New Xbox 360 Disc Format to Combat Piracy?
By Rothtana Ouch
Currently Xbox 360 developers are limited to just 6.8GB of disc space, about 1GB is reserved for video and now it’s all going to change. Eurogamer has grabbed a hold of an insider source who has confirmed, “that [a] new disc format [is] being beta tested” for the Xbox 360.
What this means to the average consumer is very little, but for developers and hackers it could mean a change of tides.
“This meant that the last generation PlayStation 2 had a higher level of raw storage available to games developers than the newer Xbox 360,” Eurogamer wrote. “It seems that this video partition has either been drastically reduced or omitted completely in the new format Microsoft is looking to roll-out.”
Beta testers of a new dashboard update are said to be the guinea pigs for the new disc format as well. Microsoft is said to be giving away copies of Halo: Reach to the dashboard beta testers and Eurogamer suspects that these copies of Halo: Reach uses the new Xbox 360 format disc. By using a new disc format Microsoft might be pursuing a more active deterrent to piracy. With the new disc format changes, Xbox 360 DVD firmware hackers might find themselves having to retool their knowledge.
Eurogamer also reported that Xbox 360 firmware hacker Commodore4eva posted on IRC, “MS will introduce XBG3 – this will add more AP checks, CVI (content integerity)[sic] checks, increase the disc size and adds a new layer for protection issues – all in the 20500 sdk! bring it on.”
A new disc format could deter piracy a lot better and help developers gain more disc space. It sounds like a “winning” situation. Still no Blu-ray?
[Photo: Major Nelson's Flickr]
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 1:37PM
You fail to mention in the article that there is also an added function to the XBG3 that flashes any attached drives to the latest version (all except Hitachi…so far). Meaning if they're running a flashed xbox, or even a JTAG, it will be updated, recognized and probably banned instantly. I think that would be pertinent info for the hacker/modder community. Essentially, stay offline and you'll have no probs (as usual). Also, ripping games in this format will be impossible atm, as the discs are not commercially available. Although new ripper programs are released all the time. The tit for tat wages on….