Xbox 360 Game Piracy Spreading In China

simoniker writes "Xbox 360 game piracy appears to be spreading notably in China, with at least one Shanghai-based vendor offering Xbox 360 titles such as Hitman: Blood Money for around 30 Chinese yuan ($3.50). This comes after hackers managed to flash changes to the BIOS on the Xbox 360's Optical Disc Drive earlier this year, which allowed non-authenticated (copied) games to be played. Microsoft's John Porcaro commented at the time: 'The core security system has not been broken. However, on some Xbox 360 consoles the authentication protocol between the optical disc drive and the console may be attacked.'"

Comments

You know what this means?

[jandrese]

This means the 360 might start picking up popularity in Asia, especially in China and Taiwan.

Re:You know what this means?

[Frizzle Fry]

Where is this mall with the dollar Pauly Shore movies?

Re:You know what this means?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know about Taiwan, but Microsoft don't sell the Xbox 360 in mainland China (I'm a foreigner working here). You can still find them in specialist retailers, although they seem to be pretty rare, but they're all imported (mainly Japanese) models.

Re:You know what this means?

[Dal Platinum]

Yeah, maybe they release a new model especially for them.

XBox 360 Type ARRR

Re:You know what this means?

[Anonymous Coward]

This means the 360 might start picking up popularity in Asia, especially in China and Taiwan.

Then this should be on its way to India as well very soon!

Ruled by the market?

[Rob T Firefly]

Hitman: Blood Money for around 30 Chinese yuan ($3.50).

That's about what I'd pay for that game.

Re:Ruled by the market?

[citizenc]

It's not good?

$3.50???

[AcidLacedPenguiN]

really? It definitely beats $49.99-$79.99 CDN
*hops flight to china*

Re:$3.50???

[tritium6]

I'm willing to bet you've never been to China. The lowest rate I was able to find for a room in Shenzen (just across from Hong Kong on the mainland side) at a decent hotel was about $60 per night. You can get a hostel in Hong Kong for $20 per night, but thats a hostel, not a "high end hotel suite". The nouveau riche in China are creating a market for those types of luxuries, and the luxuries are priced with the knowledge of the people who buy them. I've lived in that part of the world and the way it works with luxuries is, if people will buy it, it is quite expensive; if nobody will buy it, it isn't available for purchase. It does not tend to be the case that luxury goods are available for cheap. What you get really cheap is labor, and labor intensive goods and services.

Re:$3.50???

[RingDev]

$60 a night might get you a motel 4 in the off season in the US.

There was a 'Chinesse getaway' showcase on the travel channel a few weeks ago that showcased some primo suits for $200 or less a night. $200/night might get you a two bed suite in Las Vegas, but definately nothing poshe.

-Rick

Re:$3.50???

[Pzychotix]

Pshh. $3.50? They're getting ripped off. Anyone who knows anything knows that 10 yuan -> $1.25 is the going price for ANYTHING on DVD and pirated. They'll go for cheaper too many times. 30 Yuan? Pshh.

And really, the only thing expensive there are American/Western world type products. Sure decent class hotels will cost similarly to prices in other countries, but you're comparing wrong prices. These items aren't meant for the Chinese public. Pirated DVDs are. And they're cheap. Very cheap.

In other news...

[Evil Closet Monkey]

Sun rises and sets! (translation: duh.....)

Re:In other news...

[Anonymous Coward]

I heard you can buy stuff for cheap in NYC! It fell off the back of a truck though, so watch out for the broken stuff!

Re:Piracy? No, Just Their True Market Value

[AP2k]

Linky linky?

Hmm.

[Future Man 3000]

"The core security system has not been broken. However, on some Xbox 360 consoles the authentication protocol between the optical disc drive and the console may be attacked."

Cheers for the core security system! Jeers for the authentication protocol!

Re:Hmm.

[andrewman327]

Boo authentication protocol. Horray beer!

Re:Hmm.

[Bandman]

Beat me to it.

BTW, your tag line is hilarious.

Re:Hmm.

[andrewman327]

Why thank you. I honestly thought of my sig randomly and logged onto the nearest computer to change it. Glad that /.ers get it.

Re:Hmm.

[Bandman]

I added it to my livejournal today, although I saw it earlier when I was metamoderating.

Re:Hmm.

[Anonymous Coward]

Translation: We are happy to confirm that our titan-encrusted walls are unbreachable. We are still investigating who changed all the locks.

