Datel reportedly looking to 'remedy' Microsoft's lock-out of unauthorized memory units
By Donald Melanson 
posted October 28th 2009 3:58PM
posted October 28th 2009 3:58PM
posted October 28th 2009 3:58PM
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And so another cat and mouse game starts... You ready to play?
I'd rather just be a dog.
I'll be human and hunt all your sorry asses!
and clean our poop
I built my own xbox.
LOL Memory "cards". In bloody 2009.
The important question is, will the memory unit sync with itunes?
Ballsy move by MS... Wonder if the backlash will be substantial.
I hope MS loses this one. There needs to be more options for console accessories. You can already see the effect on the console industry with wireless controllers. Since all the console manufactures only allow their controllers to be wireless. This leads to their controllers still being the same price since the console launch.
It's been 4 damn years since the Xbox360 came out why are wireless controllers still floating around $50...
The DualShock 3 is still $55. The Wiimote is still $40, $60 with the nunchuk, and $80 with MotionPlus. Are you still complaning?
@Spartan_458
I said "console" not just Xbox. Just using Microsoft as the piss perfect example because the Xbox was released first and it should have been the first to seen a price drop.
And who wouldn't be pissed? If you don't "shop around" you have to settle for a brand new controller costing as much as game. I wish there were more Third-Party manufactures not for the cheap knock-offs that didn't work but for the quality makes that dropped the price of the First-Party accessories.
I hope so. Cutting out 3rd party accessories is just a jerk move. It's annoying enough that they hardly let anyone even make WIRELESS 3rd party controller. Get real MS.
Apple locks people out of using the iTouch they want by not allowing them install apps without going through the App store, keep undoing jailbreaking, and even bricking some jailbroken devices.
That is a good thing, Apple needs to make that money to give them that huge wind-fall profits from last quarter. We should be happy to pay higer prices.
Sony specifically disables certian unlicensed controllers.
That is a good thing. Sony needs to make back the money that they are losing on each PS3 sold. The people who bought those unlicensed controllers deserve to have their devices locked, and lose out on the money they lost.
Microsoft disables unlicensed memory devices.
This is horrible. We need a severe backlash against this evil, anti-consumer actions. Microsoft is just a greedy, evil corporation that charges too much for their peripherals, and by deactivating these memory cards, it shows how much Steve Balmer (Developers, Developers, Developers) hates people. Oh, and he also eats babies and worships Satan.
@NohOne
so sad that you cant realize what the purpose of locking out these types of devices are. its intent is not to prevent third party accessories (other companies can seek licensing) the problem is that datel has always been in the business of reverse engineering products in order to make some profit off them and what worse they always go for stuff that will appeal to pirates, cheaters, hackers and other shady behavior. they've made action replays, xbox hdd connectivity kits, "region unlockers(used for pirating obviously)".
They are pretty much the reason there are cheaters in online games such as cod4/codwaw online, and the datel memory cards they sell are being used to cheat/hack game saves or boosting gamerscores. Every damn accessory they sell has been a nightmare for the online community. Its only a matter of time when people figure out ways to really screw with the online community, do you guys remember how great PSO was till the hackers ruined it?
Spartan, you're dead wrong about the playstation 3 controller. I can get one for $20, because there are alternatives. MS probably permits a similar alternative controller.
I don't actually think MS should license Datel stuff. I've been gaming for longer than Datel has been around, and I've seen quite well that Datel makes very unreliable junk.
If you buy an XBOX 360, you are buying the most expensive console... by far... if you plan to have a big hard drive and game online and have wifi. Is that bad? Not at all. It's just a choice. It's a shame people are often uninformed about this, but that's not MS's problem.
MS = expensive peripherals. The same, to a lesser extent (obvious to non fanboys) applies to Sony. Nintendo can be pretty silly in this area, but I think they offer a lot of value and creativity in their expensive peripherals... nothing like $100 wifi dongles and ridiculous storage options and online fees for commercials.
