XBL Account Bans, Unauthorized Storage Devices Blocked In New Dash, Wave4 Update

[SonsOfLiberty]

http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/2426/xbox2036020logo.jpgXBL Account Bans, Unauthorized Storage Devices Blocked In New Dash, Wave4 Update

First off, yes I copied and pasted most of this, but this is a very useful message to all Xbox 360 users.

Read this closely and pay attention....

If you don't read this, you might be getting banned, might loose all you hard earned game saves, and might even just brick your system

Microsoft began banning XBL accounts yesterday for "illegitimate pre-release title play". This is believed to be related to a pirated copy of Forza 3 which recently leaked early. At this time they appear to only be banning gamertags and not consoles. As always, FST is against piracy so a disclaimer saying not to download and play games that leak early should go without saying. However, there are also a good number of people who have completely legitimate access to games prior to their release date...people who work in a video game store or rental store for example. Now that Microsoft has taken this step, they should also be careful about playing a game early, even an original disc.

Major Nelson also announced on his blog yesterday that "unauthorized Xbox 360 storage devices" will no longer work after the next major dash update.

When Preview Program members start receiving the Xbox 360 system update next week, one of the changes is that unauthorized Memory Units will no longer work with the Xbox 360. If you’ve moved your profile or saved games onto one to “back it up,” you’d better move it back onto an authorized Xbox 360 storage device prior to taking the update. If you continue to use an unauthorized Memory Unit after the update, you will not be able to access your stored profile or saved games.

This appears to apply to 3rd party memory cards that do not have an official Microsoft seal of approval, and possibly also the "hacked" 120GB internal Western Digital harddrives that users commonly purchase and flash to work with the 360 themselves for less than half of the price of the official one. We won't know for sure until the preview program starts and some brave users with these devices test the waters.

In better news, iXtreme 1.61 is currently being worked on for all drives to add support for new wave4 games. There is still no ETA but it's good to know it's already in the works. Also, the team behind abgx360 has announced that they will be releasing version 1.0.2 with wave4 support in the near future. The release of abgx360 1.0.2 will probably coincide with the release of iXtreme 1.61.

:source: Source: 360mos.net (http://www.360mods.net/) | Major Nelson Blog (http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2009/10/16/unauthorized-xbox-360-storage-devices.aspx)
:view: Homepage: Microsoft Xbox 360 (http://www.xbox.com/en-US/) | ABGX (http://www.abgx.net/)
:pic: Screenshots: Email for "early" release play, or unauthorized title play (http://i38.tinypic.com/nmc8sp.jpg)

[Rart]

So basically Microsoft wants to whore money by forcing people to buy their overpriced hard drives =/.

Thats corporate America for you...

[SonsOfLiberty]

Yeah, but there might be some "off-brand" hard drives that come on the market for cheaper maybe...like the Mad Cats controllers and stuff like that.

[tesco]

and possibly also the "hacked" 120GB internal Western Digital harddrives that users commonly purchase and flash to work with the 360 themselves for less than half of the price of the official one. Shit I hope not! :angry:
It's bullshit to make us pay triple the value of the 120gb drive.


Yeah, but there might be some "off-brand" hard drives that come on the market for cheaper maybe...like the Mad Cats controllers and stuff like that.
That's exactly what they're trying to eliminate though. :lol:

[Darth Sushi]

I almost bought an Xbox but the RROD and HD restriction made me settle for a PS3 instead (also the 54% repair rate!!!). Funny, Sony will be offering a PS3 with 250GB HD next month for only $50 bucks more than the 120GB version!

[eyekey]

from other articles i read, it only seems like they are blocking the third party memory card units that plug in the usb ports that allow hacks and cheats to be installed.

[iLOVENZB]

I almost bought an Xbox but the RROD and HD restriction made me settle for a PS3 instead (also the 54% repair rate!!!). Funny, Sony will be offering a PS3 with 250GB HD next month for only $50 bucks more than the 120GB version!

+1.

Went and got a Slim because of the power saving I'll get and better codec support.