Re:Hmm.

[fbjon]

Shouldn't it be 'hangar', or am I missing some subtle point?

Re:Hmm.

[Frizzle Fry]

Don't change it! Great sig :)

Yarrrr ! The problem is elsewhere!

[brunokummel]

And to think that Microsoft decided not to launch the Xbox 360 in Brazil because of the high piracy rates! What they probably don't know is that most of the pirate products selling there comes from China ! Not to mention a lot of hacking techniques that comes from china on how to hack their systems found freely available on the internet.


Bucanneers 1 x Microsoft 0

Re:Yarrrr ! The problem is elsewhere!

[Anonymous Coward]

'And to think that Microsoft decided not to launch the Xbox 360 in Brazil because of the high piracy rates!' Are you high? The XBox 360 is coming to Brazil later this year. MS wants the 360 in EVERY market.

MS to china

[Anonymous Coward]

"This is the thanks we get for censoring our web search for you guys?"

Piracy: The New Marketing Tool!

[blueZhift]

Hmmm, one poster jokes that cracked 360 games might actually help Xbox 360 marketshare in China and Taiwan. It's a just a joke now, but what if this actually turned out to be the case? And then what if it spread to Korea and Japan? Much has been written about the effect of piracy on console and software sales, some of it implying that piracy helps more than hurts. So with the next generation of console wars promising to be closer than ever, will any of the desperate combatants be tempted to leave the lights on and the backdoor cracked open a bit? No one would publicly admit to this, but it does make one wonder... Right now Sony seems to be doing backflips to keep homebrew and pirated games off of the PSP. But in a tight war with Microsoft and Nintendo, will they be tempted to lighten up a bit on the PS3?

Re:Piracy: The New Marketing Tool!

[The_Pariah]

You forget... Nearly ALL money that Microsoft makes is off of the software. So if pirated games drive up console sales, Microsoft only loses more money if these purchasers don't buying anything legitimate. The only offset is peripherals, but those sales are marginal compared to the money made off of title sales.

Re:Piracy: The New Marketing Tool!

[mlheur]

But, M$ is making a loss on the sale of its console expecting to make up for the loss in the huge gain in the sale of the software.
So they manufacture and lose more money on the consoles without selling any more software, it's a lose lose situation for them.
Marketshare doesnt help if they don't get any more money from it.

Re:Piracy: The New Marketing Tool!

[vafada]

I think that's true for 3rd world countries... heck in the Philippines, no one would buy a console if there were _NO_ pirated DVDs. Okay some might buy legit games but 90% of gamers buy pirated copies. No one in their right mind would spend $45 for a DVD game. $45 dollar in the Philippines is BIG money. If there were no accessible pirated games in the Philippines, no one would buy those consoles maybe except for the truly rich kids which is less than 1% of the population. So yeah, for 3rd world countries, i do believe piracy helps more than hurt. I know it sucks but that's the truth :D

Re:Piracy: The New Marketing Tool!

[EPDM]

---snip---
Hmmm, one poster jokes that cracked 360 games might actually help Xbox 360 marketshare in China and Taiwan. It's a just a joke now, but what if this actually turned out to be the case?
---/snip---

What made the Windows PC so popular? Guess?

Except, Xbox360 not profitable

[acomj]

The market model for the xbox360 is to loose money selling the console, make it back selling games. MS gets a cut from each game.

Well so far with MS loses in the billions over gameing they have a lot of games to sell.

It might make the 360 more popular, however people buying the system because you can buy pirated games probably will then buy pirated games. Its unlikely they'll switch to the more expensive legit games.

Re:Except, Xbox360 not profitable

[a_nonamiss]

I'm not sure why this idea has so much traction, but I've read many articles that state the contrary. It's true that when a console launches, it usually loses money for the first few months, because the startup costs for the fabrication are high. However, as I've read, usually within 6 months or so when production is in full swing, they start making a small profit on the hardware. The longer the hardware is manufactured, the less expensive it is to produce, both because the initial startup costs are paid off, and because technology generall gets less expensive rather quickly. Granted, they may make a lot more money on the software, but I don't think they'll be losing their butts on hardware just to sell software, and I doubt that Microsoft is still losing money on the Xbox360 hardware.

Now, the I believe I read that the Xbox division is still losing money, but that's a management problem and not really a fab problem. Just because the division is losing money doesn't mean the hardware is selling at a loss.

