Jul 31 / Ozymandias

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.

Nick

"The desire to play import games is at least a reason I can rationally understand, but cannot condone."

Is this really you speaking, or your employer?

Speaking as both a game developer and consumer I have trouble believing that this could be your personal view, and am amused that you frame the issue as if there is actually a philosophical or moral debate here.

As long as the goods are genuine and properly paid for, nobody has a right to whine. As a developer I can’t imagine a reason to be upset that someone in a foreign market would go to abnormal trouble and expense to use my product; I would take it as a compliment (and maybe a hint…). I’m also annoyed by your implication that proper language skills or culteral upbringing are a requirement to be allowed to play certain games.

I have a bit of personal experience in this regard as I am an American who has lived in Japan and have experienced region encoding/arbitrary compatibility issues first-hand. While in Japan I bought Japanese games and DVDs, yet the only way to use these disks on my American equipment was through the use of boot disks or hardware modifications; I take it you do not have first-hand experience of how frustrating it is to take your laptop to a foreign country to live and then have to jump through hoops simply to play media that was purchased right off the store shelves. What do you believe was the morally correct solution to these problems? Was it wrong for me to attempt to use Japanese media with my North American electronics or should I have bought a Japanese laptop, DVD player and consoles while I was in Japan? Was I wrong to have even purchased the media in the first place since I was not member of the correct target culture and perhaps my language skills were not at an acceptable level to enjoy the titles properly? Would you suggest that having returned to America it would be indecent of me to ever view any Japanese media that was not vetted as safe for my delicate American eyes? Should I have resold or discarded all media purchased in Japan before returning to America?

I’ll give you another example that may help put things in perspective. While I was in Japan I purchased a small, battery-powered Casio alarm clock. I brought it back with me and it is the same alarm clock that woke me this morning. This clock is not available in North America, so would you argue that it was morally incorrect for me to use that clock? That argument would be utterly absurd if it were applied to anything other than video games, movies and music- I argue that it is absurd in the case of games, movies and music as well, but the publishers have somehow succeeded in manufacturing an argument that it’s OK to tell people what they’re allowed to do with product they’ve paid good money to obtain legally. The use of cultural purity as justification for this is utterly baffling- maybe you guys should research DNA Coding as a successor to Region Coding. Better yet, adapt that awesome Vista speech-recognition technology to administer a language-proficiency test before allowing media to be viewed or played.

Oh and by the way, it’s also possible to see things from other countries on the Internets. But don’t tell anyone.
Ozymandias

Re: "The desire to play import games is at least a reason I can rationally understand, but cannot condone."

Is this really you speaking, or your employer?"

That’s me speaking.

I may have a different perspective because I’ve spoken a lot to publishers and developers who feel they have legitimate reasons to region-lock games. I certainly respect you may feel differently, but make no mistake, everything on this blog is my opinion.
Dutchy

Well, I can admit I have a modded box. I had it softmodded and put in a larger harddrive. Reason: not to have the ability to pirate games, but to put all my games on the harddrive. We often play with some friends in LAN network games and it saves me from carrying all the game cd’s around and the possibility of scratching them. I carry all my games with me on the harddrive and the originals are save at home. Other advantage: backup the savegames to the PC. Some games, like Farcry can download a unlimited amount of maps when playing online (with KAI for instance). This way I can backup those maps and share them with friends.

All of these things that can only be accessed with a modded box, without the infringement of copyrights (because you are alowed to have one private copy for personal use… as long as you have the original) and the use of KAI is not only for playing with pirated games on modded xboxes, but can also be used as a perfect free alternative to Xbox live (and that is just some clean and honest competition).
http://www.addictingentertainment.com m3mnoch

just 2 cents. i cannot stand your reasoning for imports. in my opinion, all region specific media should go the way of the dodo. for a lot more reasons than i care to post in a comment.

i am the one who decides what media i want to consume — localized, regionally priced, no matter what the silly reason — and not the media creator. end of story.

m3mnoch.
zombunny

Couldn’t a solution for those that are chipping because of reason 2) importing software

be for the platform holders to offer the kit at retail in the form of a peripheral or upgrade disc, to allow play of games from other regions?

At least this way, the gaming industry actually benefits from any imports (through the peripheral sales needed to legally play the discs) and no excuse can be tendered after that, on the grounds of enabling import software, for modding the console. The platform holders, I would imagine would know their hardware and code better than a mod chip installer, and I believe would be able to offer a sensible, fully-supported solution to consumers, if they wanted to.

The solution in other words, is to remove the reason for the modding. (much like Microsoft removed the reason before over media playing with the 360.)

The thing is, that at least to me, the desire to play a game (often that I may have been eagerly supporting and awaiting the release details of, during development, to then be told that "unfortunately, we will not be releasing the game in your region"…What’s that!?!)

is the thing that drives console sales to begin with. The console is intended to allow me to enjoy the games that I want to play.

Region-free ought to be adopted across the board for games, and it’s an archaic disservice to gamers while this doesn’t happen. While publishers may say that it hurts their sales figures, I say that it invites a broader sense of and collaboration, and is in fact more likely to be beneficial to gaming in general.

In addition, gaming draws on influences to create new experiences. Why are developers limiting themselves to those influences and ways of thinking of only their local region? Isn’t that only aiding a sense of stagnation?

Opening the WORLD of games up to all, really would usher in a fresh, and exciting generation, I feel.
WiNG

A couple of counter-comments from my part then regarding the previous previous reply (hell, it took me quite a while to read everything posted since yesterday):

" – About the hardware modification to add extra features… well… while I do understand in part your point, sometimes this comes to an incredibly ridiculous point (such as the need to purchase a remote controler to be able to play DVDs on my original Xbox when it is fully capable of doing it on its own).

- Actually, this was done this way so that not every Xbox user would have to pay the codec licensing fee to enable DVD playback… which wouldn’t be fair, since not everyone wants to play DVDs (vs. games) on their console."

