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Sony & Dark_AleX in Cahoots?!
greg | August 7, 2007
Compelling news over at MTV regarding PSP upgrades, new features, etc… But not only that, the mention of Dark_AleX has stirred up some interesting conversation — check it out…
With all these initiatives under way, it would seem Sony could benefit from all programmers with top PSP skills. Earlier this year the world’s top PSP hacker, a gamer known as Dark_Alex who had repeatedly cracked the PSP firmware despite repeated upgrades, announced he was leaving the PSP scene. Had Sony shut him down? Or had Sony hired him? “Neither,” Koller said. “I think he’s taking a hiatus.” Does Sony hire any of the PSP hackers? ” It’s not even a hiring thing. They come in and actively talk to us.”
Fascinating… What are your thoughts? Discuss below.
Thanks for the tip Philly
COME BACK DARK_ALEX!!!!!
The guy sais he wanted to retire and I belive that
whateverrrr…
More power to him if he did. I appreciate all if his work for the scene but this takes time… time that you don’t get paid for and do just for the fact that you can. If you can get paid for it… why not?
i agree with u dude, there were so many haters at first and towards the end, damn noobs never f██king appreciate anything!! yes more power to him if he can get paid for what he does!!
Dark_AleX left his mark in PSP history — I think that’s all he wanted to do. He proved that ‘Impossible is nothing.’
Good for him :)
did that article seem awkwardly written to anyone else?
damn right
not proper english and the article was structured illogically
your face is structured illogically
oooo, burn
The results from Dark_Alex speak for themselves. Sony certainly had nothing to gain from him. Big props to him for all his hard work. I certainly appreciate his expertise!
^^^ya, and then we’ll see him present the PSP2 at next year’s E3
XD that would be damn awesome.
Just Imagen if they got him to help write the PSP2’s Firmware
Dark_AleX is the man…I hope he comes back to the scene…!!!
The tittle has nothing to do with the story… Actually it confirms that he retired. “Did Sony shut him down or hire him?” For which the answer clearly states: “Neither”
Sensationalism FTL :p
Honestly, I say “Good Riddance” to Dark_AleX.
Really. If he would have stayed around, we’d all still be using his firmware. Nobody else would have felt the need to create and release a new firmware. Now that he’s gone, we’re seeing some competition between Team M33, and this new “Team WildC*rd” or whatever. Before, it was OE, and that piece of shit, IE. Now we have choices, and a little more freedom. That’s what I think.
I think you have too much faith in this notion of “competition”.
Dark Alex paved the way for these groups with no competition. He just did it.
It’s a silly right-wing idea and it needs to die.
Well if it wasn’t for Dark Alex it wouldve been much, MUCH harder for Team M33 to make their firmware. They just reversed-engineered DA’s OE firmware to get the source code and edited it to be 3.51 M33, then 3.52 M33.
L theres three kinds of people in this world.
People who do things with there life E.g. D_A.
People who need others to do it for them E.g. ME.
and
People who hate/detest all other people E.g. YOU.
Moral of the story is that Dark_alex was the best if not greatist psp-modder OF ALL TIME.
Put that in yo pipe and smoke it
You’re just being stupid. He’s clever, I’ll give him that. And I never said that he wasn’t good. I never even said that Team M33 was better than him. I know that they’re just… “Expanding” on his work. All I mean, is that if he would have continued, that’s all we would have had. Is that bad? Hell no. But all I meant is, with him gone, others took initiative, and now we have choices. If he hadn’t left the scene, we wouldn’t have anything but his work and IE. Like I previously stated, that’s not bad, per se, but now there are different firmwares, with different capabilities and features. Giving the USER more freedom.
You see… the problem with your argument is… Multiple Firmwares, and choices, are not always a good thing.
With DA’s one OE, anyone could program Homebrew, and plugins for just that, and everything was good.
Now with multiple versions, and different people on different firmware’s, compatibility issues might arise, thus creating more problems then its worth.
So, yes, we get to choose… OE clone 1, or OE clone 2… HMMM? Interesting choice.
