Andy Nguyen, a well-known Vita hacker who goes by the name TheOfficialFlow has had his recent hack, which allowed users to homebrew the PS Vita, patched by Sony.
Though the PS Vita remains very popular inside of Japan, its success in North America was short-lived. The Vita first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, and sold over 300,000 units, with its later release in North America adding an addition 200,000 units to that total. While things seemed to be going well for Sony, sales of the Vita would fall 78% in the second week in Japan, with North American sales of the console only amounting for between 30,000 and 50,000 units per month. This continued lackluster performance would lead to the console only shipping 6 million units as of the end of 2013, falling four million shy of Sony's projected 10 million projection.
Though sales numbers didn't meet expectations, the console would eventually rise in popularity once again in both North America and the UK thanks to multiple modifications to the systems firmware by hackers, leading USGamer to estimate that the Vita had shipped 16 million units as of September 2018. One such hacker, Andy Nguyen introduced a firmware modification called h-encore allowing users to run homebrew and plugin applications on the console, catching the attention of Sony who immediately patched the problem.
Given that homebrew applications allow users to run pirated software on the console, the decision by Sony to patch it out was certainly justified. With that being said, Sony needs to take this as a sign that users outside of Japan still adore the console and would like to have games released for it.
First reported by Twinfinite, the hack by Andy Nguyen allowed users to crack their PS Vita all the way up to version 3.70. The crack would give Vita owners the ability to modify kernels in the software to allow for the use of homebrew applications and other plugins on the console. Naturally, this would in-turn allow users to then pirate PS Vita games on their systems, catching the attention of Sony, who would release patch 3.72 within hours, preventing the use of the new crack. Nguyen responded to the news by saying "Welp, Sony doesn’t want to see us having fun. They just released FW 3.72 which blacklisted the userland exploit.” Though this is the case, Twinfinite points out that users don't have to update their systems to the latest firmware.
While there will always be hackers willing to modify the Vita, Sony can't keep patching out such hacks without giving consumers something in return. Sony needs to give consumers outside of Japan the ability to purchase the games they want while also giving them new features which allow them to enjoy their system to the fullest.