While I understand the point in there (yet not share it) lets get that reasoning applied in other circumstance. Imagine I dont have a home theatre systeam and I am actually using the TV speakers for the sound, why should I pay just like everyone else for the Dolby Digital chip on the board (included on the box price) if not every Xbox user wants it? Same could go for having a bundled HDD or many other parts (I am actually stating the HDD since it was fingered as price increase excuse over here by many ps2 fans which argued to be unecessary… they are not complaining now of HDD on PS3 though, go figures). In every console there are parts that not everyone needs or wants, thats for sure, and while I share that whoever wants a fishing rod controler they can get it separately since it is a very concrete thing I wouldn’t say teh dvd playback is such a rare thing for people to want it (I am talking about the playback capability, selling the remote controller separately as accesory I find to be perfectly fair)

" – [snip] what would you do if your favourite xbox360 disc gets scratched so you cannot play any longer? I had luck with my music disc because I had a mp3 copy on my hard drive and the cd player on my room accepts all kind of discs, but that is not going to happen on the console without modification. Would the game publisher give you another copy if you present the scratched disc?

– Actually, if you look at the back of most game manuals you’ll find that warranty information that tells you how you can get a replacement disc from the publisher. I did a quick unscientific survey of a few games I had on my desk today and they all had a way to get a replacement (albeit after proving you originally owned the game, either by sending in the damaged disc, showing a reciept, etc.) So I still don’t understand the "backup" argument."

While I do not distrust you in any way, you actually made me go and check quite a few manuals at home. First of all, I do not own a x360 but an old xbox, but I doubt this procedure you describe is new for 360 games, I guess it is for every kind of game but if I am wrong please let me know. Having said that, I actually checked the first and last pages of 63 game manuals (between PC, Xbox, and Dreamcast) I have at home at the moment, 62 didn’t contain such warrany you describe. All of them described however that if the disc had some kind of fabrication defect you could return them to the publisher directly in a variable time space (generally 90 days). However, my USA imported Gabriel Knight Collection game did had such instructions, although not applicable to the whole package (that edition contains GK1, GK2, Patches/Manuals/extras disc, OST disc and some printed goods like the official GK novel – package that never reached my country) and neither precisely for free (even if I lived in the USA). I must also say that some of the other 62 manuals looked like having something that looked similar, but never on the spanish (or the english, I would have understood it) part of the manual so I can’t really tell if I am correct on my assumptions or not. I guess its a matter of publishers coverage on certain countries, but not eve
http://www.ti-x.net Ti22

Hi,

I have a problem I know a modchip can solve and there are no other means of solving it. If you do know other means of solving this problem please tell me. I made this post on Xbox.com forum a while ago.

"Hey I think the Xbox 360 is an almost perfect console

the only thing that keeps it from being perfect is the region lock on games. I bought a UK version of the 360 however I am moving back home in about 2 weeks, and over there in Thailand they sell Asian region games. What am I supposed to do? I don’t wanna import games cuz the import tax of anything thats on DVD is 300% thats just lame.

I have no options at all but wait for a modchip. I really dont’ wanna hack my 360 but it seems to be my only way out now. I don’t wanna buy a new 360 as well cuz this one is all personalised and its got my stuff on it which i don’t wanna lose.

I wish microsoft would do something about this. Region lock will only drive me towards piracy. Rite now the only option i have is install one of those DVD Firmware hacks (there are stores that do it in Thailand) however for now I have decided against it as I don’t wanna hack my 360 just yet. I will just not play it for a while to see if MS is going to do something about it. I don’t think MS will do anything about it but its worth a shot anyway.

Major Nelson

J Allard

Peter Moore

Please help me solve this problem. Hacking the 360 would be as easy as stealing candy from a baby for me however i don’t wanna do it, but if i have no other choice then, well i have no other choice. I bought my 360 to play games with this region lock thing i can’t play games at all (except for the region free ones but thats not enough) at least with the firmware mod thing I can chip it and download the ISO for my 360 without paying import tax.

Another solution would be do digital distribution! I am there guys I am all for Digi Distri.

Anyway Thx Hope you guys can fix this region lock thing, its lame and it doesn’t prevent people from hacking their 360."
Marc

An interesting thing about the psp and homebrew is I believe Sony’s constant updating of the software to disable homebrew hurt sales of new games.

I often struggled with the choice of buying a new game because I knew it required an os update.

For the past year I bought no new psp games even though I was tempted to, and if I knew if I could keep my homebrew, I’m sure I would have purchased some games.
Shane

"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…"

I agree with most of your other points, and I understand what you are getting at with this paragraph, but you mis one other MAJOR reason people import games (at least for me and my friends).

COST

When a game such as GRAW for Xbox 360 sells for US $39.90 region free from http://www.play-asia.com, yet sells for US $90 locally here in Australia – this is an absolute joke. The local market, whilst I agree is smaller than the world market, is making a killing on these prices.

If Microsoft and the game companies truly get their money back from game sales – then they should be the same price World Wide.

Regards,

Shane.
Icarus

Nice blog, Ozy. One thing I’d like to point out. You asked, ‘You don’t steal a Ferrari that you’d love to drive simply because you can’t afford it, right?’

Wrong. I wouldn’t steal a Ferrari that I’d love to drive simply because I can’t download it.
Eric

Modchips are the way customers take back control of a hardware piece that they bought and if it ruffles the maker of the hardware, oh well. Just because Microsoft and other companies have chosen a path that makes a loss from each sales to make money off the games don’t bother me none. If I desire to run the Japanese version or UK version of a game I bought, then a little thing like region encoding is an artificial method for the company to control the money flow. It has become a nightmare for people over the software is not a product in the traditional sense, while companies soak the consumers for every penny they can snag. If car companies released vehicles as poorly done as many software packages have been, then they would be sued out of existence very quickly.
Icarus

‘Actually, if you look at the back of most game manuals you’ll find that warranty information that tells you how you can get a replacement disc from the publisher. I did a quick unscientific survey of a few games I had on my desk today and they all had a way to get a replacement (albeit after proving you originally owned the game, either by sending in the damaged disc, showing a reciept, etc.) So I still don’t understand the "backup" argument.’