Re:Except, Xbox360 not profitable

[ShawnDoc]

I believe that applies to Nintendo and Sony products. I'm not sure it applied to the original X-Box or to the new 360 yet. Microsoft's X-Box division has only had 1 or 2 profitable quarters since the launch of the division. Sure a lot of their expense is marketing and R&D, but I think you'll also find the profit margins on their console are much lower (if there at all) compared to competing game systems.

Re:Except, Xbox360 not profitable

[the_B0fh]

You forget however now Microsoft gets to go to the game developers and say "look, we have 2X more consoles than ever before".

And in case you don't think Microsoft believes in piracy, look at that 1999 or so trip that Gates took to China. It was widely reported in the chinese/hongkong papers that he said something along the lines of "if you have to pirate software, pirate microsoft software".

Re:Except, Xbox360 not profitable

[Blakey Rat]

Just FYI, the loss of the Xbox Division isn't a management problem because it's expected and has been planned for. Go back to when Microsoft was first planning the console, and they talked about how they weren't expecting to make a profit the entire first generation and possibly not the second.

Re:Except, Xbox360 not profitable

[badasscat]

I believe that applies to Nintendo and Sony products. I'm not sure it applied to the original X-Box or to the new 360 yet.

And hence the reason why they continue to lose literally billions of dollars on the Xbox and Xbox 360.

Sony and Nintendo understand how the game industry works. MS doesn't. They haven't learned this very basic fact; that it's not just about selling razor blades, it's about selling razor blades and razors. To be profitable in this business, you have to be profitable at both ends.

It was always a myth that companies lose money on hardware. Companies that lose money on hardware generally don't stay in the business very long.

(Yes, it does usually happen at the initial launch, but not for very long afterwards.)

Re:Except, Xbox360 not profitable

[Babbster]

Sony and Nintendo understand how the game industry works.

And yet, Sony's game division once again posted a loss last quarter .

Have a nice day!

Re:Except, Xbox360 not profitable

[Mitaphane]

The idea has so much traction because it's true. From the link:

An up-close look at the components and other materials used in the high-end version of the Xbox 360, which contains a hard drive, found that the materials inside the unit cost Microsoft $470 before assembly. The console sells at retail for $399, meaning a loss of $71 per unit -- and that is just the start.

Other items packaged with the console -- including the power supply, cables, and controllers -- add another $55 to Microsoft's cost, pushing the loss per unit to $126. These estimates include assumptions that Microsoft is getting a discount on many components.

Re:Except, Xbox360 not profitable

[BigCheese]

Nintendo yes, Sony no.

It looks to be a MS/Nintendo console generation. Sony seems to have a bad case of Blu Ray madness.

Re:Except, Xbox360 not profitable

[drinkypoo]

AFAIK the Xbox still is losing money per sale, but I think it's more like $10 now than the $50+ earlier on. Part of the problem is that the graphics chips were pretty much made all at once and aren't being made any more AFAIK.

Re:Except, Xbox360 not profitable

[JFMulder]

There's something wrong tough about the amount of money lost by Microsoft over this whole endeavor. I mean, they were about 4 billion in the hole before the 360 shipped (let's say 3.5, I think they just hit 4). And they sold about 30 million Xboxes. So that's 3.5 billion / 30 million, that's 116.67$ per console lost.

The thing I don't get is : with all the games and peripherals they sold, there was still a 116.67$ lost per console. What the hell? I know R&D and marketting costs money, but still. There's something weird about all of this. Anybody can shed light on this issue?

Re:Except, Xbox360 not profitable

[jamar0303]

Exactly- 30RMB looks much more attractive than the 400+RMB ($50+) that legit games cost. Heck, when I bought my Nintendo DS lite, the salesman said to just buy a flash cartridge for half the price of a game and download ROMs off the internet (yay for living in China)! Of course, there are multitudes of places to download ROMs here in China, but those are in Chinese which may lead some people to believe that it is near-impossible to get ROMs for DS games (I certainly can't find any sites in English that offer DS ROMs for download). The person that sold me the DS said that he sells loads more PSPs and PS2s than DSes because PSP and PS2 games are so easy to pirate (buy a memory stick, make sure your firmware is 1.5 or 1.0, download the games and you're good to go, or get a modchip and look around the streets for a stand that sells pirated PS2 games).

