The PS Vita is a nifty little handheld system, but it doesn’t get nearly enough love (or games).
But for anyone who owns the portable, hacking group Team Molecule (awesome name for the next Pokemon bad guys) has released a new exploit that fully unlocks the full use of Vita hardware for homebrew developers to use.
The exploit is called HENaku, and is so easy to install that even your nan could do it – not that I presume to know what your nan can and can’t do.
Anyway, as long as you have the latest Vita firmware (3.60) you can head to a specific site to activate the exploit.
The injected code will then remove the Vita’s file system from its sandbox, allowing users to access it via FTP. After that, homebrew packages can be transferred across and run on your Vita.
This exploit also works with the PlayStation TV, returning the ability to play all Vita games on the big screen.
There are also a couple of emulators available right now, including a Vita version of the original DOOM and a SNES emulator that does a pretty good job of running most titles.
Unfortunately, there’s still a good chance that pirated commercial games will now start to appear, as Team Molecule’s Yifan Lu said:
It does not let you install or run Vita ‘backups’, warez, or any pirated content. It does not disable any DRM features. It does not let you decrypt encrypted games. Here’s my stance on this: I do not care one way or the other about piracy. I do not judge people who do pirate. I will not act as the police for pirates. However, I will personally not write any tools that aid in piracy. It is my choice just as it is the pirate’s choice to steal content.
Still, if you fancy turning your Vita into a portable emulator, I’m sure that there’s plenty of cool stuff to come as a result of this new exploit.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.