A worrying situation for Microsoft is emerging over the holiday period, with reports of self-booting Xbox 360 software being shared across the web, painting a picture of increased pressure on the console's defenses against piracy.
JSR let us know that On the french forum where was posted first the method for game dumping (by JSR and Gael360), some guy (Sliders58) tried to boot a backup with hotswap method (the original xbox360 dvd of a game and his backup) on xbox360 and it's apparantly working. The method is very difficult to do and we can not guarntee its validity by any means :-).
Earlier numbers by Business Week may have reported that Microsoft is losing $126 on every Xbox 360 sold. That figure is now believed to be a bit higher by some.
According to Insider Scoop, the world's largest software maker is losing upwards of $300 per console sold. From the article: "A high ranking friend at IBM, one that worked on the Xbox 360 chip design, tipped us regarding the real expenses involved in manufacturing the Xbox 360... 'It costs Microsoft approximately $715 to make, the manufacturing costs are still too high, another reason why they’re producing relatively small quantities.'”
Microsoft could be introducing a modified version of the Xbox 360 games console after a hackers' group claimed that it had successfully circumvented security controls of the original version. Media reports say a Dutch group of hackers calling itself Team PI Coder had been able to copy the original games' CDs onto the hard disk, but as yet were unable to run them on the console
EXPERIENCE XBOX 360 *SELFBOOTING* DISC! RELEASE INFORMATION:
Platform: Xbox 360 Category: Big m$ *****up!:)
Released: 12/27/2005 Origin: Europe/ Pal
RELEASE NOTES:
*** YES YOU CAN BURN THIS ISO AND PLAY IT IN YOUR XBOX-360 ***
Microsoft left us with this blanket statement:
"Xbox 360 retail kiosks have started arriving at retailers.
Here's a video of an Xbox 360 flying out of the window of a moving SUV. Even more surprisingly, the SUV is driving past a line of people queuing up to buy Xbox 360s at a Best Buy.