Ha. I used to work for Lucas Arts technical support. We’d get calls all day long about people wanting to return their games. Because of piracy, we’ve had to up our ante concerning new copies of games. They’ve got to have the receipt, the serial number, the discs to send in, and the original packaging. Please. And if they’ve had the game for more then a few months? Screwed. It’s a whole process that in the end is not worth it. This is why when I get a game, I back it up. Period. I’m not taking chances with half-ass companies who, once they’ve gotten your money, feel no need to adequately help you if your disc is scratched or otherwise. Go ahead! Get yourself a copy of KOTOR, scratch it up real nice, and let it sit around for a few months, and then call up customer service and see how easy it is to get a replacement game. I dare you.
http://jayen.blogspot.com jayen

"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."

I’m sorry, but I cannot accept this as an argument. If any company thinks that the ONLY way to gain revenue is the razor/razor/blade model, than they’re not thinking hard enough. In the last generation, Nintendo was the only console company with a healthy profit BECAUSE they sell their consoles at a profit, as compared to Microsoft and Sony (which is the market leader with the PS2 at over 100(?) million shipped) losing badly in their respective gaming divisions, due to this flawed business model.
Matthew

I’ve always wondered why microsoft didn’t just create a public dev-kit for creating homebrew for the xbox. You could keep all the security for games, but enable some kind of scripting engine for homebrew. They could even offer some homebrew downloads on xbox live. It seems to me that this would be a good way to defeat the "modchips for homebrew" defense. I know that would probably stop me from using a modchip… probably.
http://www.ti-x.net Ti22

I’d also like to add that your Ferrari argument doesn’t hold waters.

Ask youself this question, if there is a ferrari parking around, and you had the chance to take it for a ride, and you just have to go through a few rough terrain to get to the keys, but you think to yourself

"hey i can drive this ferrari and anonymously which means i won’t get caught it just means i gotta go through this obstacle(modchip) to get the key."

I am sure you won’t say no to that.

Most people will steal stuff if they have the chance of doing it undetected its the basic law of human beings, and you can’t argue with that since its one of the reasons why people pirate, they have the chance of getting something for cheaper WITHOUT getting caught, so they will do it.

Personally i buy all my games(for now, but in the future if i have to keep importing games and paying import tax then I will chip my console so i can download games and play them. I don’t mind paying for games but I do mind paying import tax on every frkin game i wanna play).
http://www.funkyj.com FunkyJ

Ozy said: "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"

As someone pointed out on Kotaku, Nintendo don’t sell consoles at a loss.

It’s not the consumers fault other companies can’t get their *** together. If Sony and Microsoft can’t operate in the market without hamstringing it, maybe they shouldn’t be operating in it.

And whilst I’m against piracy, mainly because I work in the industry, I’m yet to discover one studio that’s been shut down directly due to piracy.

Maybe if publishers and companies didn’t pay those higher up in the company millions of dollars in salary a year, there would be more money to spend on developing games and keeping studios open.
Number 0

After reading all this it seems like he’s missing the boat on alot of issues. The main problem is the old Xbox had a hard drive but didn’t have enough applications added to make the HDD useful, people modded it and allowed for useful applications such as a web browser and a way to back up the games you owned. The reason they don’t want homebrew or a homebrew community is becuase I believe and not 100% certain that they want to charge people to exchange user-created content and homebrew is a free product and if there was too much free stuff then people wouldn’t have any free time to buy more stuff. I think everyone isn’t looking at the bigger issue, that is whats free? I can almost guaruntee when theres future Xboxs there will be more services you have to pay for, more products you will want to buy that don’t come free, and the stuff you took for granted as the free part of the software will start to cost money or will have more DRM restrictions to increase profit and limit and sharing.

Modchips are a positive benefit to the gaming community-

If you have ever played a game on XBConnect with modded maps you will realize that when game publishers stop selling map packs people can make their own maps and then use them on XBconnect with other people with the modded maps.

MS might argue that MAP TOOLS built into the game are adequite but I highely disagree and theres definetly a limit to the allowable amount of map changes that are available in the USER CREATED CONTENT TOOLS built into the game. Has anyone ever played a decent custom map that wasn’t built using a modded system and just the games MAP EDITOR that comes with the game?

People want their game system to do more then just play games and they would rather dictate what that is, my proposal is a creation of WIDGETS for the 360 that allow user created plugins using a custom MS widget code that doesn’t allow for illegal uses or can be moderated via XBL updates. I think all this custom application software could be done under a MS allowed code for customization with a Widget Download section on the XBL Marketplace, this is the answer to the homebrew question.

Should XBox 360 be allowed to play import games? Yes, theres no point to regioning game systems and usually games of different regions cost more then the local games so it isn’t really about profit. I think personally they should sell Japanese versions of games in all game stores in a Japanese language section so if the game comes out 3 months earlier you can buy that game and then the english version of the game 3 months later, thats double the profit for the game companies and I don’t see why they wouldnt agree to that?

So really in my opinion theres only one bad thing about modding which is people who use it to cheat on XBL but theres people who standby and bridge who don’t use any cheats so let me ask everyone is Modding the problem? or is the inability for Bungie/MS to fix things non-modding related such as bridging and standbying a much larger issue?
http://blogs.enginefour.com Shawn Oster

Great Post! You sure chummed the waters with this one

Personally I agree with most of what you said. I see little benifit to modding a console. You want custom content then buy a PC and NWN. Worried about needing a backup? Stop being such a slob and treat your discs with care. Want to play an import? Well, there you’re screwed.

For those that think piracy is "sticking it the man" let me know where you work. If you are flipping burgers then e-mail me in a few years when you actually have a job that matters so I can pirate your work. I agree that a lot of jobs have too high a salery for the ROI but it seems that people that used to have a Robin Hood complex suddenly turn into Donald Trumps once they actually start making that much money. Oddly enough they get very quiet about cutting their own salery.

On a side note I think I’m a little scared of some of my "fellow gamers", people like "Ti22" that will obviously steal your car if you leave your keys anywhere near him.
http://www.ti-x.net Ti22

Just because thats the nature of the general public. Doesn’t mean I am that way. I work in the industry, I buy all my movies, games, music.

