The Future of Gaming

As an Xbox 360 owner and the sibling of a Wii owner, any perceived bias towards or against specific consoles is due to my lack of disposable income. If I could I would also buy a PS3, but as a student, that is not possible. Please forgive any disproportionate coverage; I do my best to cover issues that affect all consoles, without focusing on or neglecting individual systems.
As this is the final issue of the Iron Warrior this term (yay, great job Trevor) I was considering writing a parody article for the Tin Soldier issue, but the antics of real world gamers is just too entertaining, and doesn’t require any parody or embellishment. So here they are.
Microsoft has recently become entangled in a lawsuit over the banning of modded consoles from Xbox Live services. As the practice is illegal, and therefore no one should know about it 😉 , I will give a brief introduction (based on public info not personal experience). Modding a console involves altering the firmware (the basic programming that runs the system) so that it does not require authentication when loading a game. This process allows users to rent or borrow a game, make a copy, then run the copy. Needless to say this is illegal, and so Microsoft has developed ways to test for modded consoles connected to Xbox Live. In addition to playing pirated games modding a console can also allow users to cheat in some games, and that is what Microsoft is trying to cut down on.
That brings us to the topic I introduced before, Microsoft has been accused of purposely banning people with modded consoles after the release of Halo: ODST and before the release of Modern Warfare 2, collecting the subscription money before banning the buyers. A large number in the legal community view this lawsuit as a money-grab by the affected modders. Considering the fact that Microsoft is well within their legal rights to ban people who have modded their consoles (read it in the fine print) there really isn’t much of a case for court. Another thing to consider, anyone who actually goes out and mods their console to play illegal copies of games should know that Microsoft has been banning their systems for the last four years – therefore the logical thing to do is Not Connect to Xbox Live, unless you want to be banned.
Another gamer has launched two lawsuits against Nintendo and Microsoft, but don’t think he let Sony off the hook. He previously lost after suing Sony over violation of his first amendment rights. This gamer was banned from the PSN after insulting several other gamers in the Resistance online community. The case was thrown out of court by Judge Ronald Whyte because “Sony is not part of the government”. So, undeterred this gamer has moved on to Nintendo and Microsoft, for infringing on his happiness. He is suing Nintendo for interfering with his “pursuit of happiness” – by removing the Homebrew Channel and Ocarina applications with a system update. He is suing Microsoft for the “undue stress” and “sadness” after his Xbox 360 fell victim to the Red Ring of Death (RROD) error. The amount? $75,000 from Microsoft – the equivalent of about 375 Arcade systems. The amount he is suing Nintendo for is not disclosed.
In this case I have to question the person’s mental state, do they really think they are going to win this battle? Microsoft for one has had to deal with unbelievable hatred over the RROD error, but for an individual to sue them for $75,000 is just insane. The case is obviously a cash grab publicity stunt, which will probably result in a very quick court dismissal followed by the person being buried in legal fees. I hope the fees are less than the $200 needed to buy a new system, but somehow I doubt they will be. I have personally had two RROD errors, both within the three year warranty. While lots of people complain on the internet about the long wait times for a repair, I had my system back in 15 days the first time (a refurbished system) and 7 days the second time (another refurbished system). The third failure I got was a disk tray error, which occurred out of warranty and would cost $100 plus shipping to fix. In this case I bought a new Arcade system on a great sale, and took the broken one apart. I never once considered suing Microsoft, and I still have now desire to, because there is really no reason.
On the Nintendo side, they are well within their rights to block a hack on their system. The Homebrew channel is a freeware program loaded onto a Wii system, allowing the user to run third-party hacks and modded programs. As the program exploits the Wii operating system and allows people to load program to alter Wii games, such as introducing alternate skins for in-game characters, Nintendo isn’t too happy about people altering the system firmware. In recent firmware updates Nintendo has introduced patches that remove and block the Homebrew channel – of course these patches are circumvented in a few days and a new version of the program is posted. If you are hacking your system and running an unofficial program, you can’t blame manufacturer for trying to stop it, you don’t sue the company, that’s just crazy.
As a final closing point, many websites have commented on these cases as doing something for the gaming industry that has been long overdue – giving Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft fans something to agree on.
As a final, final thing, the Video Game Awards will be live on Spike TV on December 12, recognizing the best in the industry, as well as announcing many upcoming games. It appears that the VGAs are set to become another E3, the site to announce the biggest new games. So keep an eye out, their could be some amazing games coming soon
So, the final, final, final thing, enjoy the last few days of class (I’m sure that will be hard for many people 🙂 ), see you next term in the Iron Warrior, and of course, Keep On Gaming!