Ten Xbox360 Dev Kits Stolen In Germany

I had to sign one of them as well years ago when they first came out :-(


Some more news on this story


http://www.xb360info.com/xbox/news/159

http://www.xb360info.com/xbox/news/168

 

They posted pictures two months before the theft happened?

The kits were stolen in August.

SmartXX posted pics in August.

Not saying the team stole em, but if you had hot XDeKs and wanted to sell em, who would you turn to? Offering them up to a mod chip manufacturer sounds like a pretty logical choice, no?

-hl718

 

It takes months to develop a modchip. Smartxx must have had them before these were stolen in august. Its not like they got them and then few days later posted pictures of their prototypes, etc. But its not really a big deal. ITs just that it was all an inside job.

As for selling them. A few indie dev companies probably bought them to start making prototypes, which they would then showcase to publishers to get money to continue working on it. This I know has been done before.

 

wheres smartxx locally home us asia or eu ?

 

They're located in Germany.

Now they're claiming they bought them from a "friend". So its a good chance those were some the stolen dev kits.

 

Yeah because im sure those chips were working... for all we know the kits dint even include the copy protection MS has included in production units and its not like they had any software to test their chips with.

 

Well once the xbox360 is out, all they have do it is compare both the kit and the retail to find the security features MS added and figure out a way to disable them.


I just find it funny as how Smartxx is trying to make themselvs out to be the good guy in all of this. They got caught with buying stolen goods. They didn't steal it but they bought it, and knew about it, and yet they threaten to sue journalists who make libelous statements about them.

 

Did you *see* the pictures in question?

SmartXX didn't post any photos of a working (or hell, even a non-working mod).

It simply posted photos of the innands of the machine. Give me a machine and I can open it up and take photos of the inside within an hour of receipt. Again, what would the team have had to develop? The film?

-hl718

 

I did see some PCB board with their smartxx name in those pictures, so I assumed those where the chips. BUt now that somebody posted the links to the articles about the theft and smartxx's response. I read them and I understand how the whole thing unfolded. Its clear that smartxx owns someone elses dev kit, hope they get whats coming to them and I hope the other perpatrators get caught too.

 

The PCB shown in the photos was the current gen Xbox mod chip. Wouldn't have a chance in hell of fitting in a 360. And it was only shown in an exterior shot to "brand" the photos as SmartXX photos (ie, the "We've got three dev kits and you don't so, nyah!" photo). All the interior shots were of the native XeDk internals with no crap added (no spare wires, no non MS PCBs visible, etc.)

-hl718

 

...Why does this whole thread get funnier every time I see it?

 

mystery solved smartxx worked with ms together to catch the thieves acording to a forum post in the smartxx forum

funny thing is it where not only 10 xedks stolen no it where 24 at all in 2 different action someones gonna make a whole lot of cash and /or jailtime...

 

erm can you say that last bit again please?

 

ms sended out 2 different palets with xdks and from both where only the xbox 360 stolen i think on the xboxscene homepage is a translation of the forum post (which is in german)

to make it short

link to the whole translation: http://www.xbox-scene.com/

btw. they tried a third mission from ms site and this time they put in trackers but those wherent stolen if i read it right :death

 

Hamptitampti Forum Administrator at SmartXX.com

 

In about a month before the xbox360 is released, the same warehouse will house the xbox360s. So who knows, more 360s will be stolen.