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Microsoft Bans Modified Xbox 360s From Xbox Live
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has now officially started banning Xbox 360s that have had their DVD drive firmware modified from Live, possibly using information brought in by the Crackdown-originated Halo 3 beta downloads. Scene site forums have already collapsed under traffic, and Microsoft has officially confirmed that they are banning modded Xbox 360s to keep the online playing field fair and level."
We'll probably just see the same thing that we did with the first XBox: a modchip with an external switch connected that can tell it to disable itself and let the original drive firmware load. Of course, setting it up probably won't be as easy as it was in the XBox 1 (which had a nice little LPC port that you could get the system to load a different BIOS from by just shorting one solder point to ground)... it may be necessary to actually remove the firmware ROM chips from the drive and wire in a new switched bank with copies of both the original and the modified firmware, but it certainly seems doable.
Another issue that slightly complicates things is the fact that the 360 signs you in to XBox live by default when you have an active network connection, so modders will have to be careful to unplug their ethernet cables when the switch is turned on. One vulnerability remains, though, and that is that Microsoft may choose to push out a dashboard update which checks for the drive's original firmware on EVERY bootup, and remembers to tattle to XBox live as soon as you sign on. Microsoft could choose to store this data on the hard drive/memory card (in which case it could be defeated by having a pair of storage devices, one for modded and unmodded use), or they could put it in the 360's internal flash storage, where the dashboard and system software itself is stored (no easy solution for that one, but I don't know enough about the 360's internals to know if the internal storage is flash RAM, which makes this easy, or an EEPROM, which would seem to require that the dashboard reflash itself with the new variable set every time that happens).
Anyway, it does seem that it is possible to defeat this scheme. I'd also like to note that Microsoft's stated reason for the update is bullshit, since even with the drive's firmware flashed, the 360 will still only load Microsoft-signed executables (meaning that it can play backups of original games, but is useless for homebrew and modified games). They might as well just come out and say that it's a measure to defeat privacy, since they've locked out homebrew programs anyway (with the exception of their XNA creator's club program, which lets you run only games written for their limited API, and only in C#, instead of giving access to the full-on devkit that the pros use). Couching it in pro-gamer language about defeating cheaters is disingenuous.
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The mantra for used goods, as far as I can remember, is "buyer beware". Plus, if a person buys an XBOX 360 off of eBay, and it isn't what the seller said it was - a fully functioning XBOX - then they can take it up with eBay channels for dealing with such issues. That isn't really Microsoft's problem.
We often rail on Microsoft on this website, for implementing "anti-piracy" measures at the expense and convenience of legitimate customers. As such, I don't see how people could complain about this. They are banning modded boxes from XBOX Live (not BRICKING them, which is an important distinction), and leaving paying customers the hell alone.
As with any mass action like this, there may be a few people who are inadvertently targeted by this, but hopefully Microsoft will take care of them properly. If they don't, we can skewer them then.
- Scott
The only reason I pay my Xbox Live subscription is to play on a clean network with no cheating. Granted, I have seen cheating, but it is very rare compared to say... any PC game. And it is usually quickly fixed. Like the vast majority of people, I bought my Xbox 360 to play games, I did not buy it to mod it. The *most important* thing in any competitive game or sport is fairness; skill, talent, and practice should be the only deciding factors in the outcome. If you want to mod yours, fine, but I don't want to see you on Xbox Live, which is a *private* network. The reason why there is such little cheating on Xbox Live is that it is detected at the hardware level, *not* on a per game basis like in PC Games. This is why I pay, and this is why I prefer to play FPSs on Xbox Live. Sure, I would rather play with a mouse and keyboard, but fair competition is the most important thing in online play.
First off, everybody should have seen this coming - they did this with the first XBox console.
Second, what are the benefits (outside of copying games illegitimately and cheating) would you have by modding your XBox 360? I haven't had any incentive to purchase the 360 because outside of better graphics and new games, my old, mod'd XBox can provide me all the same functionality. At least with the first gen XBox, modding gave you DVD playback (without the need to purchase the stupid dongle), music and movie file playback (i.e. off a file server on the network), potential to install a full Linux distro like Xebian (and the potential to use it as a MythTV front-end), etc... I'm honestly curious to know how I could maximize my bang-for-my-buck by modding an XBox 360 - how else might I be able to use that hardware, similar to the old XBox?
