GameStop Halts All Xbox 1 Trade-Ins February 9?
With an U.S. install base of over 25 million, it’s perhaps no surprise that the original Xbox still logs more playtime, on average, than the Sony PlayStation 3. But if a rumor making the rounds today is true, that won’t save Microsoft’s black box from extinction.
Citing an internal GameStop memo and several anonymous GameStop managers, Destructoid claims that effective February 9th, 2009, the company will stop accepting original Xbox games, systems and accessories for trade-in.
While there’s no word on how long they will continue to allocate Xbox shelf space — considering the software backwards compatibility of the Xbox 360, there seems to at least be good reason to hold onto the games — without an ongoing stream of trade-ins, one would imagine sales will soon taper off as well.
GameStop was unavailable for comment by time of publication.
Without official confirmation, we’re labeling this one rumor for now; but with two different pictures and a host of anonymous sources backing it up, we fully expect that this rumor will become truth on or about this Thursday, January 8th, when GameStop is supposed to provide investors with a holiday sales update.
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Microsoft Admits Tampering with Resident Evil 5 Demos, Hackers Follow Suit
Amusing? That all depends on who’s holding the controller. This week, Microsoft has confirmed that they have the ability to retroactively and remotely affect data on your Xbox 360 — specifically, the corruption of items like the Japan-only Resident Evil 5 demo downloaded by US and European users earlier this month. WorthPlaying received the following statement:
Earlier this week a demo of ‘Biohazard 5′, known in the US as ‘Resident Evil 5′, was released on Xbox LIVE in Japan. While the content was only intended for download in that country, a number of gamers outside of Japan were able to access this demo for a period of time. By putting measures in place to ensure it could only be downloaded in Japan the demo version was effectively reset, meaning that it is only supported by LIVE in the correct region. We look forward to being able to offer our gamers a chance to experience a US demo of this eagerly anticipated title soon.
All our concerns about the corrupting influence of such power have just become valid.
But then again, we wonder if Microsoft and Capcom might not have had an good reason for trying to disable this particular demo. If a post at Resident Evil fansite REHorror is accurate, hardcore English-speaking fans have now hacked that very demo for major spoilers about the full game’s levels, characters, bosses and weapons — and through them, elements of the game’s plot.
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Spore Coming to Steam?
It’s no secret that EA has been upset with the number of people who illegally downloaded Spore. Still, they’re determined to make the game into Will Wright’s next Mega Franchise, and they’re so set on doing so that they may release Spore on Valve’s Steam. While there’s been no official announcement (or response to emails) yet, a newly discovered EULA for Spore on Steam’s website gives quite a bit of credence to the rumor.
EA releasing their published games on Steam isn’t new; Crysis and Crysis Warhead are both available on it. But Spore would mark the first time one of EA’s in-house games was released on a download service other than EA’s own EA Store client. Unfortunately, if other SecuROM releases on Steam are any indication, that aspect of it won’t be removed from Spore even if it is losing the disc.
Will EA releasing the game on Steam cause some of you anti-Spore folks to give the game a shot, or is it too little, too late?
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Exploits for Sony’s Home?
Filed under: Betas, Bugs, Exploits, New titles, News items, Consoles, Rumors, Home
The Telegraph (UK) is reporting that a number of exploits have surfaces for Sony’s virtual-environment multiplayer matchmaker and social space, Home, presently in open beta. Not all of them are technically exploits, but they’d certainly qualify as hacks — using Apache and DNS trickery to fool the Home client into loading different content for local display than what was originally intended, for example.
The Telegraph says there are far more severe hacks, however, such as downloading, uploading or deleting any file to or from the Home server itself. That stopped us cold right there, and is a…
Exploits for Sony’s Home? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Rumor: Factor 5 Cuts Staff in Half, May Sue Artist Sam Baker
Last week, the Internet was abuzz with news about Factor 5’s possible serious financial issues, sparked when animator Sam Baker posted a blog entry lamenting the cancelation of some projects, and the lack of staff pay.