All these companies get to make money... they can license 3rd party stuff if they think it will make more money, but with Datel, I don't think they will. After all, who wants anything unreliable associated with 360? They have enough of that already,.
I'm a bit more biased towards the Xbox 360 (only cause I play more games on it than my dust-collecting PS3), but this "lock out 3rd party memory hardware" is a tab bit too excessive.
Plus the premium they have us pay for the accessories is outrageous! The 60 GB hard drive kit is still in the $70~ range while the 120 GB one is at the absurd $120~150 range. I mean... it's a bloody hard drive! Hell, I can get a 320 GB Western Digital MyPassport or Seagate FreeAgent Go for less than $80. And yes, they are 2.5" hard drives with an enclosure and features like encryption and one-click backup.
I really hope the PS3's price drop will force Microsoft to make their "maintenance fees" a bit cheaper. Sure, I paid $499 for my PS3. But I'm on my second Xbox 360 already. My first one was $399 and my second one was $199. Plus I had to buy a second hand wireless adaptor for $50 ($100 for a brand new one is insane! I can get a generic USB WIFI adaptor for less than $20). I also pay $50 a year for Xbox Live Gold. And lastly... I'm stuck with my stupid 20 GB hard drive. The total cost of ownership of an Xbox is quite high. I was outraged when PS3 fans at some forum full of morons called Xbox 360 users "poor and cheap".
At $299, the PS3 is the shebang. Blu-ray, 120 GB, built-in wifi (not to mention built-in power adaptor!) and free online gaming (though IMO, Xbox Live is superior to PSN in every way possible. But what do you expect? PSN is free). If you can stomach having a crappier game line-up (I care little now for Gran Turismo 5 after playing Forza 3. Odd thing is is that I got a PS3 just for GT5 and I got one earlier after rumors that it will be released late 2008. But alas, it was delayed, AGAIN! I'll still get GT5 though when it comes out, duh!) and the crappier, but still respectable, online gaming service. Get a PS3. Most games on the Xbox 360 are on it as well anyway. If you're someone who just plays sports games like NBA 2K10 or Madden 10, you're better off with a PS3. More bang for the buck. You get extra features. Better than getting an Xbox 360 Arcade + WIFI Adaptor at $299 because most people I know DON'T have Ethernet cables running through the wall to their rooms.
God. Fuck Microsoft so much. Their Xbox 360 is like a drug I keep craving. I know it's bad for me, but I want it. But alas, it's like comparing a cigarette to a nicotine patch.
If they're "unauthorised" then surely they're asking for trouble...?
I am with MS on this one....MS created the product, did the R&D and sunk its costs to push the platform....the company should pay royalties since they are making money off someone elses product
Arhhhhhh, poor Microsoft. There there... boo hoo.
Have you ever thought that MS won't authorize third party memory cards or HDD's? MS likes to rape the consumer when it comes to accessories for the 360. Haveing authorized (third party) drives and memory cards would hurt their bottom line.
Lets see, MS locks you into a 512MB unit and charges you $30.00, Datel gives you 4GBs and charges you $40.00 plus you can change the MicroSD to a 16GB and you can copy your saves to your computer to preserve space or use at a later time or as backup. From My Cube, shut up. If they did the proper R&D from jump then there would be nothing to worry about. Do you even own a 360!?
Caprice, this is not about gamers saving money. This is about Microsofts absolute right to make as much money as they can. don't buy a 360 if you don't like them.
I'm with you on this. If you bought a 360 you knew it was a closed platform and you easily had access to the pricing of microsoft accessories. Yes, it sucks that they don't offer other options, but it's their damn platform. The PS3 is open in hard drives and usb memory cards, you could have bought one of those. Datel has no right to make money off their unlicensed software, and THEY are at fault for lying to their customers saying it would work on the 360 when they knew MS could shut them down any time. MS has the right to do whatever they want on the platform they made, no one is forcing you to buy a 360 or a memory card at all. There are two other consoles out there, and the PC, which is fully customizable. I'm sick of people bitching about microsoft for protecting their platform.