[SonsOfLiberty]

:lol: PS3 has a failure rate to, Sony just doesn't want you to know about :)

Have fun avoidng the RROD and you power saving, because you will get alot of power savings with no games to play :lol:

[Darth Sushi]

:lol: PS3 has a failure rate to, Sony just doesn't want you to know about :)

Have fun avoidng the RROD and you power saving, because you will get alot of power savings with no games to play :lol:
Have fun watching blu-ray movies! :noes:

[SonsOfLiberty]

Exactly you just made my point, lets see, maybe 5 games at most for PS3, Drake Fortune is pretty cool...Home sucks, its nothing compared to XBL, and lets not forgot, it's good for Bluray, so that's PS3 selling point?

Never heard of a BD Player? For $100? Or a BDREader for $50?

Or this? Microsoft chief hints Blu-ray add-on for Xbox 360 Thu October 22, 2009





Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer may have inadvertently tipped off his firm's plans for an external Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360 in a talk in advance of today's Windows 7 launch. The executive is doubtful that it will ever be built-in but does tell Gizmodo that an external Blu-ray drive will be an option. He doesn't provide details but is unexpectedly confident that the hardware is enroute.

"Well I don't know if we need to put Blu-ray in there -- you'll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories," Ballmer says.

Company spokespeople asked about the statement wouldn't confirm or deny plans but do say that immediate plans focus only on 1080p streaming video through the upcoming Zune Video Marketplace on the Xbox. Microsoft is "not ready for comment" on any longer-term plans.

Microsoft has been reluctant to incorporate Blu-ray ever since the effective death of the HD DVD format in early 2008, when it had no choice but to phase out a USB-based HD DVD reader for the Xbox 360. Since then, it and observers have cited multiple reasons against building in Blu-ray, including both a shift to online video streaming, the high prices of Blu-ray drives and the possibility of splitting the Xbox market by offering the possibility of Blu-ray games.


http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/10/22/ballmer.sees.blu.ray.external.only/


There goes PS3 only market standing.

[Darth Sushi]

Never heard of a BD Player? For $100? Or a BDREader for $50?

Or this? Microsoft chief hints Blu-ray add-on for Xbox 360 Thu October 22, 2009I just hope it's cheaper than the xbox hard-drive upgrade or maybe not... :whistling
Microsoft Says No Xbox Blu-ray Drives Period, Says Ballmer Was Talking About PCs (http://gizmodo.com/5388075/microsoft-says-no-xbox-blu+ray-drives-period-says-ballmer-was-talking-about-pcs)

[SonsOfLiberty]

This more clearly worded denial probably should have come last night, when we first asked for comment, instead of the more open-ended one provided at the time. Whatever... easy come, easy go. However, the idea that Ballmer was referring to the PC—which already has Blu-ray drives—rather than simply saying something that wasn't true, that's a little more questionable.

One more time, for posterity, this is what Ballmer said in reply to a question about putting Blu-ray in Xbox:

Well I don't know if we need to put Blu-ray in there—you'll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories.

It helps to read between the lines :)

[iLOVENZB]

...

One more time, for posterity, this is what Ballmer said in reply to a question about putting Blu-ray in Xbox:

Well I don't know if we need to put Blu-ray in there—you'll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories.


Forgive me for the following noobish coment, but aren't 360 games HD DVD's?

How can you play 360 games on a Blu-ray player?

No doubt the player will be over priced, like the HDD and other Xbox accessories.

[SonsOfLiberty]

No, it's DVD9.

If Xbox 360 games were 25-50GB HDDVD's no one would download the damn things.

Also, it would be comparable price wise, less than $200.

Also, the article I linked to said they did not want a divide between users with BD games.

[tesco]

No, it's DVD9.

If Xbox 360 games were 25-50GB HDDVD's no one would download the damn things.

Also, it would be comparable price wise, less than $200.

Also, the article I linked to said they did not want a divide between users with BD games.
That would be a great anti-piracy measure...
They should have had the system use HDDVD (or bluray) and then filled the discs with useless filler so that the size would always add up to the full disc size whether it needed it (it doesn't) or not, then far fewer people would even bother...:lol:

[SonsOfLiberty]

:lol: yes, that's what I always thought to, how many would honestly download a 50GB game :lol: not fracking many at all. Well if I was running Microsoft, I would immediatly start by adding BD built in, and using BD for games period, I beat you would see a 50% drop off in game piracy, only those that are dedicated/uncapped/or just plain stupid/or "must have games, BioShock2" would download them, 'cause common your gonna sit there and tell me that you would use up your monthly quota on one thing?

