In news that will worry Sony's executives immensely - if privately - word reaches us today that official games have been ripped and played from the memory stick using the new handheld device for the first time. There are now fears that this could lead to widespread on the device, with games like Lumines and Mercury already being played stateside from internet downloads. Hackers who have already made the PSP run emulated software from other platforms have now succeeded in making copied PSP titles boot - and whilst are addressing these hacks with upgrades it looks likely that the pirates will now always be looking to stay one step-ahead of Sony's patching initiatives.

Sony are planning on enforcing anti-piracy firmware upgrades with future game releases, and have already addressed a bug in earlier software which allowed these pirated games to run, however it must be of concern that hackers are now beginning to get the better of the system, and Sony's measures to lock them out. It also looks likely that many films will pirated to the device too, with new utilities for ripping flicks arriving all the time - where homebrew programmers seem intent on opening up the new handheld - the most powerful ever.

We'll keep you posted on this ever-growing battle as we learn more.

By Luke Guttridge