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Microsoft may pull Xbox in Australia!


Boba Rhett

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CEO Steve Ballmer said Microsoft may pull its Xbox game console from the Australian market because of a court decision that legitimizes mod chips for hackers, an Australian newspaper reported.

 

Mod chips are gray-market add-ons that, once soldered to a console's main circuit board, defeat security systems and enable the machine to run legally and illegally copied discs, import games and homemade software.

According to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald, Ballmer said late last week that the company could remove the Xbox from the Australian market if Australia's legal system does not provide appropriate protections. Ballmer made the comments at an Australian event to promote a new PocketPC device, The Herald said.

 

Ballmer was commenting on a July ruling by a Federal Court of Australia judge who found that mod chips sold for Sony's PlayStation 2 game machine do not violate federal copyright rules outlawing devices primarily intended to bypass copyright-protection technology. The Australian rules are similar to the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

 

Ballmer said the ruling threatens Microsoft's business strategy for the Xbox, which relies on licensing fees and other revenue from game sales to subsidize hardware manufacturing costs.

 

"Given the way the economic model works--and that is a subsidy followed, essentially, by fees for every piece of software sold--our license framework has to do that," Ballmer told the newspaper. "If there are aspects that are not allowed, it would encourage us to require a change in the legal framework. Otherwise, it wouldn't make economic sense."

 

Mod chips have been a headache for game hardware makers for years, but Microsoft has been particularly aggressive in fighting the hacker tools. The company changed the innards of the Xbox partly to deter hackers, sought to hire an Xbox hacking expert and may use the upcoming Xbox Live online service to detect mod chips. Microsoft also joined with Sony and Nintendo in a recent action against one of the largest retailers of mod chips for numerous game devices.

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Wow, that's very interesting.......and surprising that the Aussie courts would make that decision. We need to hear the opinion of the guys in Austrailia.......isn't Lynk Former (and Mr. Weasel of course :D ) from down under???

 

 

 

I didn't know that you could do that to the system..........of course, I'm not much of a hacker either........:)

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well I just have to say

 

if you want it bad enough - you'll figure out a way to get it.

 

I'm not sure what that means....but if microsoft puts out a great system that is more like a computer than your standardized console...people are going to be more prone to change it like they do a computer. I am just always afraid to sodder up my valuable console in order to cheat to get games. I mean with the games these days coming down in price...you really don't need to to get it hacked/cracked or burned. Some of those don't work anyways, you invalidate your warrenties and to me its just not worth it. If a game means that much to me and I don't want to buy it...I'll just rent it for 4 bucks legally.

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MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

 

X-Box? Pulled out from OzTralia?! Ehehehehe... well I find that really funny cause I purposly chose not to support the X-Box. I like the GameCube and the PS2. Those two consoles are great. But X-Box... i dun care what the hell happens to it. It has no games that I want. I'm really hangin for Metroid Prime at the moment and Metroid Fusion.

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Steve Ballmer is who we should be making fun of, not Gates. Gates is a good guy. Ballmer is going to overexcite himself into a heart attack. Ever seen the videos of his motavational seminars?

 

You should have saw him at the company meeting a few months ago.. it was hilarious, in a Purple Rain kind of way.

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Originally posted by Lynk Former

Ehehehehe... well I find that really funny cause I purposly chose not to support the X-Box. I like the GameCube and the PS2.

 

Couldn't have put it better myself (though i might have missed out on the PS2 bit) but hey, they are both far superior.

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no no no no no 15, u're missing the point... it's not the console that makes the a console great... it's the games... for me i see more games i want on the gamecube and ps2 than i do on the xbox. Personally i don't care about stats and numbers and all that crap. if i want something like that i'd go out and buy myself a good computer. What i want is a damn fun game and a good controller to play it with.

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a casual gamer is someone who has a game and only plays it the day he bought it. :p

 

Xbox is coming out with some awesome games, and already has some good ones.....

 

halo

turok

Fable

B.C.

Jedi Outcast

 

I'd get an xbox just for Fable and B.C. nice simulation/rpg games.

 

I'm not saying cube or PS2 aren't good systems, they just don't have the games I'd buy the console for, which is probably what you're saying about the xbox and ps2. :) just don't go saying a system is bad based on games you haven't played.

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Originally posted by Lynk Former

Only thing is that these days gamers don't want games... they want interactive movies and real life... bleah

 

Couldn't have put it better myself (hey, dejavou!) Thats what i have against most modern games. You look at the back and it says "interactive personalities" or "super duper hydrogelised mice reinacting capabilities" or something like that. They just dont seem to make games anymore. Just engines and graphics.

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agreed with that. there are a lot of games that boast high level graphics and all the little eye candies all packed in there but i have played a lot of games that are all eye candy and no REAL gaming. I'm not saying all games are like that, it's just that there are a few developers who go a little overboard when it comes to balancing what's in a game.

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