Hmm, yes, I do see your point. But, I suppose that’s all up to the user, what they’d rather have, and what they’d rather lose. The one thing that I want back is RemoteJoy. The other stuff is useless to me, as my wifi doesn’t work, but for others, yes I understand what you mean.
M33 is way better than DAX..see how quick they r with their releases. DAX was a slowpoke…lolz..and his cfw required umd and that consumed more battery life….GO M33!!!!
ooohhhh man are you wrong.
i only use the M33 cfw for sony’s iso loader, other than that the homebrew is not worth much at all. they have to constantly release updates and patches because its so buggy. people can argue what im saying to whatever degree they want, im cutting back on alot of homebrew because it just wont load, even after i trouble shoot it.
and DAX left the scene because of the iso loader. Think about it, that iso loader would of cost him alot and he would rather of not taken that risk. something to that degree, come on. if it wasnt for him, we would not have m33 at all.
Yea the only homebrew I like is Hexaxis and all the various emulators too.
well you can’t really compare their skills since DA is one man and M33 is a team…..also DA achieved many things such as DAX loader…but M33 comesback with sony loader in their CFW so basically they are both almost on the same level…
=>
Yea DAX was one guy and like shadow said M33 is a team, one man doing something takes longer than a team, and yea plus like they said, i know a guy who is riends with DAX you may not believe me but he is, before DAX said he was quiting i knew. And from what he said Sony offered him the job, but he was still thinking on taking it or not, i havent talked to my friend in a while though so i dont know if he took it or not
While I do like multiple options, I do miss how his releases where 1 shot deals. None of this 7 updates to fix a release that should have been postponed nonsense.
stfu L, You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. If you want freedom, get out of that trashcan you live in.
I’ll say my opinion with a little bit more of information, for now they are just rumors.
Sometimes Companies like MS and Sony will hire hackers so that they can hack the security made by the security team, that way they can patch just about all the holes and exploits a software might have.
Despite this, Dark Alex said he’s taking a rest, but it’s possible Sony might want to hire him to join the security team. Who knows.
hehehe…I thinks he is waiting for the release of sony’s PSP2 so he can hack it…his just giving sony sense of security so he can break it later hehehehe
If D_A is working for Sony, good for him. I hope they are paying him a ton. That guy is talented.
hey! my name is chad to… lol, any ways thats the past theres nothing we can change… wut happend, happend
hey! my name is chad three…lol, wut a coincidence that happend
hey! my name is chad four…lol, wut a coincidence that happend
Hey, my name is L what a coin….
oh… Never mind.
I was right after all (when we first found out that he left the psp hacks behind him) sony bought him out.
Hey i would of done the same thing, getting paid to do something hes good at.
just a lie news…bored
it would be smarter to hire the noobz team seeing as they are the ones finding all the exploits..
Listen Up people!! Most MSO software companies like Sony and Microsoft hire hatchers to put out viruses for example to see how users OS systems respond and to get those users to pay for Anti Virus Software…..In Sony’s Case they have probably made a deal with Dark Alex if so then good on him, if not then screw them.
Sony have and still are ripping off the Consumer and the only thing going for sony these days are sales from there gaming devices otherwise they’d crumble. Samsung makes Sony Televisions for them and other goods…..Oh Back to PSP!! The new one annouced sucks!! People don’t buy it!! It’s a waste of money and what’s it gonna do better than the current phase 1 model — uhhhh A TV/Video out, port abit slimmer is that it??? what a waste of time and money…
Keep up the Homebrew scene, continue download games and content, and keep pissing them off!!
Hotdog - Over and OUT!!!!!!!!!
didn’t read :->
How does one become a “hatcher”?
Easy, just play Billy Hatcher for the Game Cube. XD
you have to be born a chickenman…
TL;DR
Yes impossible is nothing.. DAX (Dark Alex) aint hired by sony. I’ve heard they did take his stuff away tho off underground sites. If anyone is a good hacker here contact me at bend-your-mind@hotmail.com
I hope he has fun, no matter what he does.