In my group of friends I am the one evangelizing about how people should actually buy stuff rather than steal it. I don’t mind spending money on media I think that money is well deserved

All i am saying is the argument the author of this blog is using for piracy doesn’t work

The analogy i tend to use is "people have no problems paying for tangible objects like ipods a new computer, cars couches etc… however when it comes to intellectual property you guys all become stingi, why is this?" now when i ask them this question they shut the *** up and listen to what I have to say. I’ve even gotten alot of my friends to admit to that piracy is wrong. hows that for evangelizing, I’ve even convinced them to actually buy media be it games music or movies.

I believe piracy is wrong. But just because i say what I think the world believes in doesn’t make me one of them, I am just stating the root of the problem.
Zimmy

About the Ferrarri argument that THEDEANOFGAMES brought up, there is no intelectual property on Ferrarri for me to illegally bypass.

If I build a Ferrarri from scratch, from bits and pieces I legally buy it’s perfectly legal for me to then drive that Ferrarri anywhere I damn please.

Admittedly I can’t sell it as a Ferrarri, because as far as marketing is concerned I can’t legally call it a Ferrarri.

Intellectual property on the console? I don’t think so, on the coding and programming yes but in the same way as a Ferrarri if I customise a PC to the exact specifications of a 360 then use it to play 360 games it’s perfectly legal.
http://users.ign.com/collection/darkizet iTatton

I sincerely have to disagree with your comments against modding for import reasons. While I agree that the modchip enables other "features" that can and usually will include piracy, I have seen no evidence where the PSP, DS, Gameboy Advance, and Gameboy (Color) have lost intense revenue due to being region free.

I am an avid video game collector with a collection of over 2400 games (visible from my URL link). I’ve been playing and collecting long enough to know that most people who import games will end up purchasing the US version (as long as it’s not butchered by a US "localization" team). This in turn supports your razor/razor blade model because you’re getting multiple purchases from the same buyer on the same code (with the exception of translation costs). I see no logical reason why any company would want to lock consumers out of purchasing legitimate software just because it’s intended for a different country, especially when the alternative ultimately opens the door to feeding the uncontrollable pool of piracy losses.
Joshua

Some companies attempt to sway public opinion by making such limited generalizations to explain their view of piracy and their loss from this act and ignoring the industries benefits from piracy. These benefits are never mentioned and one of the greatest may be in consumer training. Mp3’s are a fantastic illustration of the benefits of piracy. 50 years ago when the music industry was in full swing and operating with healthy profits music use was up by consumer stand points, but was limited to in use by availability. Music was generally consumed at that time by listening to your records on your record player, listening to your home or car radio, hearing small amount of music in films, or hearing music over a P.A. system of sort. With the emergence of mp3 piracy music consumption sky rocketed. Music is today such a part of life that it is to the point of saturation with music being part of TV commercials, movies, TV shows, and other sources of advertising revenue. Then there is the consumption of end users by choice. The youth of this generation are so used to the use of music in their lives that they take it with them so they can listen to it while they walk, run, work, play sports, and just about every social or reclusive activity. Piracy of music in my opinion and the availability of music to end consumers have benefited the music industry by training the end consumer to consume more and more and more. This situation makes it possible to sell even more product to the end consumer because they are so used to consuming it, but it presents the challenge of understanding how to sell the product in new and creative ways. Once upon a time if you wanted milk you bought a cow, the market changed and now if we want milk we buy milk in a carton at a grocery store. The market changes and how we sell to the consumer changes too. And no I wouldn’t steal a Ferrari if I couldn’t afford it, I would buy a car I could afford because the function is the same.

The razor blade model was an interesting illustration that made me think. It did not make me think about how difficult it is to maintain the delicate balance of making a profit from a market, but rather how the industry is blaming the consumer. Blaming the consumer has historically been the bane of business. Would you shop at a store staffed by employees that insulted you as you shopped? If the model does not work I say the model is wrong, not the consumer. I believe that blaming the consumer for not doing what you wanted is ineffective in solving the problem, but understanding why the consumer is doing other than what you want is the first step in finding a solution.

Hearing Bill Gates was presented with a presentation of a modded PSP and showed the functionality was fantastic. Hearing Bill ask his employees to think outside of the box to realize ways to allow user input and creativity in functionality in Microsoft products was refreshing and interesting at the same time. Clearly there is a reason why Bill Gates has made such a successful CEO. That man is obviously looking for ways to gain a competitive edge by doing what others are not.

My hope is that Microsoft does establish ways of allowing user input and creativity to increase functionality in their products. A mod chip in my humble opinion has supplied the creators of consoles with some incredibly valuable marketing information and function creation. With mod chips end users have actually been able to create a function that end users actually want. If there was no true desire for this function then an end user would not create it as there is no profit motive, only function motive. It has also supplied endless consumer requests for functions that have become distilled by the small yet vocal mod chip community based upon the ability of the console in question to perform these requested functions, the technical ability of end users to create, and the honest want for such a function. If the desire is strong en
Devin

What the hell are you talking about with your "razor/razor" model? The fact that Microsoft sells the Xbox 360 at a loss doesn’t affect ownership of the console. Once I pay for an Xbox 360 it becomes my property and I can do whatever I’d like with it, including enabling any legal homebrew applications that I chose. Implicit in your arguement is an underlying assetion that all homebrew applications are illegal, and that adding additional functionality would dissuade me from purchasing peripherals or services. I would argue that letting users trade legal variants of a OS/SDK would boost Xbox Live subscriptions while giving Microsoft tangible data on what features their customers crave.
draghelm

Mod chips are actually legal in Australia (Sony took a case to the High Court and lost(http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Australia%27s_High_Court_rules_mod-chips_are_legal)), but only if they just circumvent region encoding. Now wouldn’t it make sense for publishers for games released in Australia to keep prices competitive to prices elsewhere in the world so they gain more sales in Australia? Which in turn would leave no reason for people to have mod chips, which theoretically reduce piracy.
http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k224/A_Fn_NOOB/psp2.jpg Charles Salsman

Piracy is wrong.

