Good news for those of you contemplating a PSP purchase but kind of indignant about the measures taken by Sony to stop you accessing homebrew content gathered from the likes of PSPUpdates: European PSPs actually come pre-installed with the 1.52 firmware.
We had been told to expect PSPs with 2.0 software installed - including the web-browser update - but according to reports from people who've actually bought a European one (ours are Japanese) the truth is somewhat different. You're actually expected to pop in the "sampler" disc, which will then apply the 2.0 patch for you. Sneaky!
If you don't do this, you should still be able to play all the games available on day one - including the likes of Virtua Tennis, Lumines, Ridge Racer and WipEout Pure - but you won't be able to use any of the 2.0 updates. And, crucially, you still won't be able to use homebrew software because the 1.52 firmware has yet to be properly dismantled.
Hoooowever, rumours abound that a clever chap with lots of time on his hands is about to release details of a technique for downgrading PSPs from 1.52 firmware to 1.50 - the magic numbers that allow for the execution of homebrew software. We will of course let you know about that when we do.
Sony frowns on all of this of course. Actually, "frowns" probably isn't the right word - "froths uncontrollably and contemplates bloody murder" might be closer to the truth. It's upset because third-party code can in theory be used to play pirated games (in an admittedly complex manner). But if all you want to do is try out portable Linux distributions or see if Notepad can work on your portable, this might be the route to go. Or the root, if we're being funny.