Re:Except, Xbox360 not profitable

[antime]

Microsoft did learn it, which is why for the 360 they insisted on getting all the rights for the CPU and GPU designs. It is apparent that they are following the model Sony set out for the PS1 and PS2, which is where you initially sell the hardware at a loss, but as technology advances you tweak the design until it becomes profitable. Owning the design also means they can choose where to fabricate the chips, instead of having to accept the prices set by Intel and nVidia.

Re:Except, Xbox360 not profitable

[Mitaphane]

It's pretty simple. They lose money on selling individual game console boxes (the system, a controller, wires, whatever is packed with it) so that the entry cost doesn't seem that high to the consumer. However, they make a huge amount of money off of seperately packaged controllers, memory cards (example: Sony's PS2 memory card still costs ~$25 for 8MB even though 8MB of flash memory costs next to nothing these days), extra AV wires (huge markup, it cost only a few dollars to make a $25 AV cable), and of course their bread and butter game licensing. Not to mention the XBox Live service is probably making a good amount of money with subscriptions and downloads.

Also keep in mind that MS (and Sony), unlike the gaming companies of old, has many different divisions in their company. Thus, the hugely profitable MS Office division can subsidize the XBox division until they've gained enough marketshare to be in the black.

Re:Except, Xbox360 not profitable

[JFMulder]

I totally agree with you and that's the problem. If they are making a lot of money on games and hardware, how come the average loss per console is STILL over a hundred dollars? That was what I was trying to say in my post. Are they selling the console at such a big loss, like 300$?

Re:Except, Xbox360 not profitable

[Mitaphane]

I think there's a misinterpretation of the facts. The article I was citing said that the lost per console system sold (not an "average" lost) was $126. This means for every console sold MS is giving you those assembled parts at a cost that is $126 cheaper than what it cost them. I've never seen any figures stating MS's "average lost per console" that includes sales from games, peripherals, etc. How would you calculate something like that? I suppose if the XBox division post a lost of X dollars you could divide it by Y # of XBox360s sold to get some average figure of loss, but that still wouldn't be accurate since the XBox division doesn't just spend money on making 360 consoles.

Re:Except, Xbox360 not profitable

[JFMulder]

That's why I can using numbers from the pre-360 launch. I know the loss has been inflated somewhat from the R&D done on the 360 during the original Xbox life span, but 3.5billion losses / 30 million consoles sold means that these 30 million people or so who bought the original Xbox bought games and peripherals and Microsoft managed to STILL lose about 116$ per console.

Re:Except, Xbox360 not profitable

[Mitaphane]

Um, ok? Let's say your numbers were true, since we have no idea were they came from. 3.5 Billion shouldn't be that much of a hit for 30 million consoles. If the average XBox360 gamer just buys 2 games and a controller(at the cheap price of $50 each and controller for $25) Microsoft has already made their money back. Of course, I'm leaving a few details out but since we're talking arm chair economics here, but who's counting? There's no mystery here. Video gaming is worth billions of dollars a year. It's worth the hit of a few billion dollars if it means a piece of the pie that's worth billions a year.

Do What Sony Did

[TheZorch]

Its isn't likely this would ever happen. In fact its far more likely Satan would be handing out parkas in Hell before this were to happen.

Microsoft should do what Sony did. Sony is making ALL games region free, meaning that import games will work in the PS3 without needing a Modchip or hacked BIOS. This does two things, it keeps people from mucking with the PS3's internal hardware and its pretty much kills any possible demand for pirated PS3 games, or at least minimizes it.

Re:Do What Sony Did

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes because that's the reason everyone would hack their console, to play foreign games. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the allure of only paying 3.50 for the game.

Re:Do What Sony Did

[powerlord]

This does two things, it keeps people from mucking with the PS3's internal hardware and its pretty much kills any possible demand for pirated PS3 games, or at least minimizes it.

It does one other thing: It removes a legal reason for Chip Modders to make chips. This may let them go after chip modders more aggresively, since they can claim that the only reason for a mod chip is to play pirated content.

Re:Do What Sony Did

[KDR_11k]

Sony is making ALL games region free, meaning that import games will work in the PS3 without needing a Modchip or hacked BIOS.

They could have thought of that earlier. The PS2 swapping solution is infinitely more annoying than the one on the Gamecube and region free beats everything.

it keeps people from mucking with the PS3's internal hardware and its pretty much kills any possible demand for pirated PS3 games, or at least minimizes it.

Nonsense. We're talking about territories where the cost of one game is 25% of the average monthly income. They aren't going to stop buying counterfeit versions for a tenth of the price just because they can play imports.

