Topic: Can Xbox 360 be hacked? 10 Dev Kits stolen...

[BlackNMild2k1]

...3 recovered.

Heise.de a german news site, is reporting about 10 stolen Xbox 360 development kits (XeDK). ZakMcRofl on the xbox-scene forums translated the news to english:

Quote
According to reports of the news magazine Spiegel ten top-secret prototypes, so called development kits, of the new console Xbox 360 have been stolen from Microsoft. The console won't be released until december 2nd [in Europe], just in time for the christmas business.
The devices came to germany from Hongkong together with other Microsoft products on "Air Delivery pallets" in a neutral packaging. From a storehouse in Düren they were supposed to be shipped to game developers.
Just a few days after the theft pictures of the new console surfaced on the internet. Meanwhile the Austrian Bundeskriminalamt in Viena and the public prosecution authority Bonn are investigating the case.
So far (some) homes and offices in Niederösterreich (Austria) and in Troisdorf (Germany) have been raided (searched) and three consoles have been confiscated. The remaining seven devices remain lost.

Do you think Xbox 360 will be hacked? will it be hacked and have mod chips available at or around launch?

Microsoft did make a big deal about thier anti-moddable system, and how they put security down in the lowest level of the system, actually building the console around the security of the system.

But those damn modders are very good at what they do, and there is a big money market for what they are doing(it is legal in Australia afterall ). I sure it not a question of if, but more a question of when. Will it happen before christmas? That would be a disaster in MS eyes, but probably would sell more systems in the short term leading upto the PS3 launch.

Can MS ugrade the security through bios updates in games similar to PSP? Would that make a mod chip rendered useless?  

[vudu]

Are there actually concerns that the 360 will be hacked this early in its life, or is that just your own spin on the situation?

It seems kind of crazy.  A system is hacked before even being released.  ...and we all thought Sony dropped the ball with the PSP.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Well the system is in the hands of modders, that is where the pics were supposedly coming from.

It is mostly a lot of speculation on my part, but I though that it is all very plausible condsidering what modders tend to accomplish with any piece of hardware they get thier hands on.

[stevey]

"Microsoft aims for hack-proof 360"

It would be funny if 360 is hack before launch after all of the unhackable bs ms said.

[BlackNMild2k1]

thanx stevey, that was the article I was referring to in my original post, but I was too lazy to look for it.

[ShyGuy]

Stevey has become an accepted and productive member of the Planetgame cube community! I'm all choked up.

But seriously, wasn't the PSOne the most pirated system ever? It sold a lot of systems. Truth be told, I know several people who are running modded Xboxes with bigger HDs filled with warez games.

I think piracy hurts the third parties more than the console makers. I don't know that there would be a backlash

[Djunknown]

I doubt we'll see mods and the such right during the launch period. By offering these services during that time period is like putting a big bull's eye on your face for MS to throw at. If they were able to catch the people behind the Half-Life 2 source code theft (albeit it took a little over a year to do it), I'm sure whoever's behind the heist will get the book thrown at them, as all any/all accomplices in due time.

I'm guessing if MS offered a substantial reward for any information pertaining to the theft, this case might be solved a little sooner. Its not like they can't afford it or anything...

[BlackNMild2k1]

But do you think that they(MS) would really care during the launch period up untill the release of the PS3 if it meant that they got that installed base lead that they are so desperately hoping for?

Could they update the security code and render all mod chips and hacks useless or even the Xbox 360 itself useless if modded or running unlicensed code?

and as far as piracy hurting 3rd parties more, while that is true, think of all the money Sony should have made on the PS1 & PS2 that they didn't.  They should have dwarfed Nintendo's profits and MS's dept. put together. Sony wouldn't be in the financial situation that they are in right now if piracy didn't hurt.

You could argue the other side and say that most people that pirate are getting games that they might not have played otherwise, buying systems that they might not have bought otherwise, and might not have expanded the market to the tremendous size it is at right now. but thats alot of If's, Ands, & might not's.

[KDR_11k]

The XDKs won't help much. They don't include the copy protection and all they'd net you is a look at how the system functions without it.