The Problem with Modchips
I received an email from “HcC” earlier last week with an interesting topic: console modding. To quote:
“I also wanted to ask your thoughts on piracy and the xbox modding community. How you think it impacts the way games are made, if you think it does, or anything of the sort. It’s just a topic I wouldn’t expect to see on your blog and would love to know your opinion. Do you think it will change the success of the xbox 360 in a positive or negative way if it is modded beyond the current firmware runaround.”
It’s a great question, and I’m happy to share some of my thoughts and opinions on the topic.
For the uninitiated, a mod chip is simply a device that circumvents some of the protections placed on a video game console. A “modded” console is then one that can run unauthorized content or games and potentially enable new functionality. Modchips (and “softmods” or software exploits) have been around since the beginning of consoles, and have a small but vocal minority who tend to argue vociferously about why they have a “right” to use them. These modchip defenders tend to use one of three arguments to justify their use:
- the ability to copy and play pirated games
- the ability to play import games
- the ability to add new functionality (such as running homebrew software)
Let’s take these on one at a time.
First, the ability to pirate games. I mean, really – what can you say here? We already had a conversation about piracy earlier, and at the end of the day every game not legally purchased is simply stealing money from the creators. Some people attempt to justify piracy by pointing to the perceived high price of their hobby and/or games, but the argument just doesn’t hold up. You don’t steal a Ferrari that you’d love to drive simply because you can’t afford it, right? Same thing.
The desire to play import games is at least a reason I can rationally understand, but cannot condone. Sure, there are games you might want to play that are either released earlier or, quite possibly, not released at all in your region. But sometimes companies have good reasons to either not release a title into a region or release it at different dates. It may be because of the time and cost of localization, marketing plans, ad buys, cultural considerations, or perhaps even because of the impact of piracy in the region. Whatever the case, it’s safe to assume the publisher has thought about it. The good news is that most publishers are developing with multiple platforms, regions, and languages in mind up front, so this is becoming less and less of an argument. (After all, it’s in the publisher’s best interest to sell as many copies as possible, right?)
Finally, let’s talk about the desire to add new functionality to the console. Some folks want to enable new functionality on consoles beyond what was delivered by the manufacturer. Sometimes the desire is to add new hardware capability (say a larger hard drive); other times it’s to add new functionality such as PVR support, web browsing, or to run homebrew applications of whatever sort might be imagined.
This is the one aspect of modding I’ve always struggled with the most myself, but at the end of the day I just can’t condone it. Here’s why.
The console business is a razor/razor blade model. Hardware (the console) is subsidized (meaning Microsoft sells it at below cost) to make it easier for consumers to get it into their homes. The business then makes this up by selling you additional hardware (peripherals), software (games), and services (Xbox Live). The success of this razor/razor blade model is tracked by analysts as the “attach rate,” or how many of these add-ons an average person might have per console. (The most common metric you’ll see tracked is the game attach rate to a console, but some analysts also track the attach rate of peripherals and Xbox Live.)
Over time you buy games (and other peripherals and services). The revenue generated from those purchases helps to make the business a profitable one (which is the reason you see a healthy game industry, and continual investment in new features, games, and hardware). Some folks point to the fact that they bought the hardware and believe they should be able to do anything they wish with it. Unfortunately, this argument ignores the fact that they’re buying that hardware at below cost, and it’s the razor/razor blade model that makes it even possible to buy at that price. The other solution would be to sell the hardware at a price that covers cost and also includes a profit margin so that selling the console alone (with no game/peripheral/service sales) could be a stand-alone business. Problem is A) this model already exists (it’s called a PC), and B) selling a console at PC prices (especially with the capabilities the console has in it) would simply be too expensive and no one would buy it. At the end of the day, the cost difference needs to be made up somewhere, and that’s why we need to you buy those razor blades.
