PS Vita System Software Update v1.81 and Details Incoming

35w ago - Following up on their PS Vita System Software v1.80 update from a few weeks back, today Sony's official PlayStation Turkey page has been updated to reflect the release of PS Vita System Software update v1.81 tonight.

Download: PS Vita Firmware 1.81 Update (US) / PS Vita Firmware 1.81 Update (EU) / PS Vita Firmware 1.81 Update (JP)

While there is no official changelog posted yet, many believe the 1.81 revision will block the ability to run VHBL through Monster Hunter Freedom Unite using the recent VHBL PS Vita 1.80 exploit for the PlayStation Vita handheld console.

From the site, roughly translated: "PS Vita is available for download for the 1.81 firmware update will be at 24:00 tonight."

As always, more details will be posted once they become available.

Update: As expected, PlayStation Vita Firmware 1.81 blocks VHBL according to wololo (via wololo.net/2012/09/18/vita-firmware-1-81-is-out-patches-vhbl/), as follows:

As expected, the latest PS Vita firmware update is a "security release" which will prevent you from running VHBL through Monster Hunter. It still remains to be confirmed if all games of the series have been patched, but I'm pretty sure the answer will be yes.

Does this mean you cannot use VHBL anymore? No! As long as you stay on firmware 1.80 (and assuming you did Buy one of the Monster Hunter games when it was still time), you can use Open CMA to copy your homebrews to the Vita without upgrading. If your Vita (or CMA) insist that you update to 1.81, don't lose hope. I have been told that the Vita can "forget" it saw the latest update if you hard-reset it. Or was it that you need to reset factory settings? Well, either way, try to not put yourself into a situation where the Vita asks for an update, but if it happens, be sure to try and reset it before you decide your console is doomed to upgrade.

Of course, you might want to update to 1.81 in order to be able to connect to the PSN. If you do this, you will lose access to VHBL through the Monster Hunter exploit. There might be other VHBL releases in the future to bring compatibility with this new firmware, but we don't have anything scheduled yet, and one thing is sure, we will not be able to magically revive the exploit from Monster Hunter, so don't even ask, and update at your own risk.

For those of you who decide to stay on 1.80 for VHBL, openCMA is currently the only way to copy homebrews to your Vita.

Finally, from wololo comes an update (via wololo.net/2012/09/20/sonys-new-strategies-to-block-vhbl/) to quote:

Sony's New Strategies to Block VHBL

Sony just rolled out the newest version in attempt to block VHBL using the Monster Hunter Unite exploit, but after some research it appears Sony is patching VHBL in a new method and we may be getting automatic firmware updates soon.

When the PlayStation Vita received the newest update 1.81 Sony kept quiet regarding what it contained but as predicted it was an attempt by Sony to block VHBL with the Monster Hunter Exploit. However, this time a new offensive strategic plan was executed rather than their previous strategies to rid of exploits.

On the previous VHBL releases the games used for VHBL were pulled but this time around Monster Hunter was left on the store. I'm sure many saw this as a red flag and wondered if it was Sony's sign that they've surrendered. Then the unexpected forced 1.81 firmware update came along in the dark of the night and reassured us Sony will never let VHBL go but this time it was different.

After research of the new firmware update shows that Sony patched the exploit within the Vita OS and not within the psp emu. Its like a fail safe mechanism they put that throws the C1-2858-3 error because of how the vita hangs on the load with a black screen.

Everyone including myself agree that Sony have found a new way to patch without going through the emu. Wololo pointed out that they may have less and less people among their engineers who know the psp code, and they might be more confident patching stuff from their more recent codebase (vita).

Although that may be likely, I personally think they have a more Vita focused group of people working on the psp emu coding but not so much the lack of as they have been and still are working on PSone compatibility which runs in pspemu.

So what does this mean? It's possible the new firmware closes a hole that made the crash into an exploit although it loads the save and its technically there. It is indeed patched but the fact it was done this way is shocking. Given this new method its also unknown as to what else was sneaked in with the new firmware update. We can only hope all of the other exploits including the user mode ones work. Could a new defense have been put up to stop everything?

No one knows right now but this was indeed very blunt and mischievous, putting out a forced firmware along with Little Big Planet in the middle of the night. This was a direct attempt by them to change their methods and block VHBL without losing money. It was another useless update to patch the harmless VHBL. All we can do now is move forward and look to the future.

As of right now, the only known future firmware update for the Vita will be in November to contain PlayStation Plus but when this was announced at TGS the phrase "automatic software updates" came up, the context of what that means is yet to be known. I can only hope for the best.