But selling hardware at a loss is a risk. Everything is hackable.

Im not a gamer, so I dont care about modchips one way or the other. If they were deemed illegal, Theres nothing stopping someone from selling a bag of parts so the user can assemble it and deal with the legalities himself.

Ask Bill Gates what he thinks of my GPS for my Sony PSP. (Link above)

If you build it, they will hack it. I think for many, the GAME is the hacking. They get more excitment out of sticking it to "the man" than playing stupid video games.

Tell Bill I said that & get back with me
http://www.eurasia.nu/ modrobert

Quote: "at the end of the day every game not legally purchased is simply stealing money from the creators."

This logic fails miserably. The truth is a lot of people would never buy the original game at full price, however, they play the copy since it’s free or cheap.

Quote: "You don’t steal a Ferrari that you’d love to drive simply because you can’t afford it, right? Same thing."

No, not same thing. In this case the owner still have his Ferrari, you just looked at the car and created your own to look exactly like it.
http://rampancy.net Narcogen

I found your entry on modchips, specifically with regards to piracy, imports, and homebrew software, thought-provoking, although I do have to say I disagreed quite strongly with some of your reasoning.

I’ve started a series of articles in response in my blog at Rampancy.net. The first is:

http://rampancy.net/blog/narcogen/02082006/microsoft_and_modchips_part_i_piracy
THEDEANOFGAMES

Zimmy I agree but in this case you aren’t building the Ferari from scratch you are making an exact copy, a duplicate from the original by backwards engineering the car.

If you built your own model car out of your own made parts and made it look like a Ferari that is another story.

You would be stealing their design, engineering, research, etc.
Flancer

Speaking of homebrew software on the xbox 360. I wonder if Microsoft could release XNA framework to the public and maybe like an XNA studi express kinda thing. This would allow people to write managed code only which means its runing und a irtual machine which surely means they can block off certain features and lock the box down.
Zimmy

It’s not an intellectual property, therefore copying it is not illegal. It is patented meaning that only they can sell anything with that design, the payback of their design, engineering and research is that they can sell the product.

I have no obligation not to use their designs if I have access to them.

The rules about intellectual property are somewhat different because they are a much more intangible product, even still there are people who argue against the ownership of such items. Whilst that is one extreme, it does highlight the fact that it’s a different kettle of fish.
Jerry

"The console business is a razor/razor blade model."

This is an interesting part of the op-ed. I’m curious if the writer would actually advocate making it illgal for me to buy a razor and then use it for a different purpose (say making little razor-sculptures) based on the fact that it’s sold under a "razor / razor blade" model?

Don’t get me wrong: I’m a bir proopnent of copyright and not advocating the stealing of intellectual property; but I cannot agree with restristions on the use of something I’ve paid good money to buy because "it’s not benificial to the company that made it".

I’m sure you maintaing your car doesn’t help GM, and let’s not even talk about what you paying off your balance monthy does to the poor credit-card companies.
Rob

You base all of your "I can’t condone this" on one, majorly flawed assumption.

We are not, nor should be, responsible for the success or failure of their business model. If it fails, it fails. You seem to think we are responsible for supporting it, when in fact, no such responsibility exists. To say otherwise simply means we are nothing more than technological peasants bowing to our lord.
Ozymandias

Re: "Quote: "at the end of the day every game not legally purchased is simply stealing money from the creators."

This logic fails miserably. The truth is a lot of people would never buy the original game at full price, however, they play the copy since it’s free or cheap."

It’s a fair point – not everyone playing a copied game would necessarily have ever bought it at retail. However, it’s also fair to point out that those people are getting the benefit of the content without paying for the experience.
Tephlon

I hate to detract from the genuine conversation and wonderful opinions and suggestions most are contributing, but I must ask: How can statements like this really be thought of as intelligent?

by Matthias: "How come you think this is the way the average customer thinks? Personally, I couldn’t care less if Microsoft makes profit with their console/games/peripherals or not."

Well, maybe you don’t. And I, for one, agree that most uses for mod chips are ‘legit’ or reasonable. But how can microsoft NOT look at this from a business perspective? How can they do ANYTHING that won’t make them money, or aleast some sort of positive ROI? Here’s a way to look at it. You all want a legitimate way to run homebrew apps and games on your 360 without modding it, right? Well, what does that entail from Microsoft? Let’s say we go the XBL route one poster suggested. All that programing has to be done, as well as planning, and then a dashboard update. Infrustructure updates, etc. Now, after all of this, what advantage does that give microsoft? Now people can make games for free? apps for free? How does that make them money? Maybe it will sell more consoles? But they don’t make money on them either. So where’s the incentive? To make YOU happy at their expense? Now your comment seems reversed. What incentive do they have to give YOU free avenues to destroy their business model? none.

Now does that mean I think its a great business model? ehh. Not that great for us. But, ***, they are a business. So the question then comes, how can they make this a Win-Win-Win situation? I personally can’t see how they can, at least not with the razor/razor blades structure.

Maybe the best way for MS to win the hearts of geeks is to use a model that lets both win (if one exists/can exist). Find a way to show your users you DO care, yet find a way to make the sitution positive for the company.

Does that make any sense? Am I treading where millions already have?

On a different note, I do hate the region coding, even if it’s not MS’s fault. I want to play N3, but with japanese voices and english subltitles. The Chinese version seems like it’s just that, but I can’t play it on my US x360. That sucks. I’m only worried because I’m afraid the US version will have no japanese option. Does anyone know if that is true?
http://www.nekurasplayground.com Nekura

I own a PSP and I’m currently having it chipped. Why? There hasn’t been a commercial game in 6 months that I’ve been even remotely interested in. Therefore, I’m going to load up some homebrew while I wait for the next interesting title.

In this case, it’s a case of having a razor but not being able to find any razor blades. I’d love to buy some, because it’s costing me as much as the original unit to make my "razor" compatible with other blades, but it’s either that or use the same blade until it’s duller than my socks.

