Yep, you read that right folks. Mere days after its launch and somebody's already hacked the PSP Go. Hold your horses, though! There are a few caveats.

With the PSP Go release date just around the corner, it seems Sony is pretty determined to prevent the hacking community from tinkering their brand new handheld by releasing various firmwares. Now PSPGen is reporting that Sony has already released a brand spanking new beta version of PSP firmware 6.0 for official developers to test their games and adapt with the brand new firmware.

When you can't beat 'em, change 'em. Some hackers from the Philippines did something ludicrous with their PSP-3000, switching its CPU with the PSP Slim's. The result is that the PSP Brite/Slim hybrid is able to run homebrew that's compatible with the Slim. Check out the full article for videos of the hack.

Rockstar finally gets to release Manhunt 2 in the UK after a long and grueling year-long battle against the BBFC. UK gamers can expect the game to hit shelves on October 31.

(Editor's Note: From highs and lows, and everything in between, QuickPeek 37 is going to hit you hard - and it's going to hit you good.)

Time to grab your trusty QuickPeek walking stick, because there's lots and lots of catching up to do. The gaming industry's taken the high road, and that's our cue to help you guys out. Time for the weekly roll call of the hottest items that dropped in during the past seven days! It's one heck of a landslide, folks!

Here's a quick heads-up for those wondering what TyRaNiD's been up to lately. The developer was spotted over at the recently concluded 24th Chaos Communication Congress, where he gave a lecture on the matter of PSP Exploits. The video's available for viewing in the full article.

Frank Yu, former Casual Games Producer for Microsoft in China, recently gave a report on the state of piracy in China following the Hong Kong raid where authorities seized 10,000 mod chips for Nintendo consoles. The last major news of piracy in China was last year; at that time it was for the Xbox 360.

Remember our report about Xbox 360 and Wii piracy in the Philippines? Turns out piracy is popular for both the Xbox 360 and the Wii in China as well.

According to Yu though, there isn't much demand for the PlayStation 3 so there's no modding or any distribution of pirated games in China that he is aware of and he doesn't even mention the PSP, which is a popular victim in many other areas. The Nintendo DS isn't spared however, as the Supercard (R4 card) is being sold in China.

Yu states that the Japanese Wii is a more popular candidate for modding since the US Wii has more protection. Modded Wiis can still download firmware although some of the more recent games, like Metroid Prime 3: Corruption won't work (although Yu believes this won't be true for long).

As for the Xbox 360, piracy is still very much active and rampant in the country. While Xbox 360 consoles in China will still be shut out of Xbox Live when MS detects that the console is modded, Yu has heard of a rumor that talks of a mod chip you can switch on and off. One just has to turn it off to log on to Xbox Live.

Hacking and modding is rampant but also incredible efficient - so much that the "folks at MS are always impressed by the speed and workaround that hackers and modders do to the motherboard." Hacking in China is also popular with foreigners, who aren't strangers with hacking shops at all.

 

Speaking of Wildcards, here's something that's definitely going to make lots of heads roll. In rather long MTV interview with John Koller, Sony's marketing head for the PlayStation Portable, certain few details have cropped up that pose some interesting questions for the homebrew scene. While the length of the interview talks about the PSP 2000 (PSP Slim/Lite), PlayStation Home on the PSP, and a second analog stick for the handheld, it's only towards to end where they talk about homebrew development.

Now, because of all these projects and features lined up for the PSP, it'd seem as if it would benefit Sony to ask for help from skilled programmers who are quite adept with the ins and outs of the PSP. In other words, homebrew developers and hackers. They actually even mentioned the magic word: Dark AleX.

Besides, DAX was the one who continuously whittled down the security measures that Sony has imposed with its official firmware updates. So, after the homebrew hero announced his "retirement" from the PSP hacking scene, you can't help but ask (and as did MTV during the interview):

MTV: Did Sony shut him down? Or had Sony hired him?
Koller: Neither. I think he's taking a hiatus.
MTV: Does Sony hire any of the PSP hackers?
Koller: It's not even a hiring thing. They come in and actively talk to us.

Whoa. Hold up. If we're to take Mr. Koller for his word (and he is the marketing head of THE PlayStation brand after all), then we are presented three facts:

1. DAX wasn't given a cease-and-desist order from Sony
   
2. DAX wasn't hired either
   
3. homebrew developers and Sony are in active contact with each other

Of course, the last statement doesn't specifically point to Dark AleX per se. But "they" (PSP hackers in general) are the ones who come in and actively talk to Sony. So, what does that leave us with? Jamie M. and I were talking about this, casually throwing out our own ideas. And here's what we ended up asking ourselves (and it might do you good to ask yourselves the same thing):

• Is Dark AleX really, really, really 100% gone? Or is he working in the background... with Sony?
• Does Sony "hire" white hats black hats gray hats from the homebrew community?
• What reasons would Sony have to be actively in contact with those hacking their systems?

Man. After the 3.40 LE CFW was released, as well as the OE source code... Can this day ever get any intense for the homebrew community? The full interview is behind the Read link below.

IGN's Greg Miller, venerable reviewer, editor, PlayStation team member and all-around awesome guy - perhaps the guy of sorts you'd want to review your own PSP homebrew game - offered to send a few questions straight to the big three of Sony Computer Entertainment, getting the official and unflinching lowdown from the likes of CEO Jack Tretton, senior manager Patrick Seybold and senior director Dave Karraker on your deepest (and apparently heated) questions on anything and everything Sony-related.
 
And guess what? A question regarding official homebrew game support by a lucky lad named caterman was apparently selected by Miller and sent to Sony. Though many would have thought Sony would have worn its Gauntlets of Oppression +10 for this segment of the email Q&A, the games division of arguably the world's largest consumer electronics brand wasn't exactly the homebrew antagonist we possibly all felt they were.

In fact, they've expressed a lot of interest in homebrew, especially after witnessing a lot of output over the PSP scene. "We certainly see some of the stuff that has been done via homebrew, and it's incredibly creative. And I think we'd like to try and tap into that a little bit more," said Jack Tretton.

But wait, there's a catch. Get some insight on that right after the jump!

What we have below is a video clip from user name "victormartins" showing his PlayStation Portable running on CFW 3.51 M33-7. Aside from showing off the rather beautiful gameboot and wave on the XMB, this video should convince those who have yet see the custom firmware's features and stability.

Custom firmware is probably the hottest thing in the PSP homebrew scene right now. It's no wonder updates from this team of hackers is being closely followed by the community. Anyway, enough chit-chat from us. Here's the video clip and enjoy!