The State Of Console Gaming In 3rd World Countries: The Xbox 360
It is no secret that many people in 3rd world countries buy consoles based less on their actual preferences and more on the cheapest option available. Piracy is the top of the icing when such things are considered and it is not much of a surprise that many well-known forums in Pakistan, China and Philippine openly allow discussion of disc drive modifications to play ‘back-up’ games. In fact, the roots of the hacking group, Team Xecuter are also spread all over Asia, in a mix of various countries.
Where does the Xbox 360 fit in here exactly? It was THE console for all those as there was no hack for the other console in the market (PS3) assuming, of-course that the Nintendo Wii is not considered a competitor in the hardcore gaming segment at all. 6 months after the ps3 has been completely exploited by the scene hackers, the Xbox 360 now has a completely different situation. The king of easy to pirate games has become much tougher on security as people rush to various forums to find out what AP2.5 means etc. It is also important to note than a console with a history of being easily cracked via the DVD drive has yet to have a solid modification for the ‘S’ or the slim version. It was August 2010 when the hack was first publically displayed via a You-tube video. Since then, the hacker behind the original Xbox 360 hacks, C4Eva has kept mum about any release date, offering bits of information every now and then about the hack, but nothing concrete. We now know that the Xbox 360 slims have had more than just a cosmetic up-lift, with security becoming almost impossible to crack due to real time firmware and ram hash checks on the new motherboard. To the end user, this means that cracking the Xbox just got taken up to a new level altogether. Gone are the days of 1 or 2 week crack releases on the console. Gone are the days of putting in a game and playing it. Now you should make sure you have the latest offering (LT+), a correctly burnt disc (Security Sector v2) and data patched onto the disc to deal with dynamic challenges (AP 2.5). Failure to stay up to date means that you run a large chance of getting your console flagged and altogether banned from Xbox live after some time. Staying up to date costs money and research every time there is a new update on the online gaming network for 360s , Xbox Live.
It is primarily due to the above observations that gamers are now moving away from the Xbox 360 to the now fully bared PS3 and the hacking paradise called PC. In fact, as I am writing this, I can relate to personal experience the fact that many people are selling Xbox 360 Slim models after waiting months for the hack to come out. It is a small group who chose to wait now on hacking groups to deliver a true hack for the Xbox 360, the rest of them have resigned themselves to play originals, trade in their console, or rely on a PS3, or PC as an alternative platform as the now redundant Xbox 360 ‘Phat’ model (the model that is truly hacked) increases in price in all such countries by the day and more and more Xbox 360 slims continue to be put up for sale at dirt cheap prices where demand for used PS3s eclipses the demand for new ones, the result being, used models being only 5-10% cheaper than the new ones.
Thus, It cannot be denied that the future for the Xbox 360 as a console in 3rd world countries is bleak as-is and any further delay in the hacking progress will result in it being abandoned as a platform altogether.
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