I do own two PS2s (one of the original models [purchased when GTA3 came out] and a slimline) as well as a 360. None of them are chipped and I have no plans to. Why? I’ve got a great catalog of games to choose from and don’t need to.

As for imports, I think the argument given is bogus, but I’ve never found any title singularly interesting enough to justify the cost of the mod and imported software. I do have a region-free, PAL-to-NTSC converting DVD player, however, and pick up BBC TV shows on DVD that aren’t available in the U.S. I’m actually putting *more* money into the market and my hobby because they gain a customer they otherwise decided wasn’t worth the effort (i.e. putting out the DVDs in the U.S.)
Dex

Regarding homebrew software you said:

"That’s the crux of the problem. If you can find a way to allow people to run homebrew software (and/or allow backups without enabling piracy), I think folks would be interested in exploring. But right now I don’t think any of can point to a solution that doesn’t enable piracy.

Am I wrong?"

There’s one very important point that I’m very surprised nobody mentionned yet, somewhat related to the "attach rate" discution.

Every game released for Xbox or Xbox 360 has it’s disc signed by MS and pressed under MS supervision. That way for every game and every disc sold, Microsoft gets a (most likely big) piece of the cake. Third party publishers can’t short-cut this process as they’re blocked by technical mesures.

This is how MS business model works, they create an artificical "monopoly" for signing and producing discs on their systems in order to gain the money they didn’t gain when they sold their system. I use the word "artificial" as without the technical mesures designed to avoid third party to publish their own game on the system without paying MS, then there would be no monopoly of any kind on this matter.

Now, let’s get back to the topic. If suddenly MS allows homebrew software to be run on Xbox 360, third party publishers will be able to publish games without the technical need to pay MS. No more money for MS. Oops!

So it’s in no way in MS interest, and will never be in MS interest, to allow homebrew software to take full advantage of the system.

So what? It’s easy to see that homebrew software, while it may "be cool" even in the eyes of MS, is *not* an option, and *will not* be an option for MS with their current business model. They even *have to* fight against it, by implementing technical mesures, otherwise third party publishers could legally publish games for Xbox 360 without paying anything to MS (this happened before, check http://wat.jeet.nu/copyright/)

Is it in customers interest to have this limitation? No. Is it legimitimate wishing to run homebrew software ? Yes. Can we count on MS to fulfill our wish? No, it’s simply not in their interest.

What’s the solution then? Modchips. Because MS can’t do anything about it, that’s the only solution to a very legitimate (and of course legal) wish, and until console manufacturer business model changes, it will always be.

The concern is that once homebrew software can be executed, it usually means that pirated games can be played aswell. This is wrong. But should we accept MS monopoly over Xbox 360 software and say goodbye to homebrew software because of this bad side effect? Of course MS will say yes. The customer should think about it twice.
Adam

Forgive me if someone already gave an idea of this (that’s way too many comments for me to read through), but I believe a good way to allow homebrew without jeopardizing retail games is to create a sort of sandbox. If you can play a music CD in an xbox that a person has burned himself, I think you could make it so a person could burn a game they made. Simply put, you would have to have the standard protection you have now so that it recognizes a legitimate retail disk and checks the signature, but also have a loader for software that is homebrew. Some sophisticated algorithm could be used to make sure no part of the code is stolen from a retail game with a woven in signature and if it checks out, allow the software to run in the sandbox that protects agaist exploits a little more than the retail game loader. If necessary, you could even do a call home over XBL when trying to run homebrew software to check if it’s something that should be blocked.

I think there are many ways around this problem and looking at the modding community, a profit could be made very easily by selling applications and games that allow mods and plugins and allowing people to create their own software. I see a good move toward this with the 360′s faceplates and media center capabilities as well as user defined content. The more MS listens and observes the trends of its users, the better the console will become.

Another thing to remember: giving back to the community that supports you will also create a lasting bond and ultimately make more money for the company and make the users very happy. When it becomes all about the money is when we have lost as a society.
wayne

I’m a X360 owner in asia.

LAnds of pirates! haha. Jokes aside.

After years of playing pirated games, I gave up.

They lack in tech support and whatever bad points u can think of.

And finally. Yes I do agree piracy is wrong.

An I decide to go the legal path.

I admit that the razor blade model is allowing us to afford a x360.

Basically, I’m comfortable with what x360 and xbl is offering.

The only thing that bothers me most is region lock.

The place I’m in is influence by both american and japanese game culture. In other words, I do play games from both region. I don’t care if it’s offer in japanese language only or not availle for sale here. IF it’s not, I’ll import it.

Either U do a worldwide launch on the same date or different date(but not too far appart). or do region free coding.

U will be suprised how the popularity increase for the x360 if the selection of games increases.

Don’t worry about sales figures. IF the game sucks. nobody will buy them even if they are prices at $5 for 3.

Xbox live is a very good hinderance/prevention for priacy. I will not sacrifice the xbl function for pirate games.

Not allowing duplication of disc is als0 fine with me IF MS do disc replacement directly via their local representative. Not questions, ask for a small fee and the originals scratched surrendered. and we get a replacement disc.

There’s afew thing I’m not happy is the functions of the blades. They are still not enough. OF course I know that MS do updates twice every year. Hopefully it will improve every upgrade. The previous update is good. Hope that MS carry on.

Now there’s still a few things I’m wondering why MS never thought of.

Media functions. Why can’t we plug in a usb HDD or flash drive and watch/play our contents thru USB devices? I’m sure this won’t hurt anything at all? Why can’t it play every codecs?

