Sony’s PlayStation Portal Has Been Hacked to Run PSP Emulator

Sony’s PlayStation Portal remote player has been hacked by Google engineers, who have shown the device running emulated PSP games (via VGC). Andy Nguyen, Cloud Vulnerability Researcher at Google posted a picture of a PlayStation Portal running the PSP version of GTA III, adding that managing to run the PPSSPP emulator with the help of Google Security Engineer Calle Svensson took “more than a month of hard work.”

In responses to his initial post, Nguyen said that the hack is “all software based” and that he may publish some video demonstrations over the weekend. “There’s no release planned in the near future, and there’s much more work to be done,” the engineer also posted.

There's no release planned in the near future, and there's much more work to be done

— Andy Nguyen (@theflow0) February 19, 2024

For those unfamiliar, the PSP (PlayStation Portable) was Sony’s first handheld gaming console released in 2004, and it was followed by PlayStation Vita in 2011. Sony’s new PlayStation Portal, however, has been designed from the ground up as a PlayStation 5 accessory. It can only stream games installed on a PS5 console through PS Remote Play, and it doesn’t support the cloud gaming service (formerly PlayStation Now) that’s now included in the PlayStation Plus Premium tier.

While Sony’s PlayStation Portal is cheaper than the Nintendo Switch at $199, its lack of support for native gaming options has been pointed out by most reviewers as a missed opportunity. Again, the PlayStation Portal is a remote play device, so it’s limited by design. However, it would have probably been more attractive if it could also emulate games from Sony’s previous portable consoles and run native Android games as well.

In recent years, the massive success of the Nintendo Switch and the release of Valve’s Steam Deck has led to a gaming handheld renaissance, with new Windows-based devices from Asus, Lenovo, and MSI.  While Sony followed a different route with its PlayStation Portal, Microsoft is also rumored to be working on its own Xbox gaming handheld. “I’m a big fan of handhelds,” Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in a recent interview with The Verge. The gaming exec has also been seen liking posts on X discussing the potential of an Xbox handheld.