Making Backups Of XBox 360 Games
If you have a Microsoft XBox 360 chances are you're a happy camper. Sleeker and more powerful than the original XBox, the 360 is a competent gaming console that can soak up your spare time and then some with scores of mostly very good (and some excellent) games. People may forever argue the relative merits of the XBox 360 versus the Sony PlayStation 3 or the Nintendo Wii, but it's really a moot point. If you have a 360 you've invested in XBox 360 games, watch XBox 360 movies, and most likely have a subscription to XBox Live. And you certainly enjoy the XBox 360 games download capabilities made possible through speedy broadband connections.
Unfortunately, there's a bit of a discrepancy between the wonderful XBox hardware, the blindingly fast Internet connections, and then fact that the XBox is a very closed system. There are some good reasons for that. Unlike regular PCs, game consoles are totally and completely standardized. You can't add more RAM, change the drive, or upgrade the processor. You also can't mess with the system software other than installing the necessary XBox 360 firmware or system upgrades. That's because console hardware and software must be completely standard in order to optimally and reliably run games. The complete standardization also makes it possible for consoles to remain unchanged for several years. Games get better as developers learn how to squeeze the last bit of power out of a console, but other than that, every single game made for a particular console will always run on that console. No upgrades needed, ever.
The bad part about all this is that even though the XBox 360 is a computer, it's a totally locked computer and you can't even make backups of the very games you own. That's not good. I've had enough hard disks crash on me and enough CDs and DVDs become unreadable that I've become pretty paranoid. In my work I'd never rely on a piece of software that I cannot back up. Yet, that's exactly the situation gamers are in. They can't back up their own games. If a game DVD goes bad - and that can easily happen given how much use they get - you're simply out of luck. No one is going to give you a new DVD. You have to buy your own XBox software all over again. No XBox backup for you. That's not a good situation.
So what's the solution? There really isn't a clean one. Microsoft knows its software and hardware, and they decided to not allow backups of their game DVDs. To keep people from doing backups of their DVDs, the game files are encrypted and the XBox will only run special XBox 360 media. Does that mean those who are determined to protect their investment via backups are simply out of luck? No, there are ways to get into the XBox 360 so you can do backups. In fact, there's a whole community out there dedicated to XBox modifications and the ability to download XBox 360 games, XBox 360 movies, XBox 360 firmware, and Xbox software. It may very well be worth your while to check it out.
Chris Robertson is an author of Majon International, one of the worlds MOST popular internet marketing companies on the web. Learn more about XBox 360 Backup or Majon's Gaming and Gambling directory.
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