Why did Sony release this kit?
Several factors played into Sony's release of the Playstation 2 Linux kit:
-
The Playstation 2 is notorious for being hard to program for due to the
complexity of the hardware involved in the console. Thus, there are
relatively few people in the gaming industry that know how to utilize
the full potential of the system.
-
The more people that know how to program for the Playstation 2, the
better. It wouldn't be surprising to see surge of students and
hobbyists becoming PS3 graphics programmers in the coming years due to
the release of the PS2 Linux kit.
-
Graphics and game hobbyists have been reverse engineering and modifying
consoles for years with the notion of homebrew game programming in mind.
This effort is partially wasted because the end goal for most hobbyists
is programming graphics for the console, not piracy.
Sony has also setup a community website for the Playstation 2 Linux kit,
which can be found at
http://www.playstation2-linux.com/.