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Xbox 360 Update Shuts Out Hackers, Fixes Issues
Gamasutra reports on the update to the Xbox 360's Live element, which fixes a number of bugs and smooths out certain elements of the system. It, allegedly, is also intended to shut out folks trying to hack Microsoft's new console by making the demo disc unusable on retail machines. From the article: "The demo disc in question was produced for Xbox 360 retail demo kiosks, and was found not to contain any copy-protection when hackers obtained their own unauthorized copy of the software in mid-December ... meaning it was possible to run demo versions of the Xbox 360 software on the disc on burned media. Several commenters on website Xbox-Scene seem to confirm that the disc is no longer functional."
Probably not, but I thought I'd ask. Did they add anything new that's good?
Stasis is death. Embrace change.
Despite MS's efforts, I feel safe saying it's still only a matter of time before a modded 360 becomes a reality.
If forums teach us anything, it is that logic and critical thinking should be required courses in the public schools.
Isn't that what updates are supposed to do? I see no reason this should have been posted, even if a number of slashdot readers own XBox 360's, and probably want to Mod it when it's hacked.....
Allegedly? The article quotes Major Nelson (The Figurehead of Xbox Live) saying it does that. In what way does that qualify as "alleged" information?
I can understand why Microsoft is so protective of their XBox system, but for the sake of covering their own behinds, they have ignored an entire niche market (xbox hackers). I am curious to find out what percentage of original xbox's have mods made to them. There are dozens of different mods out there that enhance what Microsoft has put together.
Instead of shunning these people, embrace them. Give them opportunities to mod the Xbox. Lend them code or reference design information. Do it with the idea that if you do, Microsoft will not honor parts or all of their warranty.
Really, why would Microsoft really care about this? All it is is more Xbox units being sold and more money in their pocket. I see it as a win-win situation.
If M$ is able to push out updates to consoles via the web as I read the story, how long 'till hackers put the XBox 360 onto their own network and simply reprogram it?
What's the surprise? It's not marketed as a "hack this for fun" box. It's a box marketed to play games licensed for the XBox 360. There's no deception, and spending your money on something designed to foil you is silly indeed.
The problem, as I see it, is that big industries are beginning to just assume that people have to buy their stuff. They seem to feel that it's their system still. Like Blizzard and the Warden, like all this DRM nonsense, like all the crap the music and film industries are throwing out there. Big Companies can't accept the idea that their industry as a whole can shrink. They assume that there is no way their industry could shrink, and no one else is allowed to enter their market. Both of which assumptions are completely anti-capitalist.
How exactly is the "LUNIX!!! WE WILL LOAD EMULATORZ ON UR CONSOLE! W00T X-CREW F0REVER! GREETZ NA BZ LKS I-0-I" crowd "Microsoft's biggest fans?"
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It's called DRM - Digital Restrictions Management. What you read today may be (if at all) read differently tomorrow.
Nintendo has always sold it consoles for a profit perhaps only losing slight amounts of money right around when it cut prices on the GameCube to $99. Selling at a loss is a recent thing, done by companies that can survive off of other products until revenue from game licenses kicks up. Nintendo, as a company that lives and dies by video games and consoles alone, has always had to sell the system itself at a small profit to stay in business.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Well, those folks are certainly bigger fans then the idiots who use the word "lunix"
For me, this is a FEATURE. A gaming console is a gaming console. I think Microsoft's behavior is despicable when it comes to DRM and PC Operating Systems... but when I play a video game, I want to pop in and play, and I don't want to worry about security (some sort of console virus, or just players cheating or being annoying online). I don't need to write a web server for my console, because I can use my PC to do that.
A game console is a toy. A PC is a multipurpose tool. I judge them by a different set of criteria.
Why prevent the demo disc from being played?
It presumably doesn't contain the full version of the games. This disc is basically free advertising. If people play a copied demo and like what they see, then they'll go out and by the retail copy of the game. Isn't that the entire point of a demo disc?
The only reasonable explanation would be if the disc contained demos from 3rd party publishers, in which case Microsoft is presumably contractually obliged to not distribute their demos outside of the in-store kiosks.
Actually, your Digital Restrictions Management would be truth in advertising. Unfortunately, DRM stands for Digital Rights Management, which sounds far more benign than it really is...
For those that would die defending it, Freedom
has a sweet taste that the protected will never know.
Disables functionality? Unintended functionality is not necessarily functionality. Unintended functionality gave Commodore 64 developers a lot of room to create something big and further the platform in Commodore's favor.
This does not do anything in Microsoft's favor. Sell more XBoxes? Doesn't do them any good -- they lose money on the box.
It would do people good to come out of their basements and realize that in real life, things cost money.
- oZ
// i am here.
"So every unit sold for homebrew modding for Linux, or modding for running pirated titles, is a financial loss, since it won't have any game sales to offset the loss and turn a profit."
You know what's an even bigger loss, both financially and in a PR sense? An unsold unit. I can't believe the doublethink some people go through to justify buying an MS product.
Vino, gyno, and techno -Bruce Sterling
Whoosh!
Bite the hand.
Sadly, that's mostly the case.
There is almost a feverish need for people - especially young people - to keep up with the latest trends, regardless of cost.
Companies producing these goods are getting very good at producing the strongest pavlovian response from their customers for the least amount of expense.
I've sold less Xbox360 units than Microsoft, yet I still think they are in a better position to make money off of them.
It does do them *some* good to sell boxes.
"Unfortunately, DRM stands for Digital Rights Management,"
Rights for whom??? Not the consumer who also happens to be the one footing the bill for content.
I'm a consumer therefore DRM = Digital Restrictions Management and will so be called that until the acronym changes.
right = A just or legal claim or title.
restriction = a specific type of rule which defines a finite (and generally absolute) boundary defined for a type of process or function
If I buy music with DRM, I do not have title to it and my claim is restricted with boundaries as to what I may do with it within a specific type of process.
if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.
...If you were willing to give up the Xbox 360's ability to play online, perhaps even the ability to play games, period, would the box still be useful? Could one install Linux on the HD and use it as a DVR, for instance? Or is the hardware locked up so tightly that, unless you boot using a special trick each and every time, it's not useful?
Been meaning to ask this since the original "woohoo, 'hackers' released an ISO of an unprotected XBox 360 demo disk" article: how's this hacking anyway? What's the coding or even cracking challenge in making an ISO of a DVD? How's it "news for nerds, stuff that matters"?
It's just piracy, and of the kind that doesn't need any skills. Any kid with a DVD drive and Nero or any other DVD burning program can make an ISO.
Now I can see how, say, finding an exploit to boot Linux on the original XBox was "hacking" (in either meaning of the word you swear by). Or how those people who made the PSP load *ahem* "homebrewn games" (strange how those are only waved around as an excuse to load _pirated_ commercial games) were "hackers".
But pirating an unprotected DVD? Gimme a break.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
So, let me get this straight. You've paid for it every time you've had sex? You see public libraries and public parks as a bad thing? Shouldn't you be paying for the priveledge of viewing each individual web page you visit on the net, on a page-by-page basis? Hey, did you pay your bill to your parents for raising you? What if you get sick and your body's own immune system fights the infection off, before you have to go to a doctor - does this somehow detract from the quality of life?
See, it can also be seen as the mark of a healthy capitalist society that there is enough wealth to be spread around, without everybody fretting over every penny. What you have when every drink of water from every fountain costs another nickel, is not capitalism, but Argentina.
indeed, it'd probably be easier to fit a modded pc into a knackered xbox 360's case than to hack the thing, so, like, why are people moaning about it?
If you don't risk failure you don't risk success.
"If you were willing to give up the Xbox 360's ... ability to play games, would the box still be useful?"
Why should it be? It has *3* 3.2 ghz cores and a video card worth about twice as much as the $300 console itself.
If people could buy this system for the hardware and never play games, M$ would lose a ton of money. They lose money on the hardware and make it back on each game sold.