HDD. I can undestand that the 20gb HDD is cost issue. Why don’t MS sells the HDD drive cage and let us put in whatever capacity HDD we like? IF content protection is an issue. WHy not make it as such that the HDD can only be formated by the x360 into the format that the x360 can reads and write? And finally as for the HDD content back up issue, Just let the xbox reconised any generic USB to HDD devices. And allows the contents copy to be controlled only by the x360 console. In this way MS will nto have any worries poeple able to read whatever source code that is governing the x360? eg. of this application. I buy a official MS HDD drive cage. Buy my own HDD. Assemble and plug onto the x360. The x360 detects the new HDD and format it for the x360. Then I attached my old HDD via a USB to HDD cable. USing the x360 console. I transfered my contents from the old HDD to the new HDD. There’s not copyright or whatever issue here. IF MS is afraid of identity duplications. They can always make the software to "deactivate" the old hdd upon completelys. eg. "unflag.deactivate" the old HDD via some coding or serial number identificaions to prevent the old HDD gametag from logging into xbl.

IF a hacker is really interested in hacking, they can just plug out the curretnly HDD, disasemble it and attempts read the contents.
http://blog.godshell.com Jason

Ah, mod chips.. Like others, I both agree and disagree with your statements.

Piracy – No objection there.. It’s a problem. Of course, I believe that a lot of it is due to the high costs of software products, but that’s really no excuse.

Imports. Here I disagree slightly. As Dan said, you bought the hardware, and you bought the software. The only person losing out is you. The *only* reason consoles (and dvd players for that matter) are locked to regions is because publishers want to be able to distribute to specific parts of the country at specific times. This means that even though I can speak and read japanese, I shouldn’t be allowed to import the latest and greatest game from Japan. Why? Because maybe there are plans to bring it to the US. And maybe those plans even include a difference in price.

Beyond that, there is no real reason to prevent imports. Everyone is making their fair share, moreso in that I’m also paying overseas shipping fees.

And lastly, near and dear to my own heart.. Homebrew. It’s interesting that you bring up the PSP as an example. I have one. I love it. I play it all the time. But I’d love to be able to program for it. To me, this is a much more accessible device than something like a GBA which requires all sorts of extra hardware so I can get the programs *to* the device before I can even try them.

However, I find your razor/razor blade argument at ridiculous. It’s not my problem that the manufacturer saw fit to sell this device at below cost in *anticipation* of making money on the games and addons. I wonder, how many games / addons goes the average person need to purchase in order to allow the manufacturer to break even? Especially with the standard complaint I hear about how the high prices of games are necessary because of the cost of producing and distributing the games. If that’s true, then the manufacturer certainly isn’t using games to break even. And I highly doubt that I purchase enough addons, especially oem addons, to even come close to helping the company break even.

Regardless, at the end of the day, I purchased this piece of hardware. I payed money for it and I now own it. I don’t see why I should not be permitted to alter the device to meet my own needs. If that means adding in a chip to allow me to run homebrew, then so be it. Realistically, I’d much rather the manufacturer would just put that functionality in to begin with, but so be it. In fact, if I was able to run both homebrew and commercial games, I’d probably be tempted to purchase two devices so I have one that can be used for development…
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tim.wesson/ Tim Wesson

I made some comments about piracy and DRM at the Wall Street Journal which I think are relevent here. Notably that research doesn’t support the "piracy is theft" contention, for (it appears) that getting free stuff doesn’t affect the sum total paid for this kind of good. See:

http://discussions.wsj.com/wsjvoices/messages?msg=3923.24

Naturally, when pirated good are charged for, there is clear theft (since it diverts resources from the creators), but piracy in itself is a simple abuse of trust, which is still a bad thing, but not a thing that deserves nearly so much legal and technical protection against it.

The "collateral damage" of DRM is simply too great, given that the economic damage is so drastically overblown.
http://wolfwings.us WolfWings

At the end of the day it’s really up to the publisher to decide. I can’t speak for all the reasons that they might choose to not release a game in a region, but some of the reasons I listed (cost of localization, cost of making game suit regional differences, etc) may be some of them. I do think it’s becoming less and less of an issue, especially as Japanese companies are seeing the majority of their future growth to be outside of Japan, and hence want to sell their games everywhere.

It’s only up to the publishers to decide if the console-vendors allow the publishers to limit distribution to single regions. The DS is a prime example of the success that can be had by NOT doing this. Buy a Japanese game, it runs on an American or European DS just fine without modification. Instead of trying to dodge the valid use of buying an import game by claiming it’s up to the publishers to decide what games get released where, explain what purpose the console vendors have limiting what games can be played where in the first place?
AoE

"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."

That argument makes sense for the hardware manufacturer, and I do understand that you’re a mouthpiece for MS. But c’mon dude, it was MS business decision to release the console at those prices. Nintendo has gone on record saying that they’ve always made a profit on hardware. So am I supposed to feel some kind of moral pangs if I want to use homebrew just because you guys made the business decision to sell the hardware at a lower price point and take a loss? Give me a break! You got your trojan horse into my home sure, but I’ll do what I please with it. Don’t expect me to feel guilty just becuase one of the richest companies in the world realized that if they took a loss on hardware they could get it into more homes.
Unknown?

It seems that many MS’ ideas IRT to the 360 came from homebrew software for the original xbox.

IE, they took XBMC and added DRM, and look what you get.. etc.

Not totally related to the topic, but funny. MS couldn’t come up with a unique idea if it bit them on the ass.
FortyTwo

Piracy is wrong. No argument.

Region coding and DRM is wrong. Your arguments about costs of localisation and marketing costs are rather missing the point that people are happy and very keen to buy the games WITHOUT localisation and WITHOUT marketing in their country. Why shouldnt they be able to? If the PS3 really does come without region locks for games then all the better. I won’t believe it until I get a real console though…

Homebrew is the most interesting point though. My Xbox1 has been modded for a long time. I have a pile of original games that I play but most importantly I have XBMC installed. XBMC is far and away the most used software on my Xbox.

I want XBMC on my 360. Simple.

The console business model is deeply flawed. Selling below cost (illegal dumping in other markets!) and making the money up with license fees on every software sale just leaves the manufacturers with a fragile position and the machine owners with a crippled system. Sadly its the model that is being applied so we have to work with it.

The solution for Homebrew is very very simple. 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. However we know that every 360 has its own encryption keys so instead sell me an XDK that is locked to run only on my console. I can develop my own code that only runs on my machine. I would expect that the actual signing process would operate as some sort of web service over the internet to ensure that any signed file are locked to the correct machine. This would all be quite similar to the mechanism RIM use to ensure that only registered and verified developer can use ‘restricted API’ on the Blackberry.