Score one for the little guy :-)
Score one for the little guy?
What are you, a Commy? Are you a damn Communist?! Answer me, son!
Little guy? They're both huge corporations. They don't care about us, the little guys.
How can you be with MS on this one "From My Cube"? Toyota or GM makes a car and so, by your logic, no one but Toyota or GM can make parts for these cars? This seems like anti-competitive behavior by MS to me.
I continue to be slightly amazed by people who are offended by companies that freeze out third party devices on their proprietary standards. If Microsoft had wanted an open product, they wouldn't have made their own interface for cards, and you would be able to just use a USB hard drive plugged into the box. They built their own interfaces because they wanted people to only use their products. It's not like this is new, people. Just ask Nintendo and Sony, who have been doing this since time immemorial.
Consoles traditionally are closed to third party products to either a large or small degree. Microsoft has chosen a large degree, and you know what? If you own an Xbox you don't get to complain about it. You bought into their world knowing full well how closed it was. All you can say now is that it'd be nice if Microsoft opened up their product but you can't get all worked up about Microsoft keeping their product closed because:
A. you knew that going in, and
B. it's their prerogative as the producer of that product
You want an open gaming option that uses industry wide standards for peripheral interfaces with lots of unusual options and no barrier on the production side to enter it? PLAY PC GAMES! It's about as open as you can get. You can buy any cool peripheral you want, you can store your games however you like, and you can buy any weird game that is produced because no one is looking over that games company's shoulder. Do that, or buy an xbox and enjoy it. But please do not complain about how you bought a highly subsidized product that made no pretense of being anything other than a closed product and now, HORROR, they're keeping it closed like they said they would.
@arthur barnhouse
I see your point, but a situation like this hasn't occurred in the console world, as far as I can remember. The problem is that the memory card has worked just fine up until this point, so while of course there was a chance that MS would lock it out, nobody really expected that to happen. If it was locked in the first place, then I would agree more with your point.
@Matt
I appreciate that this item worked in the past and now it won't, but it worked in the past because it was a prepackaged hack, not because Microsoft ever gave a pretense of supporting it as a hardware solution. In that sense you can lament the loss of the option, but you can't say Microsoft is doing something underhanded because they never claimed they were going to support this.
arthur:
...If you own an Xbox you don't get to complain about it....
(BUZZER SOUND)
For all variety of reasons, you are dead wrong. The fundamental one is that as a consumer, it's my GOD DAMN RIGHT to complain about whatever the hell I feel like. In fact, the only thing I cannot legitimately complain about is when, due to a lack of complaints, no company makes the product I want. If I have kept my trap shut up until that point, I can't complain that no one is listening to me.
But in this case, I own an XBox specifically because I knew this solution was available. I did make a calculated gamble that MS wouldn't risk the bad PR from a move like this, and I lost.
But now I get to complain about it, and quite possibly set up some ritual sacrifice of my Xbox, where I destroy it in the most creative and publicity-gathering manner possible.
@ Alec Munro
I guess you can complain if you want, but my response would be "Well, what did you expect? You were using a hack that Microsoft doesn't officially support." Much more importantly, you're purchase of the Xbox is an act of support and a tacit acceptance of the closed platform they said they were creating from the beginning. Fine, you can complain, but the complaint is nonsensical. "I can no longer use an unsupported hack" is about as far from reasonable as you can get.
If you want more open standards from companies, you have to support the companies with the most open standards in the market place. Right now your options are PC games for that. But hell, let's just say for the sake of argument you don't want to do PC games. the PS3 supports using standard cards instead of a proprietary interface. Use the PS3. You'll still be in a more closed platform than on a PC, but at least you are sending a signal to other companies regarding a certain level of hardware openness. But you bought an Xbox, and that means you bought the standards of the Xbox. It's hard to feel sympathy for you as a consumer at this stage.