He was quick to issue a new posting claiming that the original had been a misunderstanding, but was it? If an inside source talking to Edge Online is right, not at all.
According to Edge’s “well-placed source,” last Friday Factor 5 cut 37 jobs, which is just about half of its current work force. “The last time staff got paid was October 15th,” the source stated.
When asked whether or not the Brash closure was the cause of financial woes (as Baker alluded), Edge’s source claimed that it wasn’t. “It wasn’t really the Brash deal going south that was the big problem, but it didn’t help much either.”
Perhaps the most troubling news, though, is Factor 5’s rumored reaction to Baker’s blog post which started all the speculation eight days ago, which resulted in his resignation from the developer. “He’s young, and was totally devastated by his new found fame. He didn’t think anything of it, innocently posting his heartfelt concerns,” said the source. “The kicker is, Factor 5 is thinking of suing [Baker] for good measure.”
I’ve attempted to get in touch with some people I know at Factor 5 to try and get some more info on the reported news, but as of now I’ve yet to hear back from anyone.
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Can Microsoft Reach Into Your Xbox 360’s Hard Drive? RE5 Demo Suggests So
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” In 1887, when the historian Lord Acton reportedly made this statement, not a soul in the world could imagine such a thing as a modern computer hard drive, and the idea of corrupted data was far away. But if a recent report involving the new Japan-only Resident Evil 5 demo is true, then Microsoft just might be able to use their absolute power over your Xbox 360 to corrupt your game files at whim.
According to WorthPlaying, shortly after the Resident Evil 5 demo hit Japanese Xbox LIVE Arcade servers on December 5th, US and European gamer discovered that the demo wasn’t exactly limited to the Land of the Rising Sun as reported. With the use of a Japanese XBL gamertag, they were not only able to download, but found — to their great surprise — that upon launch, the entire demo was playable in English.
Needless to say, plenty more English-speaking gamers weren’t going to pass up the chance for an early crack at Resi 5… and probably also needless to say, those who still advocate region controls at Capcom or Microsoft HQ were none too happy about the influx of foreign download traffic. WorthPlaying reports:
About a day after the demo’s release, Xbox Live started doing an IP check before the download could be initiated, preventing anyone outside Japan from downloading a new copy of the demo, even if they used a Japanese gamertag. The demo could still be played however, with all features available, including online co-op play. Because of its small size (less than 480MB) the demo was also easy to copy from system to system.
Then, sometime in the last 24 hours, players with the demo noticed two things. The first was annoying, but understandable. Non-Japanese Gamertags were immediately logged out of Xbox Live when booting up the demo. This prevented anyone outside Japan from playing online. The second issue however has started to raise concern.
After logging in to Xbox Live with a non-Japanese Gamertag and attempting to start the Resident Evil 5 demo, Xbox Live actively corrupts the demo code rendering it completely unplayable – even in offline mode.
“So what?” you might ask. “That’s what happens when you’re too impatient to wait for the official release.” Certainly, this particular incident is of little consequence. We’ll get the Resident Evil 5 demo soon enough, and Capcom/Microsoft will be more careful with their IP filtering next time around.
But as WorthPlaying notes, this raises the question of exactly how much power Microsoft has over the machines we’ve purchased. If someone at Microsoft HQ can simply press a button and turn someone’s demo into useless ones and zeros, what is to keep an employee with a grudge from shredding someone’s purchased games? If instead, the system is automated (which is far more plausible) what is to keep bug — or, say, DRM tripwires ostensibly designed to catch pirates — from indiscriminately but mistakenly doing the same?
Microsoft has yet to respond to the issue, but Capcom told WorthPlaying that they had not requested that such actions be taken, and will be looking into the matter post-haste. “This is the first that Capcom US has heard of the issue. We are looking into it with Microsoft and Capcom Japan and will have an update in 24 hours or less,” said Chris Kramer, Senior Director of Communications.
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Did EVE Online Have $150,000 Exploit?
