Xbox 360 Homebrew Finally Arrives

Busshy writes "Tmbinc has posted a video showing Snes 9X as the first homebrew for the Xbox 360. This coincides with the upcoming release of the Free60 project, which will turn the 360 into the most powerful console for homebrew to date, hopefully with emulators for the Dreamcast, Gamecube, PS2, Xbox and possibly even the Wii."

Not exactly simple to get running with...

[Adam Jorgensen]

Took a look at the Free60 Wiki. Getting a 360 to run homebrew is a rather painful and involved process. By comparison, softmodding a wii is childs play.

Not for the latest (Aug 11) update

[Drinking Bleach]

I saw this homebrew breakthrough earlier today, I was excited until I noticed the very important message to not update the console -- too late, I already did that a week ago (generally, I update because it's usually a good idea). Unfortunate, but I suspect I'm not the only one with the same misfortune.

Re:PlayStation 3?

[fyrewulff]

You can't use the graphics card/chip/whatever you want to call it in the Linux sandbox mode.

Re:An Unfortunate Example of Well Built DRM In Act

[tlhIngan]

Because the ability to run unsigned code directly on the hardware (e.g. not sandboxed as a user of the OS) is both great for homebrew development and the fundamental building block of a pure software loader for pirated games, this development is going to scare the hell out of the bean counters and the department heads. They're going to have to deploy most (if not all) of the tricks left in their bag of countermeasures, otherwise inside of a year the 360 will end up like the Wii and the Xbox 1 - completely and utterly cracked open for piracy.

You DO realize that pirated xbox360 games have been around since nearly the beginning right? It involved a little firmware patching to the DVD-ROM drive, and then a burned game would work just fine on the xbox360 as if it was the original. Heck, even Xbox Live can work, so you get all your achievements and multiplayer.

How do you think all those people got caught with pre-release copies of games and subsequently banned from Xbox Live?

While running unsigned code is a good thing (and it probably took this long because Microsoft offered a sanctioned method of homebrew), it probably won't be a big piracy deal. Games will start using new APIs that require updates, and people will get sick of single player soon enough because Xbox Live requires people to update to the latest version. At best, you'll have local multiplayer, which probably works until your friends want to bring over their live profiles. The current generation of consoles (except for the most part the Wii) have stronger online multiplayer components.

That's really why the Wii was more or less the first to be broken, followed a long while by the Xbox360, and then soon the PS3. All the homebrewers broke the Wii because they wanted to run their code on it. Microsoft offered a method, so those people went away and did that, and Sony has Linux, again a sanctioned homebrew method. Microsoft's cost money, so there was a bit of effort to those wanting a free solution, while Sony's doesn't, which means those wanting homebrew on the PS3 outside of Linux will be the few wanting to take advantage of the GPU.