Although it’s certainly not a mainstream activity, the market for modifying Xbox 360 consoles is healthy and growing. Some players modify their consoles to essentially cheat at games and unlock features and capabilities without having to arduously play their way through dozens (or hundreds) of lead-up scenarios. And, of course, other people modify their Xbox consoles to pirate games or play pirated games—actions that are patently illegal in most markets, but nonetheless supports a healthy underground economy. Some gaming an electronics shop will openly modify Xbox consoles to play pirated games, typically for about $100.
Tag Archive: mod
U.S. Customs Conducts Mod Chip Raids
U.S. Immigration and Customs (ICE) agents stormed 32 separate locations in 16 states on Wednesday, but they weren’t searching for guns, drugs or even illegal immigrants. The officers were on a hunt for mod chips, the hardware that makes it possible to bypass copyright protection on consoles such as the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Wii.
All modern consoles have built-in hardware schemes to prevent users from playing games from outside their region or copying them. Since the instructions are written onto chips that can’t be altered, it’s impossible to circumvent them with mere software measures as they might be on a computer. Instead, hackers devise and market mod chips, which must be physically soldered onto a system board to defeat the console’s protection.
Italian Court Rules Mod Chips Legal
From the article at Gameindustry.biz:
A court in Italy has dealt a major blow to the efforts of the platform holders to crack down on mod chips, ruling that PS2 mod chip devices are designed to “avoid monopolistic positions.”
The case was brought over a seizure of modded PlayStation 2s by the Italian authorities some days previously, with the court deciding that this seizure was illegal and that modding consoles is a legitimate practice.
Sony wins Aussie mod chip sales ban
Mod chips enable console owners to overcome region protection built into their machines to run imported games bought legitimately and to back up games legitimately. But they also facilitate the playing of pirated games as a result.
For a short time, selling mod chips in Australia was legal – officially, following a court ruling last July. Sony had filed a suit against a Sydney mod-chip trader, Eddy Stevens.
Xbox modded – without a mod chip
Following on from the news that it’s possible to run unsigned applications on the Xbox by using a loophole in EA’s Agent Under Fire, crackers have discovered how to mod the system without a physical modchip.
The new system breaks open the Xbox for running third-party applications (including the Linux operating system) or pirated games just as effectively as standard mod chips, but the only physical alteration needed to the box is a very minor soldering task to link up two jumper points on the system board.
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