Today I was browsing the web and some known games sites. Amongst my browsing, I usually visit hacking sites in order to figure out what’s been going on the PS3 in regards of piracy and other stuff. By touching this subject, and to not be mistaken or regarded as a pirate of some sorts, I do not approve the modification of PS3´s firmware to enable it to run custom applications. I visit these sites to gain information of the situation and out of my own curiosity. For example, I knew the PSN Store was compromised 2 weeks before the network went down. And I got to say I enjoy watching these so called “hackers” behaving like some kind of Robin Hood in the forums. Which lead to make this blog. I will separate this in 2 topics to expose my thoughts on them.
1: Jack Tretton´s interview on NY Times.com – Kakaroto gave a response to that interview:
Kakaroto sent a response to the NYTimes.com regarding Jack Tretton´s interview over the hack subject that plagued Sony. In this response, Kakaroto called Jack Tretton a liar in regards of his answer to this question:
Q:_“Some hackers say Sony wants to deter customers from modifying the PlayStation3. Is that true?
A:_No, there’s a real misnomer there, we embrace independent game development; if you call that hacking, then we embrace that. We give people tools that let them create new experiences. What I don’t think we are in support of is someone trying to hack our device to pirate software and possibly collapse the platform.”
Kakaroto went on to say, amongst other things, this:
“While Apple has the App Store, Google has the Android Market and Microsoft has the XBox Live Indie Games program, Sony are the only ones who have not embraced the homebrew community and who are not allowing us to use our consoles the way we want to.”
After this response, I lolled! I mean, really?! Ever heard of Minis?! No?! I thought so! Best part is, those game on XBLIG require a fee to get the XNA club and to let developers run the games on Xbox360. One other aspect of the issue is that games on those markets are being charged MONEY. And Microsoft and Apple get a cut from it too. So they are not in it to “help” the community and share free software as you philosophically preach. It’s about the money! Sony are just protecting themselves, protecting their business. It’s all about the money for them too. Kakaroto went on saying that PS3 is “our property” and I agree with him. I can paint my PS3 pink and put a toaster case in it. It’s mine, I agree. What’s not mine is the OS. The Operating System in Sony´s intellectual property and specially a hacker should know, or at least understand, this. This has been common sense ever since software copyrights were imposed. You have to respect that. People spent time and money to develop it, it’s their “baby”, it’s their business and so they want recognition and subsequent profit from it. I see no wrong in that.
To end this subject, Kakaroto formed "The Humble Homebrew Collection" that consists in a petition to allow Sony to put these games on the PS3 with lower development costs. I believe this is a good move. I´m not particularly interested in buying homebrew games but I believe some people would like it. But… looking further down the page of the website, I see this Donation button. Uhm… I thought you guys were just in it for freedom and the all share stuff. So, you want money? What if Sony allowed you to put these games on the PSN Store? Will you want money from your games? Yes you do! Or would you go the “No, we just want money if ou like the game and donate to us.” So, it’s not about the money or is it???
2: shagratt71 indignation
In the same website kakaroto´s statement resides, scrolling down some lines, I found a user that goes by the name of shagratt71 who is a little bit upset about something. He released a type of media cabinet for Custom Firmware PS3´s. Here is a few quotes from his post:
“Originally Posted by shagratt71
The Media Cabinet Construction Kit v1.5 + Star Wars Expansion:
To obtain this package please make a minimum of a US $2.00 donation here: CLOSED
Download Package from here: CLOSED
Your PASSKEY will be sent within 24hours and all updates to the Media Cabinet and StarWars will be free after one donation upto v1.9. Please make sure you leave a message with your donation of where you would like the PASSKEY sent. - Thankyou.”
Seems harmless enough! New features for CFW and… a donation? So! You want money, right? You didn’t do this out of a hobby of free time in your hands? Or out o curiosity? You did this with the intent of getting money but you mask it by saying donation. Funny thing is, the community didn’t like the fact he blatantly asked for money and so he was forced to make a statement. Quote:
"Originally Posted by shagratt71
I will be making a statement in regard to all this contraversy as soon as time allows. In the mean time I have issued refunds to everyone who has sent donations. Sorry for any inconvenience.
…
I would be lying if I was to say this did nothing to my moral as it made me think how tight can so many people be than to not donate at least a dollar, and if not to me but to the man that made all this possible - Dean!. On a personal level during my attempts at making themes for mutiMAN I have recieved many nasty remarks from people on a daily basis while trying to talk to dean in the IRC multiMAN channel. Words to the effect of The Media Cabinet is an apple ripoff, a straight port from iBooks, tallentless, some of these people are the same ones who made themes by downloading the first picture that poped up on google, downloaded it and called it a theme. I could name and shame a few but wont as they know who they are no matter what nickname they hide behind.
