The new firmware for 360
This is bombshell, and Kotaku deduces that the new XGD3 disc standard (which adds 1GB of usable data to DVDs for 360) may not be compatible with a certain percentage of optical players already mounted on consoles. Either way, the truth behind this compatibility problem appears to be something more complex. Since the arrival of the beta of the new dashboard, hackers have been reverse-engineering it by finding a number of surprising and never-before-seen additions in previous versions.
First, this new update introduces for the first time a system whereby the drive firmware will be rewritten by the Xbox 360 itself. Anyone using a hacked DVD drive will find that the update will immediately disable the ability to run pirated software, as it will overwrite the previous hacked firmware on the player. Microsoft has used a wide range of DVD players on its consoles since launch - the most likely hypothesis is that not all models will suffer a firmware flash directly, hence the need for a console replacement.
This new firmware not only unlocks an additional 1GB of space previously set aside for the old (and now useless) security system, but also includes a totally new anti-piracy system. In the past, previous attempts to block piracy (such as AP 2.5) only worked on certain players, and this protection was not activated on older models. With the new system, it appears that anti-piracy measures are so deeply tied to the firmware that they cannot be bypassed in the same way.
We've also heard some comments that new security protocols go far beyond just updating the dashboard. Several developers have said that Microsoft has definitely upped the ante, and is calling on development teams to get them involved in fighting Xbox 360 game piracy. According to this information, new APIs are in the works for developers to add to theirs. titles, and these will perform additional checks on the DVD during the game itself, not just at startup as it currently does.
Burned copies of Xbox 360 games are not perfectly identical to the originals, hence the players' hacked firmware DVDs mask these differences "on the fly" at boot time. Microsoft's hope is that the controls added within the games will be much more difficult to locate and override, and with this power in the hands of the developers, pirated copies could even be reduced to "playable demos", for example becoming unusable after a couple of levels of play.
The XDG3 is clearly very important to Microsoft, as evidenced by the fact that the company is willing to give away Xboxes for free to ensure full compatibility at the user base, but it is yet to be seen whether these new measures anti-piracy will be really effective. The latest AP2.5 firmware was broken in a few days, and currently the hacker "commodore4eva" has already declared that he has eliminated the countermeasures present in the beta of the new dashboard ..
