Q.? Modding the box! The pros & cons, your opinions would be appreciated.

[zoombini]

OK then, Given that many people feel that the games are overpriced & that by using copied games etc they actually see no-one getting hurt they feel that it is a victimless crime & that its not as bad as say drink driving, so they have less qualms about doing it.

Myself I have 3 kids, each with thier own PSX, which I might have had to chip as I wasnt going to buy 3 copies of the games and they were too young to be able to handle the disks without getting them all scratched, so I might have copied the games for each of them. Now we have an Xbox the PSX is not used, so what to do with this?

Well as I use live I dont want to chip the Xbox as it may lead to me getting banned from live (a fate worse than death), however if we get another box thats standalone then I'd have no problems with chipping it.

Is that a long enough reply for you?
BTW, I have a high post count because I have been here since about when it started, posted a lot & joined in a lot of discussions, its quite rare for me to make a 2 word post.

[kRAyZZed]

victimless crime? heh copying a game is the same as if you walked into my shop and stole the game.... i have seen several independant games shops close down over the last year or so because of ppl who seem to think that stealing games is a victimless crime... i have seen friends go bankrupt and struggle to support their famillies due to piracy....

a victimless crime? tell that to all the victims...

now i dont doubt that games are too expensive but thats not the retailers fault and as i have previously mentioned in this thread the publishers mark up the prices at their end - you would be suprised just how much we as a shop pay for games...

and i do apologise if i seem a bit worked up about this but its frankly cos i am, i think its disgusting that people decide they cant be bothered to pay for their games and steal them instead...

[zoombini]

Nah they dont steal them, they rent them, copy them & then take them back...

[Brainbug71]

Hey Zoom,


Thats a good one, i never thought of that

Best join Blockbuster this weekend he..he...he..he..

[Gakkari]

Originally Posted by kRAyZZed

victimless crime? heh copying a game is the same as if you walked into my shop and stole the game.... i have seen several independant games shops close down over the last year or so because of ppl who seem to think that stealing games is a victimless crime... i have seen friends go bankrupt and struggle to support their famillies due to piracy....

a victimless crime? tell that to all the victims...

now i dont doubt that games are too expensive but thats not the retailers fault and as i have previously mentioned in this thread the publishers mark up the prices at their end - you would be suprised just how much we as a shop pay for games...

and i do apologise if i seem a bit worked up about this but its frankly cos i am, i think its disgusting that people decide they cant be bothered to pay for their games and steal them instead...

Actually, it IS the retailers' fault! The retailers (not if you're an independent, admittedly) get paid TWICE for games they sell - once with their 45% discount when they buy them in and again when we have to pay the larger retailers to stock them! Retailers like GAME, on average, make nearly 20 quid on a 40 quid game. Publishers, on the other hand, make less than half of what retailers get.

But I'm with you on the stealing issue. Not a victimless crime - there's never any such thing. I own 3x PS2s and 2 Xboxes because I play Japanese games (I speak Japanese and wife and son born there) and so have a legitimate reason to want to chip. But I never have, never will, and will never buy a copied game.

[kRAyZZed]

Originally Posted by Gakkari

Actually, it IS the retailers' fault! The retailers (not if you're an independent, admittedly) get paid TWICE for games they sell - once with their 45% discount when they buy them in and again when we have to pay the larger retailers to stock them! Retailers like GAME, on average, make nearly 20 quid on a 40 quid game. Publishers, on the other hand, make less than half of what retailers get.

But I'm with you on the stealing issue. Not a victimless crime - there's never any such thing. I own 3x PS2s and 2 Xboxes because I play Japanese games (I speak Japanese and wife and son born there) and so have a legitimate reason to want to chip. But I never have, never will, and will never buy a copied game.

