Is 360 piracy a big thing now?

[ChrisF]

Not everyone has access to live so it'll be hard to force updates. If updates are put on the software surely the pirates would just remove any offending files?

You could possibly end up in a similar situation to the PSP where games need certain firmwares to run.

[Dezm0nd]

I sadly know someone who hasn't paid for a single Xbox 360 game, he's a UK person and he's been playing Gears Of War since the very day it got leaked onto the internet

He's Xbox Live, too!

[Kubrick]

One of my mates got his 360 flashed and showed me it working.

Was totally unimpressed. The games took a lot longer to load and it seemed a bit hit and miss whether they would actually load at all. Several attempts were needed to boot the ones I seen running.

[Mad Gear]

I thought Call of Duty 3 had an update on it?
I've seen a copy of that running.

[tyler]

It's been around since early this year. And people are even playing 'hacked' content. Certainly on Halo 2 (disc maps not just DLC). Of course the Bungie system still bans them though.

All these copies can be used on XBL aswell and Microsoft seemingly can't do (or haven't done) anything about it as yet. Shame.

I'm sure they can see the hacked firmware as even stuff like XBMC reports back the firmware. Maybe their happy to take the LIVE subs for now.

Remember when they suddenly banned a lot of people before Halo 2? Maybe Halo 3 will see a similar mass ban.

[Ajay1986]

I thought copies could not be used on XBL, they certainly couldnt be used on XBL on the original Xbox.

[stepp]

just done a search on fleabay and people like this idiot are even blatantly selling pirated games now.....cant be good for the 360s lifespan surely.

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[smokedog]

I thought Call of Duty 3 had an update on it?
I've seen a copy of that running.

Been reading on all this hacking lark, CoD3 back up's work if you flash your drive with the lastest firmware hack.

[Concept]

I thought copies could not be used on XBL, they certainly couldnt be used on XBL on the original Xbox.

Well exactly. I'm surprised if people are using copies and not finding their Xbox Live service terminated. You'd think MS would have measures in place to be able to check if people had modified the system or were using hacks to play pirated content.

[Mad Gear]

Apparently MS have sent out angry "How are you playing game X when it hasn't reached retail yet" emails to people who have been signed on to Live. Nothing has been done yet to stop them.

[Matt]

I think MS should work out some way of testing who has a hacked machine and who hasn't, via either some firmware update or simply seeing who had GOW before it retailed, and put some code in a new firmware to brick the ****er's machines.

I'd find that hilarious

[Cubeboy]

Maybe microsoft are planning a nice christmas present for them. Imagine little johnnies face on his chipped 360 on christmas day night and the ban or firmware update comes in over live.No more live gaming for that machine. Also the more machines microsoft get banned at once makes it better for them as the resale value of them will drop dramatically and some may be forced to get new machines. I think microsoft are just waiting for the right opportunity.

[stepp]

I cant see how people on ebay get away with selling them TBH, as said above what if someone buys one not knowing that its "chipped" and then 2 months later is banned from live.

Is this allowed on the ebay? Or can they do nothing about it?

[themanwithapc]

I have a feeling MS could shut them down tomorrow if they want. However, I think they're just letting piracy get more and more consoles into the home, before eventually turning them off.

[MikeRox]

Wow thats quite shocking to me, i didnt expect the 360 to be cracked that fast. I heard people were finding exploits & stuff but i didnt think they were playing copied games kind of exploits. I thought microsoft would have protected it better.

Hope it dosent damage the 360 games sales too much as it would be a shame. Yeah i know they can be kind of pricy but playing copies is no excuse. Although im nintendo's bitch i have a lot of admiration for microsoft & how they have treat the uk market & if i get a 360 it would be a PAL version which coming from my mouth is probably the highest compliment i could give them.

Wonder how long sonys new monster will resists the pirates & the wii too.

Hasn't it actually done well managing nearly 12 months without being hacked? The Dreamcast had some of the toughest protection of any system ever and that didn't last much longer in the west, tho it'd been out about 18 months in Japan. I believe (excuding firmware updates such as with the PSP) consoles are generally hackedwithin 3-6 months.