The interesting thing to me is that I think the idea of homebrew/user-created content is looked at with much interest at Microsoft (we are a software company after all), but the challenges caused by the impact to our business model make it very difficult to enable. Interesting tidbit: a friend of mine at Microsoft once demonstrated a modded PSP to Bill Gates and showed off all of the interesting things that enabled. According to my friend Bill was intrigued and asked the audience what we might be able to do to encourage this sort of thing without damaging the business. I love that our top executives think this way – the challenge, of course, is that modchips allow much more than just homebrew software, and so it’s a tough problem to sort out.
To sum up, I think the reason we see a lot of industry angst around modchips is the piracy it enables, and the damage it causes to attach rate (which in turn breaks the fundamental model all consoles are built on). A lower attach rate is bad for the industry as a whole as it impacts game, hardware, and service sales for the entire industry (not just Microsoft). While I imagine there may be a few folks who really do just want to run custom applications on their console and have no intent to pirate games, we have yet to find a way to separate legitimate use from illegitimate. It’s disappointing, but there you go.
I do hope my opinions on the subject help you understand how many in this industry view the subject. At the end of the day piracy is a tough problem that affects us all. I do hope that it one day it won’t be as much of an issue, but I fear that time is still far away.
Related posts:
173 Comments
Comments are closed.
Ozymandias–
With regard to your razor/razorblade discussion, what you’re ignoring is that no one is obligated to comply with your expectations and thus support your preferred business model.
For example, MS can invest a lot of money into making something, only to have it flop. This isn’t indicative of a problem with the audience, it’s your fault; you failed to make something successful. Likewise, if MS invests a lot of money into making something, and it enjoys some degree of success, but still doesn’t recoup the investment, this is again your fault. This time, you failed to have a big enough success at your price point to recoup your investment or alternatively failed to move the price point such that a more modest success (and it would be less successful yet; higher prices generally mean fewer customers) would generate sufficient income to recoup the investment and make more of a profit than you would’ve with your best alternative investment.
Roughly, you’re facing the latter kind of failure here. Let us imagine that I buy an XBox, never open it, never get any accessories, and just keep it in a closet somewhere. MS will have lost money on the transaction. But I’m still under no obligation — whether real, or reasonably imagined — to do otherwise. You have simply failed to find a way to have me as a customer that you find acceptable. The onus is on you to either drive me away or find a way to profit off of me.
This ultimately brings us to the people who buy XBoxes for purposes that don’t fit with your razor/razor blade model:
Simply put, in order to have the razorblade model which you find successful for the vast majority of your customers, you are going to have to accept the fact that there will be some customers that act contrary to your desires. They’re not obligated to do what you want, so the only way to make money from them is to raise the price of the product.
If you do this, however, you will a) get more money from some of the modders, thus helping to recoup your investment, b) discourage some of the modders, thus not causing you to lose money on the razors, and c) lose some of the main base of customers, who probably far outnumber the tiny minority of modders.
Because of (c), you will probably end up losing more money than you’d make.
The answer then is to simply tolerate the modders. You can’t stop them without losing more money than they cause you to lose now. You are already in the best position you can be in with regard to them. Since you can’t make your situation better, you should avoid trying to make it worse.
DRM is an attempt to discourage them from buying from you without altering the price or discouraging your target customers. But it’s pretty clearly a failure, or else we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. I would suggest an alternate plan: if you can’t beat them, join them. If they don’t want to buy the razor blades you sell to most people (e.g. games) then find different ones that they would buy (e.g. tools for their homebrew software, more professional versions of the kinds of things they like, etc.).
After all, saying that you don’t want this type of modder is like saying that you don’t want people who like platform games, because you don’t want to make platform games, you are taking steps to prevent them from being played on your system, and gamers who play them anyway are just costing you money on the razors.
Treat these people like gamers who like nigh-impossible puzzle games (e.g. Linux) and you’ll do better. But there’s obviously no way to get rid of them that both works and doesn’t cause more harm to yourselves than it is worth.