Additionally, no matter how much they try, there will always be people bent on cheating in live. Playing Halo 2 over my friend's Live account a few times was a crumby experience for me with the abundance of cheaters out there (and no, I'm not saying that b/c I'm a sore looser, but there comes a point in time that it is horribly obvious somebody is cheating), but I'm not so optimistic this will help much. Honestly, I have never purchased a live account, and I don't ever intend to purchase one (which is part of why I won't purchase a 360 - for that and other reasons).
That it hasn't been published doesn't mean it hasn't been broken. Not all hacks are made public.
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At this point I think most of that kind of cheating is limited to the gifted few who are capable of knowing what to tweak themselves, but the potential is there, all it would take is someone to release a "tool" to make it easy for Joe-wannabe-hacker and you'll find yourself playing Halo 3 with someone who has infinite ammo, perfect aim, can see through walls, jump twice as high, run twice as fast, takes no damage, etc. etc. etc.
It's good that they did this, though the number of reported False Positives is appalling. I would suspect a great many of them are due to people who unknowingly purchased used or received refurbished consoles that had previously been modified... those people really don't have any proof that they didn't mod it themselves and their console might actually be modified. There are also some reports of unmodified consoles purchased on launch day (meaning there is no way they were refurbished) getting banned, though it's difficult to tell if the claims are genuine or just some pirate crying wolf.
Collector's Edition
I highly doubt that there will be any lawsuits because of this. If someone were to bring a suit against Microsoft for banning them for having a modded console Microsoft would slap them with a DMCA circumvention suit immediately, it would work in Britain and the US for sure. As for false positives I bet that the reason they have taken a year in waiting to ban the modded consoles is that they have taken the time to test against consoles that they themselves have modded in order to be absolutely sure. I didn't hear of any first generation unmodified xboxes being banned from Live for being modded.
Last generation it was worth modding the xbox as you could then use tunneling software to play multiplayer games but I don't know if there is anything like that available for the 360 yet, which in my opinion makes modding the 360 not worth it. I think it is going to take quite a bit for me to mod my 360. Someone would have to build a Live like server to distribute updates using some sort of tunneling software and try to distribute updates that way. I think that they would still need to actually change the dashboard first, which as to my knowledge has not happened yet.
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That having been said, I have no problem with MS banning modded boxes from Live. Nor do I have a problem with people who may someday be able to mod their 360 and turn it into a media center, although I'd rather just build a Myth-capable Shuttle box if I wanted to do that.
"Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"
Instead of outright banning them why don't they send them to their own server? That way they can still keep track of who they are and perhaps not clue the modders in to the fact that MS knows that they've modded their box. MS could even run some well written bots to populate the server and totally kick the modders' asses. It could be a fun side project for the game developers (:
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While I agree that MS should be allowed to protect their profit margins, I have to say I disagree with your points 1 and 2.
I had the original XBOX and I modded mine because it made an awesome media centre, I could drop in a 250GB HDD and store all my media on the thing, or even hook it straight up to a network and stream the media from my PC. It turned the XBOX into what MS always wanted it to be, and did a much better job than MS have done so far with the 360.
Having said that, I also very much enjoyed playing (legit) games on my XBOX, and the one thing I lamented was not feeling I could use the Live service (okay, some chip makers claimed to allow safe Live access, I didn't think it was worth the risk). At the time, I didn't lament enough to give up my media centre solution - now I'm hooked on Live and I have to have separate online console gaming/media centre solutions vying for space in my living room. If I could chip the 360 to do what the XBOX did AND still get my online gaming fix, it would be perfect.
So, not just pirates that miss being able to chip their console and play online.
Presumably you're one of the rare free software folk who has no ethical problem with what Microsoft does, then?
As opposed to Sony and Nintendo who have both shown a willingness to engage in questionable behavior to suit their own ends?It's a sad reality, but if you want to play games, you have to deal with companies that are not always ethical.