And which wholesale company do you work for? If your talking about the 45% discount i would guess one of the main ones, Pinnacle, Gem or Centersoft (possibly Ideal)?
But i do know for a fact that most wholesalers do NOT give 45% discount to even ppl like Game. Latest release retailing at £39.99 costs even them £25.50 per unit thats 64% and thus a 36% discount on retail for ordering in bulk, add vat to that and you get £29.96 so in actual fact it equates to 25% off the retail... now bear in mind the current trend with most supermarkets and whatnot using the latest games as loss leaders and selling the aforementioned games at £29.99 and making a loss on them to get ppl into their shop - this makes it almost impossible to actually ever sell anything at £39.99 and we ourselves tend to reduce things to £34.99 meaning we only get games at 15% less than retail not 45%..... now bear in mind that 15% is NOT alot to make on a game and as i have shown
incl. vat we pay £29.96 and sell for £34.99 making £5.03 per game we sell. Now work out wages, rates for your shop and all other overheads and your left with a fraction of that as profit... hence why more and more independants are closing down and only the mass chains with their complete lack of any knowledge in the actual industry are the only ones not to struggle...

[Gakkari]

I think I did actually say that what I wrote wasn't the same for the Indys, but point taken. I work for a games publisher, not wholesaler, and can assure you that we sell games in a lot lower than you outline here. Your beef is with the wholesalers, clearly.
But enough of that. You are (rightly) obviously very angry about piracy and pricing, but you're taking a very simplistic stance and pointing the finger at the wrong people by blaming the publishers. And, of course, publishers get hit considerably harder than retailers by piracy.

[Box Master 247]

a bad thing is though if you go on live with live your xbox will be closed down for ever(not very fun then) so you have to turn of the chip(if you can, i dont know much about the subject) i heard this of xbox gamer, where they did a A-Z of modchipping

[kronas]

Originally Posted by kRAyZZed

And which wholesale company do you work for? If your talking about the 45% discount i would guess one of the main ones, Pinnacle, Gem or Centersoft (possibly Ideal)?
But i do know for a fact that most wholesalers do NOT give 45% discount to even ppl like Game. Latest release retailing at £39.99 costs even them £25.50 per unit thats 64% and thus a 36% discount on retail for ordering in bulk, add vat to that and you get £29.96 so in actual fact it equates to 25% off the retail... now bear in mind the current trend with most supermarkets and whatnot using the latest games as loss leaders and selling the aforementioned games at £29.99 and making a loss on them to get ppl into their shop - this makes it almost impossible to actually ever sell anything at £39.99 and we ourselves tend to reduce things to £34.99 meaning we only get games at 15% less than retail not 45%..... now bear in mind that 15% is NOT alot to make on a game and as i have shown
incl. vat we pay £29.96 and sell for £34.99 making £5.03 per game we sell. Now work out wages, rates for your shop and all other overheads and your left with a fraction of that as profit... hence why more and more independants are closing down and only the mass chains with their complete lack of any knowledge in the actual industry are the only ones not to struggle...

yep i can confirm this, because my mate runs a videogame's shop i have seen his invoices and it really is tight for profit margins these days.......

btw Gem are ****e at delivering on time

[hawkseye000]

Sorry Kronas i voted for Franz Ferdinand - Matinee rather than Avril Lavigne

[kronas]

Originally Posted by hawkseye000

Sorry Kronas i voted for Franz Ferdinand - Matinee rather than Avril Lavigne

oh come on, you can vote as many times as you want

[SOSAGES]

i have a modded xbxo - i mostly use it for shutting my g/f up by getting some films on it that are "girly" in nature and then lending her the xbox with the films on the hard drive.

it is handy as a media center pc - may have to get a new fan for it as id like a more silent one may get one from soadvanced.com.

the emulators are niffty as well and waste away a boring sunday full of eastenders repeats.

the ability to stream files off any pc is handy.

the ability to backup games is also good - so if im going away for a weekend i could copy all my games to my hard drive and go. no need for the dvd's. havnt tried making an iso from them files and burning my own backups - may look into that.

all in all im impressed - but only with the media featires the games are boring.

[Defiant]

I use mine to back up games too. Save's carrying all the bleeders around with me when I take it out to a m8s. I'd never use for movies though. Not until they finish off that defrag and chkdsk app

[pluey]

Why not mod the dam machine - your machine - your choice - take a hammer to it iy you want - and if Microsoft claim that you dont own 100% of machine then give them their share of the pieces.


As for copying games - your choice - your risk. We all take risks - thats life.

As for playing online - give Xlink a go - no problem with mod detection here - you can play Halo online too - Microsoft are the only group to offer online play for xbox games - take a look around at the alternatives.....

But most of all enjoy your Xbox.

[grindkid25]

very nice stating there