Also, some news out of the 360 front: old, but still, a good read



It appears Microsoft is now including the most recent major Dashboard Update on new game discs, specifically the Summer/Fall 09 update that brings the NXE dash to 8498.

As a result, they are closing the exploit used for the Free60 JTAG/SMC XeLL (Linux homebrew) hack.

To quote: "The first game confirmed to have this update on the disc is Cars Race-O-Rama. They added the new update into the video partition on the disc, which makes the partition larger than it always has been on older games.

Previously there were 3 known good sizes for the video partition, they were known as wave1, wave2 and wave3. One of the security features in all iXtreme firmware (except 1.51) is a check on the size of the video partition to make sure it matches one of the known waves.

The firmware will not boot any game that does not match a known wave, this is done to prevent booting bad backups and getting banned on Live. Since this new game has a larger video partition that does not match any of the 3 known waves, it does not boot.

This new game with the larger video partition is the start of "wave4" and our hacked firmware will need to be updated to accept this new size as a good value. The ETA for this new firmware is unknown. All drives will need to be updated to the new firmware once it's released in order to play backups of new games!

If the switch from wave2 to wave3 last year is any indication, there will be short cross-over period starting now where new games being released will be a mix of wave3 and wave4. After that it's safe to assume all new games will be wave4 going forward.

If you have a Samsung, BenQ or Lite-On 74850c drive you could choose to downgrade to iXtreme 1.51 to boot wave4 games. iXtreme 1.51 did not check the size of the video partition so it will boot any wave. iXtreme 1.6 brought the checks back for better security, but c4e coded a workaround into iXtreme 1.6 that allows "one shot" booting of non-stealth or unknown sized discs (new waves).

To do this you use the 0800 disc (activate.iso) that is available on this site and is also included with the iXtreme 1.6 firmware. Additional details on usage are in the iXtreme 1.6 README file. Obviously this method may not be safe for Xbox Live and should be used offline only and at your own risk."

[SonsOfLiberty]

10/26/09 UPDATE - Good news...early reports from users in the NXE Preview Program indicate that "hacked' 120GB internal drives still work fine on the new dashboard. It appears they are only targeting unofficial 3rd party memory cards, but obviously that could change at any time.

[Knight2000uk]

Dont think this is much to worry about, theres more chance you will be banned for other things now lol.

Stu

[SonsOfLiberty]

Yes, like playing a game for more than 250 hours :lol:

[3RA1N1AC]

...

One more time, for posterity, this is what Ballmer said in reply to a question about putting Blu-ray in Xbox:

Well I don't know if we need to put Blu-ray in there—you'll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories.


Forgive me for the following noobish coment, but aren't 360 games HD DVD's?

How can you play 360 games on a Blu-ray player?

No doubt the player will be over priced, like the HDD and other Xbox accessories.

xbox 360 games were always on standard dvd discs, even though the console is able to produce high-def game graphics. they also released a low-priced external HD-DVD drive for xbox 360 which was able to play HD-DVD movies, but that was never a built-in default feature of the console -- it was only an external accessory. now that blu-ray has won the movie format war and people are naturally asking about the possibility of xbox 360 supporting blu-ray movies in the future... if microsoft WERE to add an internal blu-ray drive to xbox 360, then it should have no problem playing xbox 360 games since they are standard dvds which blu-ray drives ARE technically capable of playing.

[iLOVENZB]

I don't think Microsoft will go through with adding a BluRay player on their consoles?

They will be supporting their competition - Sony.

EDIT: If they do add a player I'll buy one ;)

[apextwin146]

I just hope they dont go disabling the 120gb WD Drives that sell on Ebay.. Most of the Xbox users inclusing me Use that instead of fracking purchasing 130$ MS shitcakes ...
While on this topic if i play a Wave 4 game will it install the updates my Xbox(Assuming i use the Activate.ISO first) ... Is it safe to play Wave 4 games currently ?

[SonsOfLiberty]

You can update your firmware to 1.61 if you have Samsnung or BenQ...

No Activate ISO is not safe, at least from my perspective, some say it is, some say it's not, were not Microsoft and we have no idea how XBL works.

[kasuser]

I don't think Microsoft will go through with adding a BluRay player on their consoles?

They will be supporting their competition - Sony.

EDIT: If they do add a player I'll buy one ;)

I think i would rather have a separate BR player - not use the one my console uses to play games on.