Xbox Tester: Secret Xbox Suicide Command and MGS4 Options

[Xbox-Scene]

Xbox Tester: Secret Xbox Suicide Command and MGS4 Posted by XanTium | May 13 15:27 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From 8bitjoystick.com: [QUOTE] Yesterday I had a very long interesting conversation with a recently laid off Xbox 360 hardware/software tester who had some very interesting things to say to me. 1st. Interesting Thing: There is a super secret kill-switch remote suicide self-destruct command that if Microsoft really wanted to they can remotely trigger and tell an Xbox 360 to fry itself and die. This was intended to be a last resort option if a fight against Xbox Live cheaters or major league professional game piracy ever got big. To their knowledge it has only been done in test situation in the lab but if they wanted to they could have the regular system security sweeps over Xbox Live activate a kill command when it found a compromised hacked Xbox 360 system. It works by having the Xbox overload a fuse and "pop" the fuse. The Xbox 360 will then crash and then will get an "Red Ring of Death Core Digital" error when the boot-up test comes back with a major component hardware failure. This is not the same as bricking or crashing a system since this will actually do physical damage to the motherboard. 2nd. Interesting Thing: Microsoft is currently software testing Metal Gear Solid 4 for Xbox 360. They might announce it at E3 but Konami likes to make money and Metal Gear Solid 4 was very expensive for them to make. Microsoft and Konami will not admit it before they are ready to but secretly builds of Metal Gear Solid 4 for Xbox 360 started being tested late last year. Konami want to make back their software development costs and they need to get it on the Xbox 360 to do it. 3rd. Interesting Thing: Microsoft makes a lot of hardware prototypes and very few hardware projects actually make it to market. They probably did start to build a Blu-Ray player and a motion sensitive wand controller but they never got close enough to making it to market. [/QUOTE] Full Story: 8bitjoystick.com

[spinr34]

lol, the mgs4 rumor will never go away.

[Bassie Von Adriaan]

[batman91]

this is obviously fake, the shadows are all wrong.

[xboxjason]

Thanks M$, that's what I always wanted... another way for my Xbox360 to die!

[Landlocked]

"Hidden feature" is a proactive way of saying there's yet another design flaw that's going hit us.

[antegra]

Thanks M$, that's what I always wanted... another way for my Xbox360 to die!

it wont die unless you do that flash dvd thing

[sinister slipknot]

Blatantly false, why would MS ever need something to brick 360s?? they do that all by themselves.

[BRD]

Wouldn't that be a complete FCC violation?

[K1LLERHORNET]

That Killswitch Microsoft has looks like a pretty drastic approach - but i understand the need to implement it.
Hopefully they will never have to use it.

MGS4 on XBOX 360 - even though i have no intention of playing it on PS3 - i will probably end up giving it a whirl if it was to appear on the 360

This post has been edited by K1LLERHORNET: May 13 2009, 10:50 PM

[Exobex]

They'd get sued to hell and back if they flipped a kill-switch on 360s. I bet nowhere in the manual do they say that they "reserve the right to incapacitate any console found to be tampered with".

[Mholt215]

Blatantly false, why would MS ever need something to brick 360s?? they do that all by themselves.

Agreed, and I'm pretty sure thats illegal.. because say some cheated, they sent the kill code to the xbox to fry itself, and then it catches fire and burns the dudes house down.. the first interesting fact has to be a lie, cause they could be killing random people all over the world if it malfunctioned.

[funni64]

There is a super secret kill-switch remote suicide self-destruct command that if Microsoft really wanted to they can remotely trigger and tell an Xbox 360 to fry itself and die.

Creepy!!!

[lang]

Finaly ive been saying this since the launch of 360.
Ive read some whitepaper about on the net years ago.
But dident find it again.
NICE to have it on paper

The function will not been used by ms and its an IBM feature of its cellchips and not ms. But ms might requesed it from ibm.

If they use they will be punished in court they dont even care about pirated os anymore more hussle then gain it seems they starting to use ems brains.

IVE read what u said AND ITS NOT A XBOX FEATURE, its CPUFEATURE from IBM.
I need to highlight this is important to know before naging.


This post has been edited by lang: May 13 2009, 11:20 PM

[funni64]

Wouldn't that be a complete FCC violation?

It is not technically illegal for them to do this since attempting to hack an Xbox 360 is a violation of the Xbox Live Terms of Service EULA and a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Microsoft's entire business model on the Xbox is based around them loosing money on the cost of the hardware and then to make it up from game publishing royalties. If game software ever got easy enough for mainstream consumers to try it would nuke all chances of the Xbox 360 business being profitable. Likewise the entire idea behind online gameplay on the Xbox Live network is that it is a secured walled garden that is impenetrable to hacking and cheating. If there was rampant cheating it would cause people to loose faith in the network service and not want to keep subscribing to it. This is Microsoft's "nuclear" option. Currently they have not had to show this trump card since they can ban consoles and users from the Xbox Live network but if it ever really got out of hand they have the option of pulling the trigger and causing and Xbox 360 to melt down and kill itself via software. A "popped" Xbox 360 is not really a fire hazard since the BIOS will shut down the CPU and GPU after the boot test fails and the only thing that remains powered is the Red Ring of Death after the hardware failure mode is triggered. Now if you send a "popped" Ex-Xbox to a RnR repair facility they will have no problem recognizing the "popped" fuse and they will not offer to repair your Xbox 360 since they know that you were an naughty boy and they had to kill your Xbox.

(From the complete article)