Re:Do What Sony Did

[KDR_11k]

I thought that's what the DMCA was introduced for?

I might consider buying one now

[Opportunist]

Look around and realize, a lot of people buy consoles based on whether or not they can pirate the games for it. Look for the successful consoles and then check whether or not it was "easy" to pirate for it. Then check sales numbers and the advent of cracking tools, modchips and patched firmware, you just MIGHT see a pattern...

Re:I might consider buying one now

[Anonymous Coward]

How does this explain the Dreamcast then?

Re:I might consider buying one now

[Anonymous Coward]

So the nintendo GameCube is the easiest of all to pirate? Cince the number of consoles sold is greated than Ps2 and Xbox??

Or would that be the price is so low on the console and games that everyone owns one....

Re:I might consider buying one now

[KDR_11k]

I think you're pulling numbers out of your butt since the Gamecube came nowhere close to selling the most units. It sold about on par with the XBox.

Re:I might consider buying one now

[cttforsale]

There's always exceptions. I know of people who own many consoles.
If they have a PSOne, that have copied games.
If they have a PS2, that have copied games.
If they have a xbox, that have copied games.
If they have a dreamcast, that have copied games.
If they have a GBA, that have copied games.
If they have a NGC, they don't.

Re:I might consider buying one now

[KDR_11k]

I'm referring to his claim that the GC was the best selling console this gen when it clearly wasn't.

Re:I might consider buying one now

[brouski]

Look around and realize, a lot of people buy consoles based on whether or not they can pirate the games for it. Look for the successful consoles and then check whether or not it was "easy" to pirate for it. Then check sales numbers and the advent of cracking tools, modchips and patched firmware, you just MIGHT see a pattern...

You have a chicken or egg dilemma.

How much time and effort goes into cracking a console the first time? How much time refining it into a consumer-level solution? Isn't it equally possible that high sales lead to the top-shelf cracking efforts, and not the other way around?

Re:I might consider buying one now

[Mitaphane]

I have better, more accurate, proposition. Games that very popular, or good, tend to be pirated more. Consoles that have a lot of good games tend to be very popular. Piracy and popularity might be slightly corelated but one doesn't neccesarily causes the other. This is coming from someone who has purchased an XBox for the sole purpose of modchipping it for emulators and XBox Media Center and also owns a PS2 with an installed hard drive that game images run off of. The XBox is much easier to pirate games for in my experience than the PS2. Yet, the PS2 has about 3 times the number of consoles as the XBox.

Re:I might consider buying one now

[BigCheese]

I think the GBA(-SP) is the one you mean. Not the Cube. The DS is doing pretty well too.

Re:I might consider buying one now

[Opportunist]

I dunno where you live, but here (Europe) the GC is by far not the best selling console. I'm the only one I know who has one, most people here have a PS, many have an XBox but the Cube doesn't sell.

Re:I might consider buying one now

[Opportunist]

Hmm... might be a worthy undertaking to pull out my old statistician hat and harvest data about sales over time, both consoles and games, and the advent of modchips or other cracking devices/instructions.

I have one lying around that pretty clearly tells there's a correlation between sales numbers for consoles and cracking ability. I'm curious, though, whether the sales of games is affected and if, in what direction. I wouldn't be surprised if mod chips actually meant that games sold better (because people buy a console that can be chipped, thus more people have it, and some of those that wouldn't have owned it buy a game... etc).

Re:I might consider buying one now

[Anonymous Coward]

Since you have obviously done the research on this, do you mind posting links to this data?

Re:I might consider buying one now

[Anonymous Coward]

I totally agree. i have all the above + 360 and all have been hacked and i have games. The only one i did want to hack was teh NGC.

most odd..

Biggest security threat is home-brew?

[oz_paulb]

Microsoft's John Porcaro commented at the time: 'The core security system has not been broken. However, on some Xbox 360 consoles the authentication protocol between the optical disc drive and the console may be attacked.'"

Since breaking the 'authentication protocol' seems to have enabled piracy, MS's 'core security system' only prevents homebrew apps now. I would have thought that 'core security system' == 'stop pirates', since that's where all the money is. Go figure...

Re:Biggest security threat is home-brew?

[Anonymous Coward]

Piracy is not a big problem. Cheating on Xbox Live is a big problem.

Re:Piracy? No, Just Their True Market Value

[toolie]

I'm pretty sure it was modded 'flamebait' because 'dumbass' still isn't an option.

