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[oracrest]

Curious, does this affect external hard drives with simple video files hooked up through USB, or is it just hacked Xbox hard drives?

I was thinking of backing up all my video files onto an external and have it connected to my 360 for easy viewing.

 

[OldJadedGamer]

which is why saying MS is doing this for piracy and modding is bullshit, they're doing it to force consumers to buy their own products.

Who's to say that in the future people can't use that memory card for hacking and modding? MS is just cutting them off before hand. Datel is known for making products that are used for piracy and modding. I'm not surprised at all that MS along with other companies like Sony and Nintendo that try to block their products from being sold. After all, Datel is the same company that sells Pandora batteries for the PSP.

 

[The Faceless Master]

Umm, ok? Good for people with those cables?

MS can't stop people plugging whatever the heck they like into their computer but this they can control. Nintendo did the same thing with the Wii and Freeloader, Sony tried to fix holes in their PSP FW by updating it. MS doing something similar is not really a shock to me.

so they're stopping people from buying inexpensive 3rd party memory cards then.. since anyone who wants to hack can do so without one, and did before this card wad released a few months ago... this is like sony blocking sandisk memory sticks, not like sony fixing a FW hole.

 

[Cheerilee]

That is a licensed product.

Despite being a licensed product, the Xbox360 probably has a worse track record than any of Datel's products.

Only today I just got my 360 back from warranty exchange, and it's a fucking used Xenon. Why are they wasting my time with this shit. It's defective. They KNOW this shit is going to break again in under a year. They were sued to try and get this shit off the market. Aargh!

Fuck Microsoft. I am so getting a modded hard drive, just because I'm pissed. I have no more love for my Xbox.

 

[Droog]

Curious, does this affect external hard drives with simple video files hooked up through USB, or is it just hacked Xbox hard drives?

I was thinking of backing up all my video files onto an external and have it connected to my 360 for easy viewing.

I'm sure external drives like that will remain unaffected.

 

[Droog]

so they're stopping people from buying inexpensive 3rd party memory cards then.. since anyone who wants to hack can do so without one, and did before this card wad released a few months ago... this is like sony blocking sandisk memory sticks, not like sony fixing a FW hole.

Well, not really. It's not like official Sony memory sticks don't allow pirated games to run as opposed to Sandisk ones but I understand the point you're trying to make. If Datel truly wished to make a cheaper alternative to MS' own memory cards they could just license them (in theory) - I suspect Datel knows its majority audience and what they expect from their products though!

 

[The Faceless Master]

Well, not really. It's not like official Sony memory sticks don't allow pirated games to run as opposed to Sandisk ones but I understand the point you're trying to make. If Datel truly wished to make a cheaper alternative to MS' own memory cards they could just license them (in theory) - I suspect Datel knows its majority audience and what they expect from their products though!

apparently not.

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

Who's to say that in the future people can't use that memory card for hacking and modding? MS is just cutting them off before hand. Datel is known for making products that are used for piracy and modding. I'm not surprised at all that MS along with other companies like Sony and Nintendo that try to block their products from being sold. After all, Datel is the same company that sells Pandora batteries for the PSP.

The Pandora battery was designed by Sony to unbrick PSPs.
It has the 'added benefit' of running unsigned code, but its primary design purpose was to fix broken PSPs - a service that Sony charge a fair bit of money to do officially.

So I can see that there might well be people out there who would buy one as a precaution to repair their broken hardware. People also buy 3 year warranty plans and things like the Nyko cooling kit.

It is a pretty shabby argument (or an ad hominem if you would prefer) to defend MS pulling a dickish and outright anti-competitve move because an unrelated product can be used for piracy, and that therefore all Datel products are related to piracy.

 

[The Faceless Master]

IMPORTANT NOTICE: MAX MEMORY (XBOX360)

If you have downloaded the most recent Microsoft Dashboard update, our Max Memory card with 2 Gigabytes of memory will not fully function.

These problems are entirely due to the actions of Microsoft and are beyond our control.

The good news is that Datel is aware of the changes that are required to remedy this problem and will release a solution shortly.

If you have yet to download this update, we advise you to back up your data to your PC using the supplied USB card reader or to your Xbox hard drive, internal memory or Microsoft’s memory unit so you can restore your data.

If you wish, please return the memory card including the 2 gig micro SD card and USB SD reader to us along with your receipt and we will exchange / replace with a new updated version that will be compatible the recent Microsoft Dashboard release.

looks like Datel has responded.

 

[TheOddOne]

I'm really surprised people are defending MS here with the standard 'they're just trying to protect their business' spiel.

Datel saw a business opportunity, and a specific niche to target, and did so using an alternative technology that is cheaper both to manufacture and to sell to an end consumer, and MS are actively trying to force them out of competition so that a consumer is reliant purely on their own over-priced solution instead.

Would you all be defending MS if they lock out anything other than official 360 WiFi adapters? Or if you are forced to buy MS charge and play kits instead of regular rechargeable batteries? Or if you are forced to purchase MS produced A/V / HDMI cables in future?

This isn't a competitive move by MS (giving their own memory units an implicit superior capability or quality to justify the price, or reducing the price to stay competitive), it is a purely anti-competitive one.

This is a ''what if'' scenario.

If they did those things everybody would be outraged.