Google engineers have hacked the PlayStation Portal to run PlayStation Portable (PSP) games.
On X (Twitter), Google Cloud researcher Andy Nguyen detailed how he and colleague Calle Svensson got the free open-source PSP emulator PPSSPP working on the Portal. Sony’s latest handheld was released in November without support for native games, meaning that it can only play titles over streaming from a PS5.
However, Nguyen and Svensson managed to get these PSP games running natively on the Portal using only software — no hardware modifications required. In his social media post, Nguyen shows Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories on the Portal.
After more than a month of hard work, PPSSPP is running natively on PlayStation Portal. Yes, we hacked it. With help from xyz and @ZetaTwo pic.twitter.com/AXuRROo6Ip
— Andy Nguyen (@theflow0) February 19, 2024
Unfortunately, you shouldn’t get your hopes up for this hack to soon be released publicly — at least, not from Nguyen. On X, he notes that “no release planned in the near future, and there’s much work to be done.”
Still, the fact that people have already figured out PPSSPP on the Portal is promising. It also keeps alive the long legacy of people hacking the PSP and PS Vita to play all sorts of different media.
For more on the Portal, check out our review.