Re: importation, there are good reasons to be against it, but none you’ve touched on. And in any case, with regard to both importation and piracy, DRM is not an acceptable solution. I for one hope to see the law changed so that DRM is virtually wiped out. It’s really intolerabl
As a European gamer, I would have missed out on some amazing games by not chipping my first PS2. Xenogears, Final Fantasy Tactics and Valkyrie Profile are probably the most notable.
What I don’t understand is that I can quite legally sidestep this problem (and in fact, this is what I do with consoles these days, since modding is becoming more expensive and difficult) by buying a US console. I can cope with the power and video standard issues. Yet this approach actually costs the console manufacturers more money, because now I’m buying *two* sets of subsidised hardware instead of one.
But, if you want to keep sticking your heads in the sand, who am I to stop you? All I can do is find my ways around your lockouts, and be sure, I will.
Ozymandias, I work for, about, 8 years in the field of technology. My wage, after 8 years of working, with 20 years of experience in the field of computers and quite a bit of knowledge on different systems, networking, multimedia, design, troubleshooting… you name it, orbits arround 800 euros. And that’s considered a "high" wage for people in a similar position as I am.
Now, let’s deconstruct this wage…
I need about 400 euros per month for rent.
I need at least about 200 euros per month for food.
I need at least about 200 euros per month for "general expenses" (well, I have to -GO- to work to get paid, haven’t I?).
I need about 50-200 euros per month for clothes or other not-so-important-but-nice-to-have stuff, but I don’t have them.
I need about 50-200 euros per month to keep my PC going (and thus "stay in the business"), but I don’t have them. So, I "shave" money from food and "general expenses".
I need about 50-100 euros to have fun once in a while, like any human being. But I don’t have them.
How much did we say a next-gen game costs? About 1/10th of my wage? And some people still wonder why piracy flourishes in some countries…
Let me close reminding everyone why piracy is "bad". Piracy is "bad" because the last best game on the Amiga platform, Capital Punishment, was programmed by poor teenagers with "stolen" (that translates to "pirated") compilers. No company did anything to help them. No company offered free or cheaper software. No company aproved of what they did. And what did they do? They created the best beat’em’up on the specific platform, a wonder of code, graphics and music. And I guess that although they too wouldn’t like to see it pirated, they’d at least recognise that for some people that would be the only way to see it.
So, piracy led to the creation of one of the best games on a platform, and I guess there are many more examples we don’t know off. So, piracy is not "generally" bad. If you cannot afford it, and you MUST have it, yeah, pirate it. Pirate it and buy it when you CAN afford it. The problem, ofcourse, is that companies cannot say that to your face, for then noone would ever buy any software…
Now, ofcourse, if Microsoft, Ozymandias and any similarly-minded indivinduals continue to full-heartedly disagree, and completely support their opinion that "piracy is bad"… Well, if you believe that piracy doesn’t have any benefits, I’d like one honest answer: would you prefer people using pirated versions of WinXP, or the totally free Ubuntu (or any other Linux distribution)? Would you like somebody buying a moded Xbox, slapping a modchip and XBMC on it and start raving about it to his friend, or rather have him "pirating" (and, as you say, "hurting the business model") of the antagonistic PS2? Hey, thats actually a good idea! Do an ad campaign, promoting how easy it is to pirate PS2s games! It will do wonders on Xbox’s sales! That’s what you want! Ain’t it? ;-)
I guess that Microsoft, among others, has allready answered through its actions to this question. So, why bother talking about it?
have you ever tried to see it the other way round: The business model sucks, not the mod chips… imho, if you buy a piece of hardware, it’s your natural right to play around with it. if that conflicts with a buisness model, you have rethink the business model, not the other way around. nobody told you to sell xboxes below price….
"These modchip defenders tend to use one of three arguments to justify their use:
* the ability to copy and play pirated games"
Come on now. I’m willing to accept people have different opinions but this was just totaly bogus Ozy and you really should go back and edit it.