The infamous PSP hacker Dark_Alex was not hired by Sony.
read the 2nd line of the entry . Greg post’s the most pointless things.
he better not sell us out. i swear to god!
Well if he does sell people out then, im sure he’ll get a real long foot up his ass.
yea well DAX was gonna crack some more firmware..but then he got high…
Sony was gonna hire him and fix the exploits..but then they got high.
I was gonna clean my room..but then I got high.
i still use 3.40oe .
Lol This is hilarious if its true
sony “if you can’t beat em join em”
dark_alex “at least now im not in danger of getting sued”
Well guys, think about it… if he did join Sony and form an alliance or something, then… the PSP firmware would be impossible to crack as he would find EACH and EVERY Flaw in the new firmware and alert sony.. unless he turns corrupt and starts finding flaws and telling us about it, and he would get major ca’ching… either way if he works for sony or not, i couldnt care less… its HIS choice and not ours, just because he was a great hacker doesnt mean he wont be remembered for what he did that many of us couldnt.
Greg also, ill email you! need to talk ASAP!
y wud sony hire sum1 who opened backdoors or wotever to their system??
because they need to find the architect and replant dark alex in the matrix
This picture of “Dark_Alex” just surfaced so maybe he is starting work with sony.
http://tinyurl.com/2yhbcr
was that your baby picture?
Also! Hotdog…
” continue download games and content, and keep pissing them off!! ”
Are you sugesting piracy? lol ” OMG HE CLAIMS PIRACY FOR US!!! ” Mind what you say Hotdog, things can come back to haunt you, or in this case, bite you in the ass!
I support piracy because I don’t give a shit. Am I such a bad person?
Is the new psp going to be hackable?
i suppose not because it’s only hackable with a downgrader, and sony will release them with a firmware that cannot be downgraded
UNLESS they make more firmwares for it, of which they could be downgraded, or an exploit found :p
Hi,
may be i buy the stuff that Mr.Koller sells, but do i really believe any word he says? No, i dont! It is easy for him to spread rumour about talks between Sony and DA, because who could say they did not exept the man himself, DA.
For me the talking of people from MS or Sony and Apple are only marketing gags to sell things.
And with all the hate and mistrust going on between the devs, this only adds up.
just my 20 cent
bye
Micha
well if “DA” is as good as everyone thinks he is, then it just put the Modded firmware on the spot of being real fuckin hard to crack if he’ll join sony, so lets just hope w/e price they might wanna give him later on he wont ass-rape us all and take it.
WTF are they talking about? the Noobz team is the one that decrypted most sony firmwares and made most of the downgraders. Dark_AleX rarely did that he just made CFW.( which was awsome)
wow.. after reading through all of the comments I am firmly convinced that 98.9% of you posting did not even read the article, nowhere does it say, lead to, speculate, or even hint at Sony hiring or working with anyone…. the title of the article should be changed to something generic like: “MTV Interviews Koller”
98.9? my calculations say you are way off
ahh the only thing i see DA getting hired for is to test out the Sony Official FW’s before they are released. They give hima firmware, he sees if he can hack it, if he can they patch, and he tries again. IMO, he just kinda left, and isnt going to work for Sony, and wont come back for a while. Plus Fanjita was the original PSP hacker IIRC.
Meh, nothin but speculation…
Shame on everyone who’s slaggin off DAX, I hope he does go work for sony and make it impossible for u to hack the PSP in the future, then ur fucked n u’ll be moaning even more.
yea well its all bullshit we got 2 new teams m33 and wildcard and we currently are shitting on sony
true but when a new fw with tighter security and better encrypted comes along will they be able to do it as quick and as good as DAX?
sht i wish i new how to do the sht that D_A did. but noo ,instead im learning PARALLEL NETWORKING OOO AHHH(its boring lol)
its not uncamon for companies like norton sue ur ass u go to jail the they pick up to work for them.
Juan
You should have stayed in school and learned your grammar lessons kid.
STFU professor gilman!
