Slashdot Mirror
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.'"
This means the 360 might start picking up popularity in Asia, especially in China and Taiwan.
I read the internet for the articles.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
really? It definitely beats $49.99-$79.99 CDN
*hops flight to china*
disclaimer: I've been known to store numbers in my ass for which to dig out when quantities are required.
Sun rises and sets! (translation: duh.....)
Linky linky?
"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!
I never vote for anyone. I always vote against.
-- W.C. Fields
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
What is best in life? To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you and to hear the lamentations of their women.
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?
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
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.
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...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
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.
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
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...
I'm pretty sure it was modded 'flamebait' because 'dumbass' still isn't an option.
-- toolie
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.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
What about to develop and use homebrew?
I thought that's what the DMCA was introduced for?
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
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.
Check out the cave on the east side of lake Hylia. Strange and wonderful things live in it.
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.
Business Voyeur
Computer games are only 8-10 yuan. See, Microsoft rips you off even when it comes to piracy.