No real modchip defender has ever claimed that piracy of games is a "justifiable" reason to allow modchips.
Many of them might try to claim "backups" as a justifiable reason then turn around and pirate stuff but none of them go around using it as some sort of defense as mod chips.
Also on your comments about producers and imports:
Do you really believe what the producers want matters? I mean there comes a point where you have to say what a company wants doesn’t matter. A company isn’t a human. Investors don’t get to take peoples money just because they want to.
The industry has really shot themselves in the foot for a long time now by doing this regional stuff. All it does is give the modchip people a truely legit argument which trumps every argument against them.
The issue I don’t understand is why a company insists on selling what is essentially a PC at a loss simply to sell more periperhals. Why not sell kits to convert your existing PC into a console? From what I understand about the original xbox Microsoft took a huge loss on it when it first shipped. What I also understand is that the original xbox was just a pentium III with some modified USB ports, decent graphics, and a paltry amount of RAM. I would imagine that most people who own an xbox already owned a decent spec PC that would likely exceed that xbox specs. Why not sell them a console-grade graphics card with TV out and specify a rigid set of requirements for the Dashboard software. Granted in 2001 the instant-on functionality would not quite be there (perhaps Robson caching or the similar hybrid drives could offer this today), but I have peripheral cards that interrupt the boot process and I would imagine the same could be done and the console software could be launched from a special partition ala Apple’s Bootcamp. The way I see it MS could sell graphics cards, controllers, and software and perhaps even make a PROFIT from this model. I own a great PC, why do I need another whose potential I am actively prevented from maximizing?
Just my $0.02
Wow, a Microsoft tool coming to the unexpected conclusion that he can’t condone anything an xbox modchip can be used for. What a shocker!
In other news, watch as Oxymandias dismisses every single criticism of Vista (prefacing some of his remarks with a disingenuous "I struggled with this one, but…"), all while pretending to NOT be a tool.
Information WANTS to be Free.
Seeing that binary data is information it should be made free at no cost.
That way THE COMMUNITY can improve the product to its utmost perfection.
We will use the product for more than 20 years, i.e. Emacs.
Linux is a superior operating system. It’s so obvious!!!
Idiots.
The problem with the PC model comparison is that it’s easier to modify the console to have PC functionality, than it is to modify the PC for console functionality.
I understand the company wants to make back money lost on subsidized consoles through their own official "mods", and supporters will alwayas go the offical route, but if you’re basically selling a cheap PC with console capability you can’t reasonably expect people to spend money on overpriced peripherals that they can do themselves.
I have a big harddrive now that I can replace my 360s with. Why should I have to buy an official one (waiting for one to be available first) when I can easily install it on my own today? The only answer to that question is "because the company wants to make more money so wait for us to do it for you"
Am I wrong?
I think the MS should come up with a way to only let one person use the system ever. I’m thinking biometrically encoded controllers. That way if your friends want to play ever they have to by their own controller. The controller will send the info back to the xbox live network and thus enabled the xbox to be turned on. How’s that for maximizing profits.
couldn’t you offer some sort of support for the homebrew softwares? Like providing a service for compiling and singing OSS-software like xbmc. xbmc is my only reason to mod my xbox =)
Very interesting insight into how some folks view this product, there is a vauge and suspisiously brief reference to softmods and software exploits, but NO mention of the DVD ROM firmware hack which without doubt has screwed the claims by M$ that this was the most secure console ever created, they still maintain their security has not been breached and seem to be completely powerless to reverse this. How could an organization like M$ claim to have spent so much time on security and then go and use a third party bit of hardware which is routinely updated/re-flashed to change its operation. If piracy hurt developers so badly we wouldnt see the titles in the pipeline like halo3 which will without doubt create the biggest payday seen on a console, the publishers/developers will always make a profit because like bookmakers the odds are alwys weighted in their favour!
