Google Engineers Hack PS Portal to Run Emulated PSP Games

PlayStation's plucky little handheld streaming solution, the PS Portal, has already been hacked, taking a couple of Google employees about a month of effort. Their work is not intended to be released for general consumption anytime in the "near future", but the hack is "all software-based", meaning no hardware exploitation is required.

Andy Nguyen, who works in cloud vulnerability research, and Calle Svensson, a security engineer, posted the product of their labours on Twitter, managing to get the PSP emulator PPSSPP to run natively on the PS Portal. Naturally, they showcased the 2005 PSP classic Grand Theft Auto: Liberty Stories.

Being a wireless streaming device, playing games on PS Portal natively without a PS5 providing the horsepower was thought impossible. That Nguyen and Svensson have overcome this initial hurdle so quickly is quite surprising. Who knows where their efforts will eventually lead, but we'll follow their work with interest. "There's much more work to be done," said Nguyen.