=)
What I wanted to know when the new psp is hacked and they start updating the firmware passed 3.60 ( the new psp has 64mb flash ) and the 1000 only has 32mb How are we going to play the newer games when the latest update takes 40mb and we can’t update because we only have 32mb??????????????????? With DA i don’t think he joined sony………………..
I heard the n00bz team talking about makin their own psp firmware completely from scratch. So who knows? They maybe able to write a program that allows us to extract the psp 200’s firmware onto a memorystick and run it from there. Oh wait a minute…. that’s what Devhook’s for :/.
hey theres a lot stuff hapenig lately and i for one thinks its all verey wierd with this and oe soure and m33 and wild card ware were they befor this is so wierd somthings up
The headline simply can’t reveal how many small details were revealed in Stephen Totilo’s incredibly extensive interview John Koller for MTV News. In the interview Koller revealed that all upcoming PSP games developed by Sony will take advantage of the system’s full 333MHz speed, with no negative impact to battery life. Other accessories for the US include the upcoming GPS peripheral, which is currently being “tweaked” with an expected release in the next 10-12 months. The PSP camera “may get a spec change” before coming to America — but the TV tuner will never make its way to the US.
Bringing downloadable games to PSP is one of the next things to tackle for Sony. echochrome was originally meant to be a downloadable PSN game for PSP, but it became much larger than anticipated. “It was initially going to be a download-service-only game,” Koller said. “We changed it to a UMD because it’s a very rich game. That’s where their mind is. They’re developing that kind of game.” Thankfully, other downloadable PSP games are in the works. When can we expect them? In the next six to eight months.
In regard to the homebrew scene, Koller says that there were no talks between Sony and Dark_Alex, saying that “I think he’s taking a hiatus.” For even more, please visit MTV News for more. NOTE: Nyghtcrawler already reported on this HERE.
brand new update
Whoever said that we wont be able to play newer games because the new PSP has 64mb of flash mem…….I would really think that sony wouldnt make everyone go out and buy new psp’s to play their newest games. Prolly wouldnt be too good for business.
Ya fools. M33 is NOT better than DAx. DAx opened up the doors for those groups and if M33 is better than DAx, why is there a need to bring out so many goddam patches just to fix up one CFW?
At least from as far as I can remember, DAx has always been releasing stable CFW without the need of constantly bringing out patches.
So IMHO, DAx is way better than anybody out there. He’ll eventually fade out but hey, all you fools thats saying “good riddance to DAx”, you can think again. If it wasn’t for DAx, there wouldn’t even be a group called M33 or WC taking over the CFW scene right now. If it wasn’t for DAx, we PSP’ers wouldn’t even be running emus and playing roms and ISO/CFO on our PSP now.
If either M33 or WC can code it so that I can disc swap PSX games like Parasite Eve, Chrono Cross and the likes… then I’ll rate you guys high.
So for now, your just DAx’s shadow continuing on with he’s work where he left off.
Maybe this can be a battle for the two new groups. The first group to work on the coding so that us gamers can disc swap PSX games without resorting to transfer save files or patching the PSX roms.
DA is behind M33.
hahahah ill bet u hes a double agent like in splintercell double agent u have to help both the bad side and the good lmao well i sure hope at the end of it all like in splintercell hes on the good side and when i mean good the psp scene not sony
hahahaha, that was so funny, hahahaha
SHUT UP
hmm, my guess is that they are using him to crack to firmware before it even comes out so they can fix it.
Wohoo.. PSP controlversy..
yeah sony ain’t gonna hire “hackers” for nothing. its like back in the day a bunch of people got ahold of some pirated MMORPG software and updated it 100% better then the company who still owned it. They denied hiring anybody and denied even free help the only thing that you could do was send them a email or talk to the devs on teh forums but they really didn’t care.
The reason why he ain’t gonna be hired by sony is this… sony don’t want to admit nothing that would effect stocks,investors,etc. it’d make em look bad and they’d rather put out a “slim psp” and try to cover it up and if it don’t well they always got movies,ps2/3,tv shows,music,etc they make and produce… they are too rich to really give a shit enough to bother with that kind of stuff.