Located in a South China shopping center, this shop doesn’t merely “fix” consoles. It fixes them so they can run pirates games. Common throughout the country, the “Chinese pirates hacking den”, as website China Underground called it, specialises in flashing (modding) Xbox 360 and hacking consoles like the PlayStation 3 and the Wii.
Video game consoles are banned in China. However, modded machines and illegally pirated games are widely available on the country’s grey market.
Matteo Damiani took these photos for Italian site CinaOggi. More can be viewed in the link below.
Dentro il covo dei pirati cinesi delle XBOX360 e Playstation 3 [CinaOggi via China Underground]
Top photo: Matteo Damiani/CinaOggi
Andy
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 7:30 AMNo different than local ones. Would have rather a piece on those.
Dionysus
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 8:58 AMNo local shop is going to allow you to walk in and take pictures especially after the raid on a few shop for selling illegal paytv.
If this is the same as the local dens then there would be no difference in articles right?
Any one that has been to certain areas of China such as Shenzhen would know how easy it is to come across forms of piracy.
masha2932
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 8:16 AMLooks cool. Mr. Ashcraft is there any chance of an expanded feature on American or Australian hacking dens, that would be great. A look at the hackers methodology, why they do it, their fear of getting caught would actually be interesting.
noko
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 11:04 AMI’ve been to a few Oz hacking dens, even one working right across from a police station. Problem is that enforcement on illegal modification of console for profit (note I said profit, not personal use) is not very high up on the scale of criminal sanctions for legislators. I’ve even come across one handing out business cards freely in a market with police guards.
Awnshegh
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 8:30 AMI just hope that 10 seconds after they boot up into Live or the PSN they become bricks.
Some_Guy
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 10:48 AMThat doesn’t happen.
The console would just be banned from the services.
Sage
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 1:46 PMSony wouldn’t ban people for that. They’re too nice.
Boomzzilla
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 8:32 AMMakes Foxxcom look nice and tidy.
LINK
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 4:00 PMif you dont pay attention to all the dead bodys on the floor at foxxcom
veddermandan
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 9:50 AMlooks just like my computer room. I have never called it a Den before though. Guess what its called now.
Rowan
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 9:58 AMguy in toowoomba does all this
maaaaaat daaaaaamon
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 12:43 PMOh jesus, don’t ever mention that shit hole of a town. I was unfortuneately born there and was lucky enough to get out when I was 12. Having said that, I’m surprised that anyone in that backwards-arse place has the mental capacity to operate a console let alone mod one.
AC
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 2:11 PM+1
LINK
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 4:01 PMthey dont he most likely moved there as he saw an opportunity to rip people off.
Scotty
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 10:44 AMThis pretty much is what you can find at a computer market.
FatShady
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 11:43 AMYeah Console tronics in Bankstown looks like this… also so does my back beadroom.. I have about 5-6 360′s lying around in there…lol
LINK
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 4:02 PMdo you have a lot of beads in your room?
Franz
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 4:51 PMYes in jars, I have all sizes, shapes and colors.
Ad
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 12:53 PMI feel like I’ve stumbled into a parallel universe, where Brian Ashcraft writes posts that are relevant to video gaming…
Franz
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 4:50 PMShut up and get in the den.
Don
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 7:01 PMNot one comment about the optimus prime trailer?