In rather long MTV interview with John Koller, Sony's marketing head for the PlayStation Portable, certain few details have cropped up that pose some interesting questions for the homebrew scene. While the length of the interview talks about the PSP 2000 (PSP Slim/Lite), PlayStation Home on the PSP, and a second analog stick for the handheld, it's only towards to end where they talk about homebrew development.

Now, because of all these projects and features lined up for the PSP, it'd seem as if it would benefit Sony to ask for help from skilled programmers who are quite adept with the ins and outs of the PSP. In other words, homebrew developers and hackers. They actually even mentioned the magic word: Dark AleX.

Besides, DAX was the one who continuously whittled down the security measures that Sony has imposed with its official firmware updates. So, after the homebrew hero announced his "retirement" from the PSP hacking scene, you can't help but ask (and as did MTV during the interview):

MTV: Did Sony shut him down? Or had Sony hired him?
Koller: Neither. I think he's taking a hiatus.
MTV: Does Sony hire any of the PSP hackers?
Koller: It's not even a hiring thing. They come in and actively talk to us.

Whoa. Hold up. If we're to take Mr. Koller for his word (and he is the marketing head of THE PlayStation brand after all), then we are presented three facts:

1. DAX wasn't given a cease-and-desist order from Sony
2. DAX wasn't hired either
3. homebrew developers and Sony are in active contact with each other

Of course, the last statement doesn't specifically point to Dark AleX per se. But "they" (PSP hackers in general) are the ones who come in and actively talk to Sony. So, what does that leave us with? Jamie M. and I were talking about this, casually throwing out our own ideas. And here's what we ended up asking ourselves (and it might do you good to ask yourselves the same thing):

• Is Dark AleX really, really, really 100% gone? Or is he working in the background... with Sony?
• Does Sony "hire" white hats black hats gray hats from the homebrew community?
• What reasons would Sony have to be actively in contact with those hacking their systems?

Man. After the 3.40 LE CFW was released, as well as the OE source code... Can this day ever get any intense for the homebrew community? The full interview is behind the Read link below.

[Read]