@arthur barnhouse
Ok here's the deal. No one said it was a hack, these things are sold on store shelves at Best Buy as an alternative to the overpriced MS Mem Unit. Average consumer that walks into Best Buy has no idea that it could stop working, like myself they may have bought a Datel PS2 Memory card and remember how it never had a problem and think "Oh cool, the company is still around making great alternatives" because that's what Microsoft is doing they are eliminating alternatives. And by the way they have not said that there is any reason why they are locking it out, people are suggesting that it is because of game save swapping or region unlocking or hacking or piracy but if you do the research like I have you will find out that the Datel product is not required or even used in any of these cases except game save swapping and there it is only an option, not a requirement. I say thank god Datel is fighting back hopefully I can download the update for my now useless card.
I say all this and more on a petition about the issue read please THEN tell me why you disagree, not before how do you know what I am saying in the petition if you don't read it. I know it's hard to ask someone on the internet to read a single page for more than 30 seconds but I believe I cover all the bases with this.
http://bit.ly/2pVtXq
@Cave
Maybe no one is SAYING it's a hack, but it its a hack. A hardware hack to work around microsoft's lack of support for third party peripherals. Even if a consumer did buy it from Best Buy next to the official product, how is that Microsoft's fault. Microsoft's position on this has always been that they do not support or allow third party peripherals. If Best Buy gave the impression that they did, that is Best Buy's fault not Microsoft's. Much more importantly it is Datal, for saying things on the item in question such as "100% compatible with the Xbox." Is it confusing for the consumer? Yes, it is, but that confusion was not created by Microsoft, it was created by Datal and, to a certain extent, the businesses that sold the consumer the product. I'll say it again, Microsoft is not under any obligation to support an unauthorized third party hardware hack, regardless of the fact Datal has purposefully confused customers.
@arthur barnhouse
I'm not saying it's not within their rights, I'm saying it should be against their conscience. Yes they're a for profit company, and yes I am appreciative of the 360 existing, but beyond that I'm still gonna give them hell for what I consider mistreating customers. I don't believe that Datel's Mem Unit is at all affecting Microsofts abilities to maintain profitablity (is that a word) or the services or products regarding the 360. It is a move to make the overpriced Mem Units sell since I bet almost no one is buying them. If this type of thing came from Valve I would be surprised, and I'm not letting Nintendo or Sony off about this either, they both have their decisions and services that are not really considering the consumer also. But Microsoft is the one I'm talking about now.
@cave
A. You're right, it is well within their rights
B. They're not "abusing" their customers by shutting down a third party workaround that they explicitly said they were never giong to support in the first place.
C. This is not a discussion of Microsoft's profitability, it doesn't matter whether why they did this
D. Even if it was an issue of profitability, Microsoft has made 312 Million this year from the games and entertainment division and 115 million last year, and NOTHING BUT LOSSES every year prior to that.
If you want to complain that you really wish Microsoft would support this, fine, but for heaven's sake it is not anti-consumer to not support something they said they wouldn't support. You want to complain to someone? Complain to Datel, they're the ones who mislead you.
If you don't want to join them, beat them. Wonder if Microsoft is going to try to through the DMCA at them for finding some way to circumvent the new lock out?
The media really needs to get somebody other than Major Nelson (although Larry's great at his job of community interaction) on the record about this.
Stephen Toulouse, Director of Policy and Enforcement for XBox Live was on Major Nelson's podcast this week and explained a very rational reason for why Microsoft has banned these devices. It's quite simple. Datel refuses to change its business model and keep people from using their products to cheat. Datel in fact on their web site promotes the ability to download other people's gamersaves from the Internet as a reason to purchase one of their products.
I have no doubt that one of Microsoft's motives was to force Datel to pay royalties or cease making money off the XBox 360. But that doesn't change the fact that Datel products give their users what Microsoft (IMO correctly) judges an unfair advantage over other gamers. Toulouse said on the podcast that a large number of people they see cheating for Gamerscore or in other ways on the XBox 360 are using Datel memory devices.