Homebrew?

[tepples]

It removes a legal reason for Chip Modders to make chips. This may let them go after chip modders more aggresively, since they can claim that the only reason for a mod chip is to play pirated content.

What about to develop and use homebrew?

way to sugar coat the issue

[matt328]

The core security system has not been broken.

This core security system doesn't seem to do much if one can play pirated games without breaking it.

Re:way to sugar coat the issue

[Anonymous Coward]

This core security system doesn't seem to do much if one can play pirated games without breaking it.

It still won't let you run unsigned code, so actually it does do quite a bit.

Re:way to sugar coat the issue

[Danse]

It still won't let you run unsigned code, so actually it does do quite a bit.

Maybe, but who cares that you can't make it run Linux? You can download games and actually play them now. That's good enough for 98% of the people who would be interested in this development.

Re:way to sugar coat the issue

[Troed]

It's important because when new games perform additional security checks copies of those games won't run (remember - you can't change anything in the executables of the copy since the signing process isn't broken)

Re:way to sugar coat the issue

[Torne]

Maybe, but who cares that you can't make it run Linux? You can download games and actually play them now. That's good enough for 98% of the people who would be interested in this development.

The one problem that still remains with this is there's no way to run games from a different region or video system; the region checks still apply. So, you can't download a game that's been released in the US and play it on your European 360. The Xbox was never very interesting from an import POV, though (as opposed to other consoles with many .jp-only releases, or EU releases only much later after multi-language translation), so this isn't that major I guess :)

Re:way to sugar coat the issue

[IamTheRealMike]

You missed the point of the security system - it's to stop game developers bypassing the Microsoft licensing fees. If you have to pay MS to write games for the XBox then their business model of subsidising the hardware works. If you can avoid it, then XBox is a financially losing proposition.

Re:way to sugar coat the issue

[Danse]

You missed the point of the security system - it's to stop game developers bypassing the Microsoft licensing fees. If you have to pay MS to write games for the XBox then their business model of subsidising the hardware works. If you can avoid it, then XBox is a financially losing proposition.

Ok, a couple of things then. If you're a developer, you're not going to put yourself into a position to get sued into oblivion by Microsoft by developing a game without paying them. But, if it's easy to copy games, and therefore you don't sell very many (I don't know that that's what would happen, but that's the fear), then you're going to look for other platforms to create games for. So Microsoft loses there.

Re:way to sugar coat the issue

[sklib]

I think that "core system security" for MS here has a lot more to do with Live than whether someone can play a pirated game offline. The whole point of Live is so people can play without having to worry about people cheating (auto-aim bots, show-me-invisible-parts-of-the-map cheats, things like that). If people could play "modified" titles online, I think MS would consider that a core system security failure.

I wonder if anyone has ever successfully executed un-certified code that didn't ship on a game disc yet, online or offline...

Re:way to sugar coat the issue

[IamTheRealMike]

Microsoft can't sue you for not paying the license fees, if you use a reverse engineered SDK. This was established by case law where a studio did exactly that to avoid paying royalties to Sega.

Re:Piracy? No, Just Their True Market Value

[Anonymous Coward]

Differing opinions from a company with tens of thousands of employees? That's inconceivable!

Translation: you're an idiot.

Re:Piracy? No, Just Their True Market Value

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me guess...you're one of the poor fucks dumb enough to buy a 360 for 400 bucks...

Gonna love the dumb look on dimwitted bitches like you when the management team up in Redmond pulls the plug on the six year long Xbox trainwreck.

Hmmmm

[Sv-Manowar]

The one problem for those who crack their 360's is that as soon as microsoft want to screw you over hard enough they will release and update for the firmware via Xbox Live in order to try and check if you have messed around with it. Microsoft know this and it is one of the reasons why they push Xbox live and their developers to get everyone connected to it, not only can they upsell you on new games and increase the life of the games released, but they can try and combat pirates while they are at it.

Re:Hmmmm

[octopus72]

They will surely put an end to this. Their idea WAS to have pirate disks doable at the release time of PS3. Later they will change the hardware and block the hole, once they are convinced that it did it's role against PS3.

Re:Hmmmm

[slicenglide]

They have new modchips out that allow you to dual boot firmware. One for backups, one for online. No update will fix that.
-So the saga continues...

30 yuan???

[Ekarderif]

Computer games are only 8-10 yuan. See, Microsoft rips you off even when it comes to piracy.