Sony has announced that it will be ending production of PSVita by the end of March 2019, meaning the console will most likely stop getting support and new titles as well, which the Vita, sadly wasn’t even getting in the first place. While Sony has basically abandoned the console, it’s still quite popular in Japan and in the homebrew and hacking community, where the Vita has been able to do many many things, from emulating retro consoles, to running PSP titles and even Vita ones. The firmware 3.69 sadly doesn’t support all of this but it seems ePSP hack (ARK) for the firmware is in development.
ePSP hack (ARK) for PSVita Firmware 3.69
If you’re one of those unlucky people that have their PSVita on firmware version 3.69, and can’t make use of all the homebrew features and such, there might be hope for you and your Vita.
Qwikrazor87 is a known developer in this scene as he released ARK for 3.60-3 and now it seems he’s working on ARK for 3.69 as well. He explained in a tweet below
If you have a Vita on 3.69 I suggest getting at least one PSP game from PSN installed and backed up.
Install psvimgtools.
Go to https://t.co/ltfgLwXC8D and get your CMA key using your AID (random letters from CMA path on PC).
It's always good to have an entry point ready. 🙂— qwikrazor87 (@qwikrazor87) October 9, 2018
He’s further commented on this today, explaining how it will work exactly like his previous builds for lower firmware ARK
For those of you curious about ARK on 3.69, do not worry, whatever works on ePSP 3.69 will be identical on 3.65, both flash dumps are 1:1 copies, thanks to HENkaku I guess they don't care much about the ePSP. I will work on it for 3.65 and it will work for the later firmwares.
— qwikrazor87 (@qwikrazor87) October 10, 2018
His current suggestion to get your PSP ready for the hack is downloaded a PSP game off PSN and back it up via QCMA.
This will let you have a back and allow you to modify with psvimgtools and eventually inject the ARK payload into.
Now while you’re already going nuts over this as a 3.69 owner, relax a little, since Qwikrazor87’s work only allows you play PSP titles, which is pretty nice anyway, but it’s still a long way from what a currently modded Vita is capable of.
Make sure to read about the Intel i9 processors as well and keep following TheNerdMag for more info.
Do you want the ePSP hack for firmware 3.69? Let us know in the comments below.