I e-mailed Sony America's customer support asking if any harm would befall my American PSP if I installed the Japanese Patch. Here is what they said:
At present, SCEA does not support the PSP(TM) portable entertainment system 2.0 firmware update for the PSP designed for the North American Region.
So, they do not support the 2.0 update. But will it break an American PSP?
If you have downloaded the 2.0 firmware update from Sony Computer EntertainmentcJapan's official website it will not void your warranty and it should not have any other negativecramifications.
However, if you require further support, please contact Sony Computer Entertainment
So, there is the official word ladies and gentlemen. Installing the update will not void the warranty or cause any harm to American PSPs!
As reported by certain other websites and a few users on our forums, the Japanese firmware 2.00 update website now contains the following message in plain English:
CAUTION: This update is only for customers who obtained PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) for Japan which model number is PSP-1000 or PSP-1000 K. Upon completion of preparing, we will announce update information for the other countries/areas customers via SCE Group Web Site or other channels . For theses customers who obtained PSP® in the other countries/areas, please DO NOT update PSP® through this web site.
The question now before us is: is there actually any harm in installing the 2.00 update on a US-version PSP, or is Sony just being a big baby because they didn't want North America to have this update yet?
Read on for an analysis.
The following is educated guesswork. Neither I nor PSP-Vault take responsibility for your actions as a result of what you read here or anywhere else.
The logic many of us, including myself, followed when installing the 2.0 update on our PSPs was this: it's easy for Sony to detect what region a machine is from, as evidenced by UMD videos not functioning in 'incorrect' regions. Therefore, if there was any harm in installing the 'Japanese' firmware on a North American PSP, the updater would logically pop up an error and refuse to install.
On the contrary; by many accounts, it installs and functions just fine (certain questionable omissions notwithstanding). Additionally, speculation that this firmware would change your North American PSP's region to that of a Japanese PSP are also false; I verified this myself by playing the Spider-Man UMD Video in my PSP after upgrading. If that's not enough proof for you, consider that the entire firmware has a spotless English translation, including English licensing terms, which surely took a non-insignificant amount of time to come up with: observe the somewhat non-polished grammar of the above quoted excerpt.
But here's the killer: the folks at the ps2dev forums analyzed the past firmware update files (EBOOT.PBP) from all regions, and what did they come up with? The files are byte-for-byte IDENTICAL. The 1.51 firmware upgrade released in Japan is the EXACT same file as the one released in North America and South Korea. Same deal for 1.52. (I would link to the specific topic, but I am unable to do so due to ps2dev's constant reshuffling of their forums.)
My guess? The same will hold true for 2.00. We won't actually know for sure until then, but it will certainly be interesting to compare the two EBOOT.PBPs when the time comes.
Notice that the message on the site, despite being in Scary Bold Red Text(tm), does not actually say anything about harming your PSP. So why does Sony so desperately want us to hold off?
Buzz. They might want the 2.0 firmware to arrive on our shores with a marketing blitz (maybe even our own P-TV? one can dream), which is the ONLY thing they haven't had time to prepare.
Tech support. They possibly haven't trained the English-speaking tech support monkeys yet on how it works, and you KNOW that, at this very moment, some preteen is on the phone with them right now complaining that he can't wirelessly transfer photos to his cell phone.
HELLO, I wanted to know if you update the USA PSP w/ the v2.0 JAPANESE update. Then when the USA v2.0 arrives will I be able to once again install the USA v2.0 over the JAPANESE Version??? <<<------------
kyoshiro said: "I installed it onto an Region 3 Machine 1006 lol "
yo dude, did you get any error messages or anything like that after you installed 2.00 in your psp-1006? cause i'm kinda on the fence whether I should install it into mine & risk malfunction or just be patience & wait for it to hit asia...
Sony announced today that installing the Japanese update on an American PSP voids the warranty. Oops. They also announced you can over write it with the American version.
Does anyone know when PSP Firmware 2.0 will be officially available for Region 3 encoded PSP's. Will downloading the US version void a region 3 warranty? The Hong Kong and Taiwan official Playstation websites are in Chinese, which I can't read. I see that the release on 1 September in Europe in Australia will have Firmware 2.0 available.
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