<i>You don’t steal a Ferrari that you’d love to drive simply because you can’t afford it, right? Same thing.</i>
You’re correct that I don’t steal a Ferrari, but you’re grossly incorrect in stating that the theft of something material is the "same thing" as the duplication of something nonmaterial. Software piracy does not involve stealing, at least not remotely in the sense that car theft implies. Until a few years ago it was not even a crime.
If instead of stealing a Ferrari, I instead DUPLICATE one in my garage using my own tools and materials which I purchased myself, then does this constitute stealing? Certainly not. No car is stolen if I duplicate a Ferrari.
You would of course argue that I didn’t steal the car itself, but that I stole the idea including the design. But I’m not claiming that it was my own design, so I’m not stealing the idea. And if I’m not competing with Ferrari by offering my car for sale, and if I couldn’t have afforded to buy a real one, then the Ferrari company will have suffered absolutely zero loss in the marketplace due to my actions and thus the concept of a "stolen idea" remains completely and inherently immaterial. They could try to sue me in civil court, but there would be no damages to claim!
So much for your preposterous car theft analogy…
Certainly software companies need to make their money somehow, but this concept of "intellectual property" is an artificial construct and it creates at least as many problems as it solves. If I sing "Happy Birthday" in the privacy of my own home, would you also argue that I owe Arlo Guthrie a royalty, since he wrote the song?
Clearly even the most hardcore advocate of intellectual property legislation would need to draw the line somewhere.
The biggest problem comes from this doublespeak term, "Intellectual Property." In reality, there is no such thing. We all have free minds, and anybody is free to know anything. If I can memorize a copyrighted poem, good for me. It’s a contradiction in terms, this "Intellectual Property."
"Someone earlier suggested working though Xbox Live but I dont think this is feasable because average Joe user would expect a guarantee of reliability and security that Microsoft couldnt afford to give for anything that got uploaded."
—————————————-
I suggested that, and I did already consider this. A way around this? At the beginning of every homebrew download taking place you put a disclaimer such as ‘the software you are about to install is user created content hosted by Microsoft, and we can in no way verify it’s reliability and security. By agreeing to download this, Microsoft are in no way responsible for it’s usage and execution. We recommend reading all user feedback before downloading to indentify potential harmful files.’, followed by a ‘Yes, I agree’ & ‘No, I do not agree’ button to start the installation process.
Furthermore, I don’t think ‘your average Joe user’ would be bothered with this kind of stuff anyway, and especially once faced with a disclaimer like that. However everyone that is interested in homebrew would probably have done his/her research before installing potentially damaging software on their system (like they do with Xbox1 now).
sory i didnt read all the comments on the topic but i have to say the common sense celebrates in the topic of microsoft’s standpoint of modding.
i took a step back after reading and realized the guy is right.
but is he ?
imagine the wolrd full of people interested in playing with xbox is that correct NO
there is a small part of the earth population europe-north america-japan-australia that can pay to play with your toy lets say 1/5.
beeing a global company with all that money got to give something back dont you ?
thats why you let us poor guys steal some of the joy you bring .
this is true
what ever locks unlocks is true because you let it happen you can make everything airtight so nobody can have a chance to play with xbox windows office and every prg that you or anyone produces out there.
this of course will add cost to your products right?
no thats an excuse because there is range of things you can do.-
the distrubution of products such as xbox windows etc has in mind to leave little holes that some times you bring out and show people how to use them to steal you just for the shake of market penetration.
so whats the case here this guy is buying an xbox only after is pirated and most probably that is simple and common sense you can a steep rise on sales after hacking Xbox.
will this bring market share up YES.
will this bring more rentals of xbox Dvd YES.
will i get black money from trhe guys
Glad to see you posted your opinion Andre. I’m also glad to see so many people responded to this topic. I agree with a lot of what is being said on both sides.