I would be very happy to pay just as much money for my personal only XDK as I am for the original machine. Based upon published estimates of the actual build cost of the 360 I believe this would more than cover what each box costs to make. The XDK itself already exists obviously, all that would be needed is the ability to lock to a single machine. Clearly we wouldnt have the facilities of a real debug machine but that wouldnt matter to the sort of people who developed XBMC in the first place.

Anyone developing for the 360 and wanting to publish would either publish source or pre-complied modules that I would have to link and get signed myself but again this really wouldn’t be a problem.

I would also expect that anything developed would only run from the harddisk and there could also be a hard limit on resource of say 4GB that would inhibit anyone trying to use this as a end-run around the protection of original games.

There we go – a solution to running homebrew on the 360 that wouldnt decimate Microsoft profits and wont interfere with people ability to play games online.

What do you say Microsoft?
Barfo

on the importing games thing:

"I may have a different perspective because I’ve spoken a lot to publishers and developers who feel they have legitimate reasons to region-lock games."

As you said earlier, you can’t argue opinions. You have to argue actual logic supported by external principles or facts. Now i totally agree (as you state int he blog) that publishers probably have great reasons for not wanting to release all games everywhere, and certainly have specific reasons for specific games. However you are using this statement to support the idea that users should not play import games, however it does not relate to it. Its very possible that the publisher could have a good reason for not wanting to release a game (not a big enough market to recoup costs so the value proposition is unfavourable to them) and that a particular user would also have a good reason to want to import that game (because to them the value of playing the game is worth the cost of importing it). Easily both of those situations could be true, so its clear to see that the fact that a company might have legitimate reasons to not want ot release a product in a region has no relevance to determining if a specific user might have legitimate reasons for expecting to be able to import and play that game anyways (if they are willign to go to the trouble of arranging for an import copy, playing the game with menus in another language,etc), which you would have to demonstrate was an illegitimate expectation before giving a rationaly basis for not "condoning the practice"

You offer neither reasons why the customer should not be able to do that, nor actual reasons why the publishers are legitimate in putting in region-locks (to stop people playing games that they themselves have decided already to not release, im not arguing over people in europe being able to buy the asia version game at less that the insane inflated EU prices, the publisher logic there is self-evident) in the first place. As you say "you can’t argue opinions" so it seems to me that if the publisher has the opinion that their customers should not be able to play imported games and the customers have the opinion that they should be able to, then there is no argument, and thus no basis for why the publishers should be able to put in controls to stop their customers from acting upon their own personal opinions. In the absence of whatever these reasons are that you are hinting at or not saying, your argument on this point is utterly vacuous (and you cannot merely dismiss the other sides non-vacuous arguments by playing a de gustibus non disputandum card).
Whit

When you buy a razor–the assumption from the razor company is you will buy lots of blades. But you are never required to use the razor to shave or ever buy a blade. Should you decide the razor makes the ideal doorstop or window prop–so be it, you have yourself a window prop. The Xbox/Xbox360 is no different. I’ve bought an item and brought into my house. If I want to tear the cover off, risk breaking the box, and find new uses–that is up to my ingenuity.

<p>

Microsoft sets the price of the unit–if Microsoft decides to sell the unit below manufacturing cost, Microsoft made the decision. Don’t fault modders for buying under priced hardware. Ever heard of kit cars? Mechanics taking VW’s and making them look like Ferrari’s. Why can’t nerds take low priced computers and make them prettier?
drt1245

Not allowing me to run homebrew code is like telling me that if I but a Ford, I MUST use exxon (or mobil, or any other brand) gas. I paid for the car, I should be able to do what I want with it. That said, I do agree with your other points, especially the one on piracy.
jjTacos

I may be alone with this, but I find the razor/razor blade model to be a bit deceptive and underhanded in the first place. Now your angry that the victems of your best marketing techniques are not very loyal? Suprise!

I still do my best to live in a world where the people I buy things from are honest and up-front. I have no qualms with sending them home with an honest days pay. But I feel no pitty for Microsft’s losses trying to "Buy" a chunk of the gaming market with profit shifted consoles. You did this to yourselves.
coffeeserpent

For all of the comments i agree except the importing of games. (besides its all about the money anyhow)

"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."

this does not explain really that most import games that are not pirated, are bought through distributers who pay those companies there asked prices then turn around and sell them overseas. so if the company has a problem with selling abroad, maybe they should stop places like lik sang and play asia from advertising the games FOR THEM and selling them as the middle men between foreign game companies and the importers.
systemreactor

I am a video game importer. I have modified several of my systems to play import games.

I have a problem with your logic surrounding your stance on import games.

First, let’s just call a spade a spade. Region locking is all about maximizing profits by controlling what comes into the market and having price differentiation between markets, thus increasing the potential revenue from worldwide sales. Let’s not BS ourselves. It all boils down to MONEY and CONTROL.

Next, if I get a system and I modify it to play import games, who am I hurting? I mean, the only people I would possibly be hurting would be the domestic publisher who decides to bring out a foreign developed game, thus losing some possible profit when I decided to import the game six to eight months ago.

If I buy a legitimate copy of the game, the foreign publisher and developer gets their money, and I get a game that would never see the light of day in this country (contrary to popular belief, there are gamers out there who do not just play FPS and sports games all day and would like to play something different).

I can’t possibly see any harm in importing. I mean, really. I have not heard one VALID argument that supports any reasoning as to why modding a system is bad if you are planning on legitimately importing games.

Here’s the deal: If there is a game I want to play, regardless of which region the game comes from, I’m going to purchase it and play it, and if that requires me to modify my system, so be it.

If importing is so bad, then why is the Nintendo DS (a region free system) doing so well? I’ve imported games on it and Nintendo seems to be pulling a profit on it without any problems.

BOTTOM LINE:

I want to play the games I want to play, not what Microsoft says I should play.

The Problem with Modchips

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