TL,DR: Buy one of the 2 games below on the PSN, install it on your Vita, and make sure it runs properly. Then sit back and wait, as soon as TotalNoob releases TN-V4, we’ll have download links for you!

Hmmm, so, I was supposed to type something funny in there, about how I am secretly working for Sony, and convinced several hackers to work with me. Then say we successfully got Sony to patch about 30 exploits in their last 2 firmwares, but that a mistake happened and some games are still exploitable.

But as I type this, it’s like 1am here, and my sense of humor has already gone to bed it seem. So I’ll keep it short:

Today we are announcing the name of an exploitable PSP game (actually 2 games, see below) that can be used to run TotalNoob’s TN-V4 on any Vita running firmware 3.01 or below.

As usual when we do such an announcement, we expect Sony to remove the game from the PSN store within hours of the announcement. So if you are interested in TN-V, grab the game now, not later today.

What is TN-V, and why do I need to buy a game for it?

TN-V is a PSP Custom firmware running within the PSP emulator of the Playstation Vita. Sounds complicated? To simplify, it lets you run PSP homebrews, PSP plugins, PSP isos on your Playstation Vita. In order to run, TN-V requires a hack, which is triggered through vulnerabilities in some official games. In order to be able to install and run TN-V on your 3.01 PS Vita, you will need to buy, download and install the game below. Although TN-V is free, the exploitable game costs money.

It goes without saying that we are not getting a dime on the money you pay for the game, so why do I need to give this precision? Well there’s a catch: TN-V has not been released yet, and I myself have never been given the opportunity to test it. So, you’re basically buying an exploitable psp game based on a promise I make in good faith, that trusted people have confirmed to me TN-V will run through this exploit. But really, this announce comes with no guarantee. That being said, it’s the 12th release or so we’ve made in a similar fashion over the past 18 months, so I’m confident.

Here we go

Moving on…

There are actually 2 exploitable games announced today. One is for Japan, the other one is for other countries. Please note that recent information from some beta testers is that TN-V appears to be unstable on JP accounts, for some reason. I do not know how widespread the issue is, if it can be fixed, and if TN will fix it.

Here are the 2 exploitable games:

For JP: 家庭教師ヒットマンREBORN！バトルアリーナ2 スピリットバースト (Katekyo Hitman Reborn! Battle Arena2) (Best Collection)

(Best Collection) For other countries: EU/US, etc… : 101-in-1 megamix

Those are both PSP games, not vita games!

Sadly for you guys in Australia / New Zealand, it seems none of the games above is available on the NZ or AU PSN. You have a choice to wait for a future release (although we don’t know at this point if there will be anything like that in ages), or to create a US PSN account and grab the game there (my personal recommendation).

So what’s next?

What you need to do now is buy one of the 2 games above on the PSN, download and install it on your Vita, then wait for TotalNoob to release his Custom Firmware. Although I would love to give you some sort of promise here, I want to emphasize once again that I do not have access to TN’s exploit and do not entirely know what his schedule is. So stay tuned for that.

Credits

Lots of people contributed to making the announce today a success. I’m sure this looks like a simple blog post to most people, and lots of the readers here probably don’t understand why it takes us so long to make such a simple announcement. You’d be amazed at the amount of logistics required to make sure everything goes smooth during the few weeks of a ninja release (members of our forums have been aware of these games for up to a few weeks already, this is our way of making sure our community does have enough time to purchase the exploitable game).

So I’d like to thank a few people here: TotalNoob of course for being the one guy in the PSP scene who still cares enough to share a Kernel exploit and an updated Custom Firmware with the PSP Scene. Xerpi and Patchouli who generously provided their exploits in 101-in-1 megamix and Katekyo Hitman respectively. Qwikrazor87 and 173210 who ported these exploits to a TN-V compatible loader. Mamosuke, Acid_snake and Hackinformer who have been helping a lot with coordinating a bunch of things, and of course the mods team at /talk who have been mitigating the early leaks for this announcement.

Win a $10 PSN Code!

Last but not least, a quick giveaway:

Every time we announce an exploited game for the Vita, I get my share of people whining that the games are too expensive, or that their wallet is empty and they won’t have money this week, or that they live in a country which doesn’t even have access to the PSN, or whatnot….

As a reminder, I am not making any money when Sony sells you a game with an exploit. That being said, I’ll help: If you’ve been following, I’ve already given away $100 worth of PSN Codes to 10 lucky winners over the past weeks. If you missed those, be sure to follow this blog and my twitter account regularly, so next time you’ll already have the money ready in your wallet (you’ll notice how a $10 PSN Card is exactly what you need to get the exploited game in the US).

And I’m adding 5 more winners this week, which will bring the total to a cool $150. Follow me on twitter and retweet this tweet about the release for a chance to win one of the five $10 PSN Codes.

I’ll announce the winners within 24h to give them a fair chance to grab the game before Sony removes it. Of course, if you can actually afford the game now, I suggest you grab it asap (and if you win the $10 PSN code tomorrow, you’ll use it on something else, dammit! )

Ok, now stay tuned for TN’s release! Hopefully it will be out pretty soon.