One of the reasons for the relative gains that the Nintendo DS has been making against the PlayStation Portable on all markets except for Japan is the fact that some publishers have been avoiding the handheld from Sony because of the issues related to hacking and piracy.

When the PSP-3000, the new hardware upgrade to the device, was launched earlier in the fall, Sony hoped to have a time frame during which it could promote the idea of a piracy free console which would attract more titles.

It seems that the PSP-3000 was cracked by intrepid users only one month after the October release date. The idea is that you can get a battery which puts the whole console in full service mode; that means that users can then downgrade the firmware of the system and access all those nice tools and applications that are typically associated with hacking and piracy. The battery, which is being sold by Datel, a company based in England, has a switch that can be used to bring it and the console out of service mode and into normal operation. It appears that the method works with both the PSP-3000 and earlier models and the battery, dubbed “Lite Blue Tool”, can be purchased for 30 dollars.

The PSP-3000 features a better screen, with more colors and a better viewing quality in direct sunlight. There's also a microphone designed to make the handheld a “communication platform”. After launch, some users reported issues related to scan lines visible on the screen of the PSP and Sony reacted by saying that there is no clear way to fix the problem, which affects only a small number of users. Sales of the device were very high in Japan on launch day but are currently below those of the Nintendo DSi.