Yesterday I had a very long interesting conversation with a recently laid off Xbox 360 hardware/software tester who had some very interesting things to say to me.
They are:
1st. Interesting Thing:
There is a super secret kill-switch remote suicide self-destruct command that if Microsoft really wanted to they can remotely trigger and tell an Xbox 360 to fry itself and die. This was intended to be a last resort option if a fight against Xbox Live cheaters or major league professional game piracy ever got big. To their knowledge it has only been done in test situation in the lab but if they wanted to they could have the regular system security sweeps over Xbox Live activate a kill command when it found a compromised hacked Xbox 360 system. It works by having the Xbox overload an efuse and "pop" the efuse. The Xbox 360 will then crash and then will get an "Red Ring of Death Core Digital" error when the boot-up test comes back with a major component hardware failure. This is not the same as bricking or crashing a system since this will actually do physical damage to the motherboard.
It is not technically illegal for them to do this since attempting to hack an Xbox 360 is a violation of the Xbox Live Terms of Service EULA and a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Microsoft's entire business model on the Xbox is based around them loosing money on the cost of the hardware and then to make it up from game publishing royalties. If game software ever got easy enough for mainstream consumers to try it would nuke all chances of the Xbox 360 business being profitable. Likewise the entire idea behind online gameplay on the Xbox Live network is that it is a secured walled garden that is impenetrable to hacking and cheating. If there was rampant cheating it would cause people to loose faith in the network service and not want to keep subscribing to it. This is Microsoft's "nuclear" option. Currently they have not had to show this trump card since they can ban consoles and users from the Xbox Live network but if it ever really got out of hand they have the option of pulling the trigger and causing and Xbox 360 to melt down and kill itself via software. A "popped" Xbox 360 is not really a fire hazard since the BIOS will shut down the CPU and GPU after the boot test fails and the only thing that remains powered is the Red Ring of Death after the hardware failure mode is triggered. Now if you send a "popped" Ex-Xbox to a RnR repair facility they will have no problem recognizing the "popped" fuse and they will not offer to repair your Xbox 360 since they know that you were an naughty boy and they had to kill your Xbox.
Besides considering the fault intolerant design of the Xbox 360 hardware it is not too hard to get them to break. They will never ever admit to this but if they wanted to they could kill and Xbox just by running a self-destruct command over Xbox Live. Think about that the next time you harass a woman and tell her to show you her boobs over Xbox Live. Again Microsoft will never admit this but the back door kill-switch was built into the Xbox 360 system.
Update: Technologizer.com found the section of the Xbox Live Terms of Service Agreement that you would be breaking to take a hacked Xbox console on Xbox Live.
"(c) upgrade, modify, withdraw, suspend, or discontinue any functionality or feature of the Service, any game or other content available or accessible through the Service, or any hardware or software associated with the Service or with an original Xbox or Xbox 360 console, or personal computer, from time to time without notice, which may involve the automatic download of related software directly to your original Xbox, Xbox 360 console, or personal computer, including software that prevents you from accessing the Service, playing pirated games, or using unauthorized hardware peripheral devices."
2nd. Interesting Thing:
Microsoft is currently software testing Metal Gear Solid 4 for Xbox 360. They might announce it at E3 but Konami likes to make money and Metal Gear Solid 4 was very expensive for them to make. Microsoft and Konami will not admit it before they are ready to but secretly builds of Metal Gear Solid 4 for Xbox 360 started being tested late last year. Konami want to make back their software development costs and they need to get it on the Xbox 360 to do it.
Photo via mikemol
3rd. Interesting Thing:
Microsoft makes a lot of hardware prototypes and very few hardware projects actually make it to market. They probably did start to build a Blu-Ray player and a motion sensitive wand controller but they never got close enough to making it to market.
4th. Interesting Thing:
The software testing group is chronically understaffed, underpaid, underfunded and given impossible deadlines. This results in games and DLC getting to market with game killing faults. Microsoft employes the services of a testing contractor named VMC to run lots of Xbox 360 software tests. Rather than having skilled programers and testers do the tests they have mostly untrained people working long hours for minimum wage and no benefits. Sometimes it can be as little as one or two VMC testers to go through a Xbox Live Arcade game or major DLC pack. No wonder Mr. Driller Online was not actually playable online and game developers complain that it takes forever and a day to get their games and title update patches through the Xbox software test labs. The source thought that this was a very short sighted move and that their business would be better served it they put more money into hiring more skilled testers rather than outsourcing the work over the the VMC sweatshop. To makes things worse a lot of good testers got laid off recently. Cutting corners on testing during the development of the original Xbox 360 Xenon hardware led to the RROD failures. Things are going from bad to way worse.
5th. Interesting Thing:
Harmonix is having Microsoft's Xbox Test Labs run acceptance tests on the new Rock Band controller hardware. The Beatles: Rock Band is coming along and is playable. (Man sorry internet grammar Nazis, I forgot the space in ROCK "SPACE" BAND)
6th. Interesting Thing:
Game developers and publishers can arrange for and purchase compliance wavers from Microsoft if their game does not meet software compliance or Xbox Live Network compliance. They can either opt to fix them at a later date or keep paying Microsoft to look the other way for games that don't exactly match up with the given specifications. Really bad bugs are patched through title updates with very little fanfare but they will allow a game to go gold master and "RTM" (Release to Manufacturing) with major game killing bugs that they hope will not be discovered by customers until they get patched. The problem is that the software approval testing is underfunded and understaffed. Microsoft has a vested interest in seeing a game not miss their intended publishing deadline and they are willing to bend the rules and let bad code slip by if the publisher is willing to make it worth their time and to play their game.
7th. Interesting thing: 8bitjoystick.com was considered a forbidden site at VMC and the Xbox testing labs. They were discouraged from reading it or contributing comments. It was not blocked but the test lab workers were explicitly told not to post comments there. This was back when I had first published my Xbox RROD Insider series of articles and I had plenty of insider technical information in those articles.
Update: If you didn't know SeattlePI.com's Digital Joystick is a syndication of my blog 8bitjoystick.com. I run both of them.
Now I want the Xbox business to succeed just like I want the Wii and PS3 business to succeed. The source for this article was well vetted. Microsoft is going through their first major layoffs ever and it is no surprise that a recently laid off worker might have a few things they want to get off their chest to a rumor-monger blogger like me. If Microsoft PR ever issues a statement about this article it will be "We don't comment or speculation and rumors" but there is some serious room for improvement with Xbox 360 software testing labs. They also can kill an Xbox 360 by just thinking about it and typing a command into Xbox Live.
Update : To the NeoGAF Forum Doubters. I am not some fanboy troll. I actually do business reporting in the games industry. I have interviewed high ups at Microsoft, Sony and Bungie. I’ve been covering the games industry for seven years now and have a decent track record.
I never have personally broken an NDA or leaked information before the PR approved embargo date. However if someone wants to break their NDA to me confidentially and I can verify the legitimacy of the source I will treat it as a confidential news source. That’s standard journalism practices.
Take it all with a grain of salt. My source for this article did work at MS for several years. They had serious concerns about the relatively small amount of funding MS was spending on software testing compared to the large amount of work they have to do.
Snarky Update: Hey NeoGAF haters. Here is a photo of me and Xbox 360 Project Manager Aaron Greenberg. It was back when he invited me out to Redmond to show me the NXE a couple months before you got it. Do you like apples? How do you like dem apples? Not bad for just some "blogger". Oh SNAP! Don't look now but you just got served.
Play him off Keyboard Cat.
