The interesting thing about consoles is, they are closed, proprietary boxes. The software, hardware, and firmware is tightly sealed and regulated, and circumventing it is dodgy at best. And while older consoles have seen multiple homebrew developers eventually unlock them and utilize them for purposes far beyond what they were originally intended for, officially, a system, once laid to rest by its manufacturer, has been just that- dead.
But that may not be the case with the Xbox 360. At least, not if this recent Phil Spencer response is anything to go by. On Twitter, a fan asked him, “Random question, when the Xbox 360 reaches its end of life and the support ends with it, will Microsoft “unlock” the system?”
Spencer, surprisingly, actually replied positively to the query: “This is a good question and one we need to think more about. I don’t have official answer yet but we need to state our plan.”
It’s interesting, because it might indicate a willingness on Microsoft’s part to unlock the Xbox 360, and open it up to homebrew development, garage independent developers, and more, and officially support them even past the Xbox 360’s lifespan has ended. Of course, judging by the fact that the Xbox 360 is ten years old and kicking, we don’t yet know when that will be, but it’s nice to know the seed has now been planted in Microsoft’s head.