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We knew it wouldn’t take long after Xbox 360 games had been cracked, but an actual Xbox 360 console has been hacked - as shown in the linked video. Just watching the 360 in the video load up an illegal copy of PDZ makes me feel uncomfortable. It really didn’t take long for the machine to be hacked - and it’s disappointing especially considering how hard Microsoft claimed it worked to prevent this sort of thing from happening.
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| YouTube
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Despite recent profit warnings from Activision and EA and disappointing industry sales, THQ has announced that it’s on target to meet its own projections.
So what has THQ done right? Are its games selling better than Activision’s and EA’s? Hardly - if you take a look at the November sales data, you’ll see that THQ has just one title in the top 25. We have a feeling that THQ just made better - more realistic - projections for the quarter given its knowledge of the industry. So hats off to THQ.
Read More | NextGen
Next Generation has a great review of politics and games in 2005. The feature talks about Hot Coffee and how politicians reacted. The mod got Rockstar in a lot of trouble as Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman stepped forward with concerns and questions. Clinton also submitted a videogame content legislation to congress and also suggested that the FTC investigate Rockstar and its GTA: San Andreas. The article also touches on 25 to Life and Marc Ecko’s Getting Up.
Aside from at the federal level, the government also took action at the state level. Numerous states throughout the country created laws that made it illegal for retailers to sell certain videogames to minors. Unfortunately, these laws aren’t perfect and the videogame industry still has a ways to go in terms of managing its image.
Read More | Next Generation
EA’s stock price took a tumble as it issued a profit warning on Tuesday. According to CEO Larry Probst, the company’s sales will be lower than expected for the current quarter because of lower software sales this holiday season - partly due to the Xbox 360 shortage and falling interest in current-gen consoles. (Don’t forget that Activision also lowered its sales forecasts.)
Read More | GameDailyBiz
According to DFC Intelligence, it may be time to invest in the videogame industry if you haven’t already. Based upon history, DFC claims the industry is set to rise in 2006. How, you ask? Well, as of right now it’s looking like 2006 will closely mirror 2001. In 2001, one console was out on the market already (PS2) while two more launched at the end of the year (GCN and Xbox). Similarly, in 2006, one console will have already been out on the market (Xbox 360) and two are expected to launch by year’s end (PS3 and Revolution).
So what? Well in 2001, as you can see in an image in the linked story, industry stocks peaked in 2001. And since 2006 will be similar to 2001, DFC says the industry could see a boom next year. Clearly though, 2006 is not 2001 and although history can repeat itself, it doesn’t always. Furthermore, these expectations should already be built into the stock prices. But who knows, DFC may be onto something here.
Read More | GameDailyBiz
Based upon the linked retail memo, Best Buy is scheduled to received more Xbox 360 consoles sometime this week. And from the looks of it, consumers won’t have to camp out this time. If you’re interested in obtaining a machine, you pretty much have to be in the store when they put the machines on sale - and you’ve gotta be sure to let the employees know you’re looking for a 360. If they’ve got any on-hand, you’ll receive a voucher to obtain a machine. Click on the image to see a larger version.
So while you won’t need to camp out in front of your local Best Buy, if you want to secure a machine you may just have to wait around inside the store and continuously pester the store’s employees. Sweet!
Read More 
| Putfile
SEGA Intrigued by Nintendo Revolution’s Backwards Compatibility
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Retro, Rumors, Wii,
On Monday, Nintendo hosted a Mario Kart DS meet-up in Bellevue, WA - close to Nintendo’s American HQ. Reggie was present at the meet-up and briefly mentioned that SEGA is intrigued by the Revolution’s backwards compatibility. While he didn’t confirm anything more than that, we’re only left wondering the full implications of what he said.
From the sound of it, we could be seeing a few old SEGA games on Nintendo’s Revolution. Can we expect Genesis games? How about Saturn and Dreamcast titles? And will the games from those consoles only be SEGA titles or can we expect old third-party games as well? Just thinking about all of this makes us anticipate Revolution that much more. But for now, we’re just fine with Xbox Live Arcade.
Read More | Nintendojo
Xbox Modders Could Face Jail Time
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Corporate News, Mods/Hacks, Xbox,
Three men were charged on Monday of copyright infringement for selling modified Xbox consoles. The machines sold aren’t licensed by Microsoft and have large hard drives. The units are able to copy and illegally play those copies of Xbox games. Due to the modifications, these modified Xbox units were being sold at a large premium over the standard Xbox MSRP. Two of the men are in their thirties, while the other is in his forties. You would think grown men would know better, but then again when there’s a profit to be made, someone is bound make it.
Read More | TechWeb
IGN’s Best of 2005 Awards
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Nintendo DS, Nintendo Gamecube, PC, PlayStation 2, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360,
IGN recently posted its Best of 2005 Awards and honestly, we agree with most of the site’s choices. IGN’s broken the awards up by console and has created a whole slew of categories - it took a good amount of time just to see all of the different categories for each console. At any rate, a list of the big winners follows…
Click to continue reading IGN’s Best of 2005 Awards
Well apparently the Xbox 360 has been hacked - it didn’t take long, did it? Some original Xbox owners have illegally modified their machines to run copies of videogames off of their hard-drives. As a result, these gamers would be able to save a good deal of money because they wouldn’t have to purchase games of their own - rather they’d just borrow a copy, copy it, and return it from wherever they got it.
When talking of the Xbox 360 throughout 2005, Microsoft announced it’s done everything it could to prevent similar illegal actions on the Xbox 360. Well, it looks like hackers have already found a way around Microsoft’s protection. According to news.com, some hackers have developed an extraction program that allows Xbox 360 titles to be ripped from their DVDs. However, simply being able to extract data from the 360 DVDs won’t do you much because according to the article, extracted files cannot be run yet. Of course hackers are working to cheat the system to make it so these extracted files do work. Similarly, Microsoft is working around the clock to prevent these hackers from attaining any success.
So who’s going to win? Well, as wrong as we feel playing illegal copies of games is, if the past is any indication, we’d say the hackers will break the system sooner or later. And that will probably happen sooner than any of us would expect.
(Thanks munkyxtc!)
Read More | News.com
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