Gamer pro: XBox 360 Flashing Services
Throughout the history of computer/video games, individuals have been compelled to subvert and modify games and also the systems they run on. Be it clever machine code hacks on microcomputers such as the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum to allow you unlimited lives on computer games back in the 1980s, to XBox 360 flashing services permitting you to store backups of their games on the XBox in 2009.
Hardware producers and games developers have had a tricky relationship with modders and gamers who are often one and the same. In a sense, hackers add extra worth to the games and systems - for example modchips give great convenience to games players who can play backups on their consoles. To add to that, game hacks breathe new life into very-hard-to-complete games, and nowadays it’s a convention for software developers to embed “easter egg” cheats for games players to discover.
But to counter that, games developers say that such modding damages their revenue, as mods are also carried out to get around piracy measures, and circumventing firmware that limits discs to work just in certain locations. These are compelling reasons for hardware and games manufacturers to perpetually develop progressive measures to make modding more difficult to carry out.
Whatever the grounds against modifying chips, modding is a big market that isn’t going to go away.
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