a US version of the hack just in case that version is being sold somewhere such as the HK store. I also heard people can buy the UK version from the US if they buy some PSN cards from resellers on ebay and other sites. If I may give some advice, I think this is not secure enough. True, you did a good job in preventing people from buying games outside of the country they live in (and being a French living in Japan, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the fact that I can’t buy any game on the French PSN, this is exactly how globalization should work, and it helps me sparing lots of money by not buying any game), but I think in order to avoid future hacks, you should simply prevent everyone from buying games on the PSN, which will guarantee you a complete control of the market.

Spoiler

The hackers also announced they would release their hack a few hours or days after they announce the name of the game being used. They claim this only allows people to run “homebrew” games and that in no way it allows people to play pirated PSP or vita games, but I think this is not an excuse to hack.
I realize it is saturday evening for your teams in Europe, and Sunday morning in Japan. I hope you will not have to wake some people in the middle of the night just to take action, I would have chosen a better time, but I myself have very little time to blog outside of weekends...

Yours truly, W. Ololo

Looks like Wololo released the name of the new Vita game for the HBL exploit. UK and JPN only, though. Although apparently the team has US version of the hack as well.

Source

 

[Hyro-Sama]

I think Sony already patched it didn't they?

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

I think Sony already patched it didn't they?

This is a different game from what I understand.

EDIT: Yeah, different game. The old one was Motorstorm while this one is Everybody's Tennis.

 

[Hyro-Sama]

Oh, It'll be a matter of time then.

Moreover, Wololo is getting lots of flak for releasing HBL. He posted about it on his site. Why does the Sony hacking community have such terrible support from the users?

 

[SifJar]

Although apparently the team has a game for the US as well.

No, they have a version of the exploit that would work on a US version of the game. They don't actually have access to the US game on a Vita (they probably have it on a PSP).

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Although apparently the team has a game for the US as well.

No, they have a version of the exploit that would work on a US version of the game. They don't actually have access to the US game on a Vita (they probably have it on a PSP).

Ah right, read it wrong thanks. Fixed

 

[Qtis]

Haters' gonna hate. Though I don't own a PSVita yet, I can say that the PSP homebrew capabilities have so far been amazing! I can't see how people honestly think that a hack such as this makes it enable piracy on the device. At least not in the way of PSP/PSV ISO loading. Emulators AFAIK still run fine (a way of piracy if you don't own all the games and rip them yourself (who has a NES ripper?)).

 

[Foxi4]

Why... would... they... announce... which... game... it... is?

*shakes head*

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Same reason they did the last time, I suppose.

@Qtis what I'm especially excited about is Davee's exploit...that is, if he ever releases it. I still have so many PSP UMDs sitting around that'd I would love to play on the Vita, so hopefully he comes through...

 

[chrisrlink]

don't you guys realize cause of this sony will either a( patch the exploit or b) remove the game from SEN? honestly i rather stick with the psp cause the kirk keys are known and psp is now 100% vulnerable well then again pulling games from SEN would make the vita less appealing than the 3ds

 

[SifJar]

Why... would... they... announce... which... game... it... is?

*shakes head*

They announced it a few hours before intending to release the files I believe, same as last time (although in both instances long time, trusted members of wololo's forum knew several weeks prior).

The idea is to get as many people owning the game as is feasibly possible before releasing the actual exploit in the vague hope that this will result in more people being able to make use of it. The idea is the trusted forum members get word of the game name, and keep that secret. Then once there has been time for any of them that want it to get it, it's announced publicly and there is a window of opportunity before Sony pull it down. The first time, with MotorStorm, the hope was that Sony might not take it down until the actual exploit was released, seeing as they would benefit from a potential increase in sales and it couldn't be used for piracy, so they may wait until they know what to block before taking action. They didn't do that, but pulled it fairly quickly after the public announcement. At that point, Wololo posted on his blog saying he could just not release the exploit, to spite Sony, but that wouldn't have been fair to people, so he released it then.

This time, it was obvious that Sony aren't for waiting till the actual files drop, so the announcement was made at a tactical time when there was least chance of Sony employees being able to pull it off the store in the immediate future after the announcement. That way, there should be a maximum window for potential users to download the game if they so desire.

The whole thing is about playing a game with Sony, and in some ways it seems petty and silly, but in others it makes vague sense. Although I see zero reason for them not to release the files at the same time as announcing the game, seeing as Sony don't seem to care if the actual exploit is released or not before pulling the game. Unless the files weren't ready, in which case it seems like the announcement could have waited a week.

Also, want to point out that for EU users, the language of the Vita must be set to French any time you want to use the exploit. Seems somewhat less convenient that the MotorStorm exploit.

 

[Devin]

Does anyone know if the buying a PSN card from a online retailer from Europe, making a Europe SEN account, and then buying the game would work? :3 I want to make sure before attempting to do so.

 

[Foxi4]

Why... would... they... announce... which... game... it... is?

*shakes head*

They announced it a few hours before intending to release the files I believe, same as last time (although in both instances long time, trusted members of wololo's forum knew several weeks prior).

I see, I see... I thought they released the title much, much earlier then the exploit itself.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Does anyone know if the buying a PSN card from a online retailer from Europe, making a Europe SEN account, and then buying the game would work? :3 I want to make sure before attempting to do so.

Yep, it'd work. I can't confirm it personally, but I believe other members of another forum have.

 

[Qtis]

Does anyone know if the buying a PSN card from a online retailer from Europe, making a Europe SEN account, and then buying the game would work? :3 I want to make sure before attempting to do so.

Should be possible, Wololo confirms it in the blog post "I also heard people can buy the UK version from the US if they buy some PSN cards from resellers on ebay and other sites."

I'd just prefer homebrew in one way or another. If only jailbreaking/homebrew was made legal in the same way as it's already on the iPhone. :3

@Suprgamr323: It's quite interesting times ahead now. The only question lies in how long it'll take to get to the point we are with the PSP (and in a way with the PS3 I guess, though I still haven't installed any CFW on my PS3).

Edit: Ninja'd

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

@Suprgamr323: It's quite interesting times ahead now. The only question lies in how long it'll take to get to the point we are with the PSP (and in a way with the PS3 I guess, though I still haven't installed any CFW on my PS3).

Edit: Ninja'd

Agreed. I don't think it'll ever get as far as the PSP, but I'm sure CFW will be possible eventually.

 

[Rydian]

Haters' gonna hate. Though I don't own a PSVita yet, I can say that the PSP homebrew capabilities have so far been amazing! I can't see how people honestly think that a hack such as this makes it enable piracy on the device.

People on the internet, jump to conclusions based on a few key words without actually reading anything about what they try to disclaim?

That never happens!

 

[mjax]

So is that game taken down yet?

Also,

Spoiler

 

[redact]

Just downloaded it. lets hope aus version is same as eu because i just dropped $45 on it

 

[mjax]

Taken down in Japan as reported by a few people. See the source in the first post.