Sony has taken to removing PSP titles from the PlayStation Store in an attempt to close security holes in the PS Vita. The compromised titles, Motorstorm: Arctic Edge (subtltled Raging Ice in Japan) and Everybody's Tennis, can be used to run hacker Wololo's Vita Half-Byte Loader (VHBL), which can execute unsigned homebrew code. The move by Sony means that people who previously purchased the games are unable to download them again — we bought Motorstorm on the above PSP Go back in 2009, but it's completely disappeared from our download history when viewed on our Vita.

Wololo claims that VHBL can only be used for homebrew software and doesn't support pirated PSP or Vita titles, and like his previous "hello world" exploit on Vita it runs inside the system's sandboxed PSP emulator, meaning that root level access to the Vita is likely some way off. Nevertheless, Sony won't want to take any chances with the Vita's security following the rampant piracy on the PSP, and removing these titles from the store is probably a faster solution than fixing the loopholes via firmware. Wololo claims to have more exploits in the pipeline, however, so the cat and mouse game is likely to continue.

Update: A Sony representative wrote Vox Games, confirming "that we have suspended sales of Everybody's Tennis and MotorStorm Arctic Edge due to software stability improvement." It sounds like the company is planning on sealing up the cracks and re-adding the titles to the PlayStation Store, though no timetable for their redeployment has been announced.