Datel cannot win this. Microsoft will simply roll out a minor patch (like they did today for the WiFi adapter) every time Datel tries to get over on them. It's over for Datel unless they decide to stop promoting cheating and pay Microsoft royalties.
Awesome. I'm going to pick one of these up if they do manage to fix it.
Buyer beware, just because they get it working today doesn't mean it will work tomorrow, also, it's made by Datel, so even if they say it's working 100%, it probably only works about a third of the time. They are probably one of the lowest regarded manufacturers of anything, ever.
You bought a 360. You knew MS was the company behind it. Their entire modus operandi, for decades, has been to lock you in. They want to buy out or destroy all competitors with FUD, astroturf, backroom deals, shady lockouts with 3rd parties, etc. They don't make it a secret. You buying a 360 is a vote to turn gaming into the type of environment that dominates office applications and operating systems.
MS has a legal right to modify their 360 software and lock you out of your own console, lock out peripherals, make your system 'unsupported' when the next xbox comes out, etc. They honestly care only about quarterly shareholder returns. Look at last generation's xbox buyer... totally screwed.
You not only have to worry about Datel stuff being bricked again and again, it's only a matter of time before your 360 is interfering with the bottom line, much like Windows 2000 or Office 97 (like the 360, great products that will be useful in 20 years, but for arbitrary actions).
I'm glad to see this as I just recently bought a datel 2gb to move game saves and profiles off my original 360 to the elite i bought at 299 w/50 rebate (which I have yet to see of course, but it wasn't the deciding factor, just sweetened the pot a bit). I wanted all the updated hardware but primarily an hdmi port.
Anyway, to try and stop rambling my $40 2gb memory saved me from trying to get the cable and software from MS and allowed me to move stuff the same night i bought the elite. Now it sits, pretty much doing nothing. i really don't need yet another memory card for any of my machines.
Thanks, Datel.
If Apple can lock their hardware, why can't MS? MS is just doing what Apple has been doing all along. Creating their own hardware for the better experience for the end user.
If all your friends jumped off a cliff would you do it too?
Except no one is jumping off the cliff.
Proud race guy,
MS is doing this for profits, not for your benefit. It's absurd to say otherwise. This is Microsoft we're talking about. That said, of course this is their right, and anyone who thought MS wouldn't behave this way is crazy. Sony and Nintendo and MS have the power to lock out stuff they don't make enough money from.
Datel is crap and no one should be that sad about this, but it's not some act of charity.
What do you think Apple does it for, Gimboa? For the consumers benefit? Ha.
In what way do you interpret my comment as a compliment of Apple? Of course Apple does it for the money.
And they make a lot of money. In fact, in this economy, they are one of the biggest success stories out there. We should all be grateful that Apple makes a lot of money. We want more and more of that.
I do not have a favorable opinion of Apple products, but that's not the point.
Ahh, touché.
@DeepFried
My comment was making a jab at those who believe MS is horrible for doing this, but then turn around and defend Sony or Apple for doing the same thing.
I don't think the customer who was just trying to pay a little less and have no intent on "gaming" the system should be penalized (be it MS, Sony, or Apple who creates the device), but the blame lies solely on Datel for not using the official channels to produce their device. The last time an article was written on the Datel memory card being locked out, people were yelling that MS was horrible for doing this and at the same time defending Apple and Sony for doing the same thing. Over and over we read about how great Apple is for locking out people from putting apps on the iTouch without going through the App store, how great Apple is for suing Psystar, how great Apple is for blocking Palm from using iTunes with the Pre. How Sony was justified in locking Linux developers from getting full access to the PS3 hardware, how great Sony is for blocking out certian 3rd party controllers. The same people then turn around and claim that MS is comitting rape, being anti-competitive, and more.
I love PS3!