Backups: It is a double-edged sword….for both sides. If you allow too much room for backups, then the kids will copy rentals or download from news groups or wherever, and not pay for games. The funny thing is that this is also a problem for the "pirates". More pirated material that is leaked into p2p networks and made widely available to the public, which has absolutely no connection with the original source, means more heat from the industry and the authorities. Then you get busts. So really, an uncontrolled method of copying and playing backups has not worked for either side, as it just continues an unproductive cycle. This is the difference in piracy now, and that of the BBS days. Anyone and their grandma can obtain a "backup" now. I really don’t suggest Microsoft even look into making backups an option, there are too many people who would abuse it. The point here is that there is a place for both sides. If there are going to be mods, then it should atleast require a few steps and a brain to acomplish.
Import Games: Again, if it means playing a backup and you want to be able to play this game so badly, figure it out. This is the kind of situation where the mod community has a use. While the publisher may have reasons for holding something back in a region, as a gamer I completely understand wanting to find a way to play it. There is no simple solution here, it is up to the publisher and the user has no control over it other than playing a backup. What should be done is making these games available over live.
Added Functionality: I personally think it would boost sales if certain things were implemented into the xbox360 that were developed by homebrew developers for the original xbox. This doesn’t mean every single homebrew application should be available over live, but in an upcoming war of the consoles, I don’t see why Microsoft wouldn’t take into account the options that are available in programs like XBMC. Even allowing homebrew developers to submit proposals of their work, then sign and host them on their site, allowing people to burn it and install it. Just create a new team of guys to go through them and work out a way to safely enable people to use this software. Even within the emulator which runs backwards compatible xbox1 games, allow the xbmc xbe.
Anyway, that’s my opinion. I basically think that the mod community has a lot to offer and it shouldn’t really be looked at as just piracy, but functionality.
microsoft told how to break in the system YES.
will people who bought the hacked xbox buy accesories YES
etc
the rest about playing import games its easier
based on my first comments and some i left unwritten you can see why?
now about playing homebrew things on my xbox .
the razor / sharp blade of the market is nothing 4 you because you sett the price if your machine will cost 100 dollars i like i will pay that if dont i wont even if it is 80
why not sell it 4 free then make us buy the games 4 100 usd per game.
imagine an exteme example the hookers market is razor blade market and a hooker is selling her body 4 free to make customers pay a lot for condom .
dont you see that if you are the best hooker in town no matter what the cost most of customers will wanna sleep with you?so , other the best in town NO!
thats why the only way to go is piracy
cause if you dont have the market penetration you will go nowhere.!!!
that stands for windows and every other
myth they are trying to sell youb gentelman thanks 4 reading
geokiri
greece
ps.read between the lines
Ironically, in Microsoft’s wholehearted attempt to stamp out all unauthorized use of their console, in the Xbox 360 it has released a console which is quite secure and foolproof against homebrew and importing, but was directly exploited for the SOLE purpose of piracy (and, of course, backup). Like many other posters, without XBMC or anything that comes close to it, I will not even CONSIDER touching an Xbox 360, or any of the games for it (which I always buy legitimately). Consider me a lost customer, then, as I use my XBox daily, but as soon as I find another solution that compares (and runs on nicer, more fully-featured hardware) I am leaving the camp and NEVER coming back.
There was one line in a comment on here talking about a EULA on the console that you have to agree to to use it, making it illegal to modify the console. How could that possibly be true? If it is, then naturally you’d just modify the system before ever turning it on, but the idea that MS would enforce a license agreement on the HARDWARE is absurd and likely impossible.
