Stolen Xbox 360 Developer Kits: Smartxx speaks out

Oct 10, 2005 @ 12:54 am
Filed under News · Deutsch

German Xbox mod chip developer Smartxx.com recently came under fire for their apparent involvement in illegal activities when they got hold of Xbox 360 development kits stolen from a warehouse in Germany.

Smartxx.com responds to the allegations in the press, revealing that 14 more Xbox 360 developer kits were stolen last month.

Read our full translation (with approval from Hamtitampti who has to deal with camera teams in front of his house asking for an interview right now as this is being posted) of their statement in the Smartxx forum (in German):

Unfortunately we were unable to get Microsoft to publish a joint and coordinated press release.

[…]

While Microsoft keeps quiet to avoid being misquoted, I am being attacked. Quote from Spiegel [German magazine that first ran the story, -Ed.] of next Monday: “A young man in his late twenties, who investigators refer to as a chain-smoking and soda-addicted computer freak.”

Also: “The apparently confused man told officers a story claiming he’d received the devices from a friend in Germany.”

The way that Spiegel presents this situation is outrageous and is against good taste. The whole thing has escalated so much that even on TV they have full stories on this issue. Would have been fun if this had happened in the US - I am sure I’d have had helicopters circling my home with aerial photography… (just like in the Larry Flynt movie).

Do you want the truth?

On Wednesday, August 24th, 10 XeDK boxes (Xbox 360 Developer kits) were stolen from the central warehouse of MS Europe, which is run by Bertelsmann Logistics in Düren.

On Friday, August 26th, the Team SmartXX was offered 7 Xedk developer kits. Team SmartXX was shocked, but we said, ok, we’ll take four (initially we didn’t even believe [those that claimed to possess the developer kits]).

Because of our history of good cooperation (love/hate relationship) with Microsoft on a variety of issues, we contacted Microsoft directly. Together with Microsoft it was decided to show the images of the XedK developer kits [on our web site], with the aim of lowering the emotional value of the devices (for further thefts) and also to create a market for it. [Ed.: I speak perfect German but this section is not very clear.].

This experiment was successful, and on September 6th a further 14 (!) Xedk developer kits were stolen. Due to an internal mishap this theft was witnessed, yet the pursuit failed. Naturally, this incident was not reported to police.

Due to a communication error within Microsoft - only a few [employees] knew the whole story, due to suspicion of an inside source within Microsoft - 2 emails of mine were forwarded to police with the note “hey, they know something”, since the Bertelsmann Logistics warehouse pressed charges against “unknown”.

Although this didn’t really match the facts, in order to not jeopardize the investigation, Team SmartXX returned the 4 developer kits [to the authorities].

This is the very reason why this case wasn’t taken on directly by Microsoft but was left to be handled by the company Prevent AG (www.prevent.ag) who specialize in cases of this kind.

A raid on one’s home on a Sunday afternoon is really quite something. Says Microsoft’s legal department, “oh don’t take it that seriously” (money can fix everything, MS isn’t called M$ for nothing).

It’s a pity that with large companies, sometimes some [departments] don’t know what the others are doing, and that some actions are taken without getting approval by higher ranking authorites [within the company].

Reports that the police had investigated this for quite some time is fiction. I believe that with an email that lists phone number and address, it’s relatively easy to figure out the sender [of the email].

Microsoft and ourselves did everything we could to have police drop the case, since an unknown factor in a secret investigation doesn’t really help. Unfortunately we were not successful.

It’s incredible that even police speak out in interviews about the case, but assert to lawyers that the case is still under investigation, which is why there are no files, [and police are still investigating]. The seized hardware (laptops, digital camera) hasn’t been returned yet (but I hope they have fun looking at my holiday snaps).

After this we decided, on Oct 9th 2005, to show pictures of 3 Xboxes on the smartxx website (albeit this time the final Xbox 360 consoles, with all the accessories). All according to [the motto]: It worked the first time, it will work again.

According to this, further Xbox developer kits will be/have been delivered to the warehouse on 10th/11th October, equipped with a tracking device, just to make 100% sure this time. This happened directly in China during production, to avoid any gaps in the logistical handling [of the Xboxes] (although doing it this way took a little longer).

So, everyone can now go figure how this is going to work out. Which is why the whole thing was canceled.

We at SmartXX want to apologize to everyone involved, charged or accused, that we didn’t show our cards earlier [didn’t play with open cards].

To Microsoft I’d like to say: Sure, you’re going to deny everything again, as always. But to tell every journalist at X05 that you’ve already found the perpetrators… that’s amazing, since in the internal memo [at Microsoft] everyone was asked to keep quiet about it.

Why don’t you deny that you’re paying my lawyer? It’s going to be hard to explain my bank statements, or are these possibly falsified documents?

We also want to thank the press for your “outstanding” press release, that was very helpful. Thanks again. It really helped to solve the case.

There were also some good journalists. Many thanks to Golem.de, who at least called first and initially held back on the story, talking about it only after they had enquired about it.

One would hope the same also from other reputable journalists, but unfortunately reality is different.

Team Smartxx reserves the right to take legal action against libelous statements from the press.

A simple apology certainly is not going to make this [incident] go away.

Hamptitampti Forum Administrator at SmartXX.com