- 精华
- 0
- 帖子
- 727
- 威望
- 0 点
- 积分
- 746 点
- 种子
- 5 点
- 注册时间
- 2009-4-11
- 最后登录
- 2020-1-19
|
Rumor Patrol: Xbox Tester Edition - NeoGAF
传闻来自最近被微软裁员的 Xbox 测试员所提供的一些消息，仅供娱乐。
微软掌握一个属于超级秘密的能够远程控制 Xbox 360 主机***的命令，只是用做对付 Xbox Live 作弊者和日益猖獗的盗版行为的最后手段。测试员们了解到这个命令只是在实验室中测试，可以发送一个***命令让那些改装过的 Xbox 360 失效，然后表现为三红症状，其实是让主板真的物理损坏。
微软这样做在技术上来说不是非法的，因为改装主机的行为违反了 Xbox Live EULA 协议以及 DMCA。由于微软的商业收入模型就是以低于成本的价格卖出主机，然后从游戏和 Xbox Live 服务获取利润。如果用户行为危害到 Xbox Live 的核心，那么微软就会启动这个核按钮。目前微软还没有正式启动这项命令，因为还有 BAN 主机和帐号以拒绝服务的手段。这些改装过的主机如果真的被远程损坏，那么大多数用户也不敢将其交给微软维修，因为很容易检测出来。
微软其实在去年年底已经在测试 Xbox 360 版的《合金装备 4》Metal Gear Solid 4 / MGS4。Konami 在这款游戏中投入太多，他们想获得尽可能多的利润（例如卖出更多的 PS3 版？），因此移植到 Xbox 360 是一个好的办法，微软也需要测试好才正式公开，因此可能在今年的 E3 公布。
微软内部有很多测试产品都没有正式公布，例如 Xbox 360 的蓝光播放器、体感控制器等，但是不大有机会推出市场。
制作《吉他英雄》和《摇滚乐队》的 Harmonix 正在微软实验室测试新型的控制器，将随《摇滚乐队：披头士乐队专辑》推出市场。
微软禁止测试实验室等部门浏览被微软解雇的一位员工成立的专门透露微软内幕的 8bitjoystick.com 网站，不能阅读其内容和发表评论。
引用:
Xbox Tester Reveals Several Interesting Things: Secret Xbox Suicide Command and Metal Gear Solid 4 is Coming to Xbox 360
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.
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 a fuse and "pop" the fuse. 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.
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.
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 semi-sweat-shop 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 Beetles: Rockband is coming along and is playable.
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.
Now want to say 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.[
Editor's note: This is a P-I Reader Blog. P-I Reader Blogs are not written or edited by the P-I. They are written by readers, for readers.
[s:256]. |
|
川公网安备 51019002005286号
楼主
发表于 2009-5-14 13:36 · 辽宁