I have to echo the sentiments of many on here. I may have a modded xbox1 – but the only software that runs on it is XBMC. XBMC is friggin’ sweet, and here’s the thing – they petitioned MS to put XBMC on media and have it signed to run on unmodded XBoxes. But the request fell on dead ears, and so by denying that Microsoft has indirectly encouraged modding the boxes. There is nothing out on the market that matches XBMC that I have seen yet – especially for the cost. If those in the friggin industry could realize that it would be a better future for everyone. I know that I won’t buy a XB360 until some type of XBMC comes out for it. As far as the licensing issues go – if MS could release a signed core software and allow users to download the codecs on their own, MS could avoid the licensing issues.
XBMC forever – End of story.
After seeing how much the oringinal xbox can be modded with xbmc I bought one,if it wasnt around I wouldnt have knowen about it and assumed it was the best knowing full well the hardware could do much more. It turns the xbox into a full media center. Nothing can compare to how much the xbox offers with xbmc just look at the original dashboard, this does have piracy implications yet if there code was signed couldnt you attach some strings like making sure games cannot be copyed before it is signed? Game developers get there code signed to run but homebrew software doesnt because you cannot be sure what they could do woth the software an example is dvd2xbox. What I feel you and others at microsoft seem to realise is currently you control the hardware which gives you an advantage untill the security is cracked allowing poeple todo what they want.
Would you suggest Microsoft simply not release Windows because poeple could install applications to copy games or movies? or make sure some form of DRM could make sure they could not run these programs?
If Microsoft wants the money for these consoles there has to be essentive for people to buy them such as homebrew or xbmc an application of this power availible on every xbox would blow Sony`s Playstation into space.
I considered both consoles before I decided on the xbox for the main reason I could get soo much more and do way more than the playstation could, Games are availible on both platforms and that only leaves its funtionality and features of the box for appeal.
I only suggest there be some soft of trial of homebrew software availible this alone is a killer app over the PlayStation,
You can trial & error a trial to see where it leads you down the path if indeed it would be a bad option or not, had Microsoft not developed Windows 95 would it be given it the power it has today from sales?
The power of Windows comes from the programs the platform supports not just things like IE or games, they can allways be developed on another platform and if its better than another who woulud win?
Most of the homebrew/pirarcy/razor debate only affects the xbox becasue you and others want it to and thats because you control the xbox, if the sdk and private key where leaked allowing others todo what they want with the hardware taking your control of the console away make the xbox more attractive to users over compeditors products?
I can only see that Microsoft should invest deep research into homebrew and other avenues, a perfect example is upgrading from Win-3.1 to WinXP (original dash to xbmc dash) as anything your compeditors cant do that you can is a clear advantage, some test apps and trial/error is the only way.
A bit of a rant about my feelings on the issue, as a after-thought just think of Windows only running games and NO 3rd party software, one solution is no control over the software and if you would buy it? I know my answer.
You said: "The desire to play import games is at least a reason I can rationally understand, but cannot condone. Sure, there are games you might want to play that are either released earlier or, quite possibly, not released at all in your region. But sometimes companies have good reasons to either not release a title into a region or release it at different dates. It may be because of the time and cost of localization, marketing plans, ad buys, cultural considerations, or perhaps even because of the impact of piracy in the region. Whatever the case, it’s safe to assume the publisher has thought about it. The good news is that most publishers are developing with multiple platforms, regions, and languages in mind up front, so this is becoming less and less of an argument. (After all, it’s in the publisher’s best interest to sell as many copies as possible, right?)"
Why should I not be allowed to import a game if it’s never going to be released in my region anyway? In what way is "the publisher has thought about it" and argument to persuade me not to mod my machine so I can play games on time. I’m in Europe and we still don’t have Dead Rising here yet, why should I bother waiting if I can get the game elsewhere. I will continue to mod my consoles in any way I see fit until you start making machines region free. Buying import games can’t be that big of a deal to M$ anyway considering there are many 360 games which are region free!
RE: The Problem with Modchips
Ozymandias answers a readers question about Modchips . In his article, he talks about what the chips
RE: The Problem with Modchips
Ozymandias answers a readers question about Modchips . In his article, he talks about what the chips