Someone said that charging a fee for homebrew would kill the whole scene. What a load of crap that is, have you seen iphone/HTC community along with Cydia the Homebrew Store??, what about the frigging dongles you all went out and bought to jailbreak your PS3?? I bet you all moaned about paying for that aswell huh?. Some of the coders and artists who develope for those devices wouldnt dream of doing anything for the ps3 because it being so hostile and bitchy.
Anyway, if you havent guessed it yet, this has been an exercise for me in seeing what the reaction would be if one was to start putting the smallest of charges on so called homebrew. I had a pretty good idea what this would lead to and sadly the fact is that this so called ps3 community is lacking in many area's, you wonder why its so slow with new CFW comming out or new managers being released?, its all because of 2 things, jealousy and greed. What motivation do we homebrew developers have other than wanting to do it for ones self and knowledge?. I have proven one thing out of all of this and that is the majority of you want it NOW and for FREE, without so much as tapping your little finger on the thankyou button. Well its not worth releasing anything to be honest even for free so I'll be bowing out of this one. Wishing dean all best and hope he enjoys the knowledge hes gained through developing. As for you haters on IRC multiMAN channel, You guys have just been played."
Pretty big quote, I know. But I wanted you, the reader, to see all of this. How these guys are just full of themselves in terms of how ironic the things go around in the hacking community. They go for the neck of Sony for now allowing them to make full use of their consoles or for not letting homebrew run in it, when in fact, all they want is the same thing they are killing for Sony. Their business model.
Closing notes:
After all of this, and much more I read today, I came to the conclusion that hackers are in it for the same thing Sony is. To make money! I don’t support hacking this way. I said before and I will say it again. If hakcers develop a new OS for the PS3 then I would fully agree with them. Its their piece ok hardware running their own OS. The simple fact that everything that these APPs and homebrew stuff sits on the base of a CUSTOM Official Firmware contradicts everything the hackers do.
For all of this above and the fact that crying about this aint getting me nowhere, I cant help but express a small small in my face. For that reason, I decided that hackers are a form of comedians.
Thanks for reading:
Sources:
http://psx-scene.com/forums...
http://psx-scene.com/forums...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...
http://humblehomebrew.com/
MSI celebrates the 20th anniversary of Monster Hunter with this unique bundle that features a matching RTX 4060 Ti and game controller.
With Microsoft’s long list of poor messaging and poor decisions this week, combined with rumors of behind-the-scenes problems with some of its top games, one frequent point that keeps coming up is how much weight has been thrown behind Xbox/PC/Ultimate Game Pass.
Well fancy that. A Forbes article with common sense.
Microsoft's only shot to get more gamers, being the devils advocate, is to go Mobile and free to play with ads to grow their fan base. With maybe a subscription to games like cod on Mobile to get more to buy in what they are offering.
But mobile isn't like consoles or PC at all. You can't charge huge amounts for games because that platform is used to cheap or free content. Can't go to Nintendo and Sony with game pass because they'(competitors) aren't stupid to destroy their own platforms with Microsoft's rental service. And PC gamers dabble with it but they're fine with Steam and other, similar offerings. Casuals are their target but do casuals really care because up to this point, they haven't.
They put themselves in a bind and I'm not sorry for them in the least. When you kill your own sales of hardware and software, you groom your base to not buy but to rent, and do everything you can but do what works for Nintendo and Sony in creating games that grow the industry, this is the results. Dead last.
Why was/is it so hard to just make great games and from that, EARN respect that would lead to an increase in consumers? Never made sense how stupid they are when they had the finances to compete and pretty much outdo Nintendo and Sony combined. They just chose greed and annual fees and lack of effort instead.
The gaming world is still reeling from the announcement that Microsoft is shuttering Tango Gameworks, the studio behind last year’s big Xbox hit, Hi-Fi Rush.
There's no logical or good reason to give for closing Tango Gameworks. They make great games consistently and Hi-Fi Rush was the highest rated Xbox game in literal YEARS. Closing the studio was just plain stupid and nonsensical.
It’s quite strange to not see Phil Spencer in any talkshow or podcast… usually the dude would talk almost daily when there’s even a bit of news from xbox.
Perhaps they think they can sweep this one under the rug, gamers will forget about it,
We will not
They made a good game and you put the whole studio in the bin, this couldn’t be clearer, ms don’t care, everyone suspected it, but now we KNOW it
I love how that guy is laughing at the screen that says Hackers