Massively has one hell of a massive story today. According to the confession of an anonymous forumite (via Winterblink), an exploit in persistent spacefaring MMO EVE Online has allowed an undisclosed number of players to harvest the real-world equivalent of approximately $150,000 over a four-year period — and official statements by developer CCP today indicate he or she spoke truth.
On November 24, 2004, EVE Online introduced the player-owned-Starbase (POS) to its vast collection of virtual timesinks. Placed in the orbit of a moon, a Starbase confers any number of benefits upon its owners — but perhaps most importantly, the ability to mine that moon for particularly valuable resources, and convert those resources through chemical reactions into rare materials used in the construction of advanced starships and weaponry.
Today, going by the handle “anotherone” on the Scrapheap Challenge forums, one EVE player confessed that shortly after they were introduced, they and unnamed others discovered that the reaction process to produce those materials could be exploited in such a way that the input resources were not expended, but could rather be used again and again to create an infinite supply. From the post:
Two weeks after Patch day we built our first POS.
We wanted a piece of the moon mining pie and also wanted to figure out how it word as none of us knew exactly.
After our first try we were aggravated that we could get it working and decided to try again the next day to finish our project.
The next day to our amazment we found that the silos in our unfinished POS chain were full. After a short time we found out the reason for this phenomenon.
The POS system was BUGGED.
Of course a petition was sent to CCP to make them aware of this situation and the answer was sobering.“Your petition has been received” CLOSE
Sobering enough, apparently. that they decided to milk the phenomenon for all it was worth — which, by anotherone’s estimate as of December 10th, was over 2.5 trillion ISK. The forumite claims that he used his share to buy more game time via the ability to trade in-game time cards — and hasn’t paid a cent for EVE since 2004. At the old rate of $14.99 for a month of play, this would mean he managed to avoid paying around $720.
But if you think $720 is the extent of this exploit, you’re underestimating the value of EVE Online’s in-game currency. Currently, a 60 day time card costs $34.99 — but the going rate in-game for the very same 60 days is today around 600 million ISK. Therefore, if those involved in the exploit truly managed to create 2.5 trillion ISK, they generated the equivalent of over $145,000 in real money.
While it’s difficult to say if any of that money made it into the exploiters’ pockets — there is certainly a black market for direct dollar-to-ISK currency sales — one EVE veteran told me that this goes a long way to explaining why so many have been able to procure the devastating Titan warships, when CCP “envisioned only the biggest alliances having one or two.”
Anotherone’s statements are rumor, not fact; but today, CCP confirmed that such an exploit was discovered on December 7th, and since then over 70 accounts across seven corporations and two alliances have been banned. The full CCP statement reads:
On December 7th 2008, a date which will live in infamy, a petition from a concerned player alerted us to a serious problem with Starbase reactors. The petition had been filed five days earlier, a far longer waiting time than we can accept with our current queue status and we have now taken measures to fix that. We immediately started investigating the issue and found that there was indeed a problem and that it was being exploited to gain unfair advantages.
We discovered seven corporations with multiple Starbases set up for the express purpose of exploiting the issue. Three of those corporations were members of two alliances. We took immediate action against the offenders and banned over 70 accounts and destroyed all the Starbases run by the corporations in question. All the offending corporations are now effectively inactive as a result of our actions.
The corporations were producing high end materials for T2 production. Working with the Research & Statistics team we have established that the effects on the markets have been considerable and far reaching. The effects of our actions against the exploiters will also be felt on the market as the production of the materials has been cut substantially. However, supply should increase again once players have mastered the alchemy process.
We are still conducting operations to deal with this matter and we will keep you posted on the progress and results as things develop.
Effects on the in-game economy have been swift: Today, the two materials anotherone admitted to exploiting, Ferrogel and Fermionic Condensates, have traded at over 8,000 ISK per unit higher than the day before.
As noted at Massively, player concern for the in-game economy is joined by concern that CCP devs allegedly did not address the issue for four years despite petition. CCP employees have been accused in prior years of gaming their own system for personal (in-game) benefit.
CCP did not respond to requests for comment by time of publication. However, an addendum to CCP’s official forum post mentions that “the matter will be brought up at a CSM and CCP meeting this upcoming weekend.”
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Report: UGO Poised to Buy 1UP Network — But Not Electronic Gaming Monthly
The writing, as they like to say, is on the wall — Print media is dying. The difference is that those who say it are no longer talking about tomorrow, but right now. Last week, newspaper publisher Gannett began layoffs of one-tenth of its workforce. Monday, the Tribune Company filed for Chapter 11 bankrupcy, and Columbia University announced that it would begin accepting online journalism for the prestigious Pulitzer Prize.
And today, Joystiq is reporting that the same thing is poised to hit game journalism — such as it is — as well. Citing multiple anonymous sources within publisher Ziff Davis, Joystiq claims that rival game network UGO is in talks to buy the entire 1UP Network except for website FileFront… and flagship print magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly.
This news comes just twenty days after the New York Times reported that EGM might move to an online-only format.
Personally, if the rumors are true, I’ll be very sad to see EGM go — it was the mag that inspired me to write about games in the first place — but I have to admit that its time may have come.
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Kojima Teases Xbox Fans with Green Metal Gear Logo
For years, Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima has been the master of screwing with gamer’s heads. Today, it seems that he couldn’t resist doing so once more.
By crafting a teaser that cleverly integrates elements of several popular game systems (the green color of Xbox and the lower-case ‘I’ used in DSi and iPhone) as well as the exclamation point used in Metal Gear Ac!d and the universal power sign seen on practically every electronic device with an integrated computer chip, he has today caused every fanboy on the internet to cry out against nothing in particular.
No matter what you hear today or later this weekend, Konami has made no official statement that Metal Gear Solid 4 is being ported to any system, Xbox 360 or otherwise. The only fact is the image you see above.
Everything else is speculation. However, speculation can be amusing, and so we’ve included some of the best we’ve seen after the break.
1.) Forget DSi and iPhone, Kojima is making a game for the Wii.
2.) Kojima’s actual intent is not to satiate Xbox fans, but to enrage them.
3.) Kojima has become so enchanted by the Xbox 360’s aesthetics that the entire teaser is designed around them. Not bad, whoever-came-up-with-this-image… but that infrared port is looking a little long for that to make sense.
4.) It’s morse code for North America, where the Xbox 360 is made was designed. No.
5.) Metal Gear Solid 5 = Heist.
If you were to ask my opinion, I’d say that it is really, truly all up in the air now… but if pressed, I imagine that I’d put my money on an Xbox 360 MGS4 release. One NeoGAF commentor suggested that what we’re actually seeing is the famous Metal Gear exclamation point being flipped 180 degrees, twice, for a total of 360 — and I tend to agree with another who said that after seeing picture after picture of the RRoD, gamers do tend to equate the universal power symbol with Xbox as well. Then, of course, there is the color green… and the mysterious statements that a Japanese newspaper struck from the record in mid-October.
And then there is the abbreviation used on the Konami website to identify the teaser: MGST. After bringing out Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence and Metal Gear Solid Existence (a bonus DVD that came with the limited edition of no. 3) we have to wonder if Metal Gear Solid 4: Trancendence is such a long shot.
Thanks to NeoGAF for the lulz.
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Cheyenne Mountain responds to rumors of no pay for employees
Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Business models, Events, real-world, MMO industry, New titles, Stargate Worlds, Rumors
As the story spread across the blogosphere yesterday concerning the website http://days-since-cheyenne-mountain-employees-have-been-paid.com, we at Massively remained interested, yet apprehensive on something that was little more than an anonymous url. Yet today we’re happy to report on an actual response to the rumor and speculation. Kevin Balentine, senior Marketing Manager at Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment released an official explanation of the rumors: “At Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, we have always been upfront with the media and our fans that we are a start up. Like many start…
Continue reading Cheyenne Mountain responds to rumors of no pay for employees
Cheyenne Mountain responds to rumors of no pay for employees originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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