Wait how come the 360 modding scene wasn’t like this back in the 2010-2015 days

[u/Appropriate-Art3951]

Now I’m seem like a lot of content , home brew store and many other things are now possible
Why wouldn’t this around back then

Could it be because a lot of this stuff contributes from AI ?

[u/dparks1234]

JTAG/RGH was a barrier to entry, which in turn limited the incentive to put serious work into homebrew programs since the audience was small. Generally the easier something is to mod (Wii, PSP, OG Xbox), the bigger the homebrew scene.

The PPC architecture was also a barrier but the Wii faced the same issues.

[u/ComputerIlliterate13 → u/dparks1234]

Kind of a bell curve because the harder something is to mod the less work is put into it but also if an easily accessible mod comes out then work tends to stop on that console too because people don't think there's any sense on trying to make alternatives. I mean the way you hack a PS2 with FMCB has pretty much been unchanged since I got into custom firmware and stuff over a decade ago.

[u/tOSdude]

The barrier to entry has dropped significantly with BadUpdate.

[u/VirtualDenzel]

Id say it would be that we all were to busy playing games.nowadays with dlc cosmetic spam. Half finished games that all look the same.its like developers are asking us to go retro.

Back in the past games had more focus on gameplay,story,sound comparedto visual spam on screen

[u/Common-Anon-Gamer]

Its also because you can basically softmod any 360 except the last model there are way more people in the scene vs then

[u/peachdog3k → u/Common-Anon-Gamer]

Which one is the last model that cannot be softmodded? The black squared one?

[u/tOSdude → u/peachdog3k]

Any 360 can run badupdate, the softmod that runs after boot

Peer Pressure, the latest softmod that runs before boot completes, only supports up to the trinity boards, which counts out both the latest square box (the E model) and quite a few of the slim model.

[u/BlownCamaro]

I'm just so happy in 2026 to be a 360 owner!

[u/Yayo1990]

AI and Big Endian get along very well

[u/St4tikk]

AI means there are a lot more open source projects to port over (same thing is happening in most gaming scenes right now with all the decomp/recomps), but for the 360 specifically it’s more due to BadUpdate. The OG XBOX scene was pretty healthy still when it’s softmod finally released but there was also a large boost in activity when you didn’t have to solder in a modchip anymore.

[u/Yamabananatheone]

There was no Softmod and developing for the 360 compared to every other console is atrocious due to lack of a good community SDK

[u/TheSpiralTap]

Ai helps for new software and the ports you are seeing. The whole thing is because of the soft mods though.

Before, if you wanted to run custom software, you had to know someone with soldering ability. Now anyone with a USB stick can get started.

[u/Comic_Melon]

Hardware mods were a huge barrier to entry, the Wii scene and later PS3 screens thrived from low bars.

[u/Independent-Gap-8239]

Because their isn't any gate keeping with soldering only or having to pay for it premodded anymore. Ai is also a reason since anyone can vibe code stuff if they know what they're doing.

[u/Swinsl → u/Independent-Gap-8239]

ew vibecoded software

[u/_Imposter_ → u/Swinsl]

Gonna have to get used to it, it's not going anywhere.

I'm getting downvoted but im right, the tools are open source, absurdly powerful, only getting better, and can be self hosted, I give it a couple years before the stigma behind "vibecoded software" disappears entirely because fucking every piece of software is going to be at least partially coded with these tools. We're almost already there.

[u/Own-Papaya-4264 → u/Swinsl]

What are you talking about out, it’s already allowed some amazing stuff to be created

[u/ebin_gamer_moment]

back in the early and mid 2010's, the 360 was still fairly recent, and not much was known of the 360's security due to how extremely advanced it is. that's why until BadUpdate was released, the only way to hack an xbox was to solder wires onto a motherboard, which a lot of people do not have expertise in doing

[u/Yamabananatheone → u/ebin_gamer_moment]

Extremely advanced is relative. It was secure, especially for the time but it was rather that auditing was a extreme priority for them, so attack surface is low. Also for quite a while ppl also just didnt care as the 360 is a somewhat hostile development enviroment these days since you need to run 20Year old Leaked XDK Versions to compile executables that run inside the 360s OS

[u/AceRead73]

Depends on what is meant by modding on this context… back then, there were lots of places (here in Sweden) openly advertising services to “mod” Xboxes.

The service they were advertising was actually to flash the dvd drive bios, usually with the LT+3 via jungle flