360 Hackers Claim Full Read/Write Ability

Technology Sweden writes "According to the site Xbox-Scene, a program is available to transfer saved-games and more from the memory card or hard drive. This opens up a whole new world for the 360. Soon we might be able to run our own home brewed games and show our favourite Xvid movies."

Comments

How Does M$ View This?

[eldavojohn]

I wonder how this news is seen in Microsoft's eyes?

1. A security flaw that needs to be analyzed and fixed in a possible firmware update.
2. A sign that players want a sort of "utilities" disc that allows them access to hardware in the machine. Much like the Linux kit that was made available for the PS2.
3. A possible idea to expand upon and a valuable tool for their developers to learn from.
4. Rest of the world? That doesn't exist inside Microsoft so this utility program actually was never written. We know what our customers want and that's that.

Re:Good News for the Homebrews

[TheFlamingoKing]

"I long for an emulator that plays my old SNES games as it is kind of cumbersome to have many many systems to hook up. A fully functioning Link to the Past on Xbox 360 would make me buy it."

Xbox and Dreamcast have fully ported emulators that run at speed with full sound. What's the problem?

I will honestly say that my modded Xbox is one of my most prized possessions. While the Xbox is not what I would call portable it is nice to be able to take all my favorite Xvid rips with me to a friend's house or on vacation. And it was so much cheaper and easier to do than build a media center pc.

And I think Microsoft knows about this, as they have discontinued selling the first Xbox at $149, and now only sell the Forza pack exclusively at $179, fifty bucks more than you could get a PS2 for.

My bets are firmly on #1.

[Valdrax]

Microsoft's Xbox team (if they ever had the attitude) learned the hard way about #4, and #2 & #3 are in fact reinforcing reasons for attitude #1 to be the most likely.

If you haven't noticed, Microsoft is marching firmly in lock step with the recording and movie industries over the idea that customers should not be allowed to use what they purchase in ways that do not make Microsoft more money. Letting developers learn how to put stuff on the machine without going through MS's SDK could lead to homebrew games. Allowing people to write home-brew games means letting there be games that are sold (or worse given away) without paying Microsoft the license fee that makes up for selling Xbox 360s at a loss. Allowing utility access to the hardware might lead to putting Linux on a 360, thus making MS subsidize non-Windows computers that will play licensed games (and make up the loss), or allow the playing of pirated games.

If this is based on a security problem that can be patched in software, MS will treat it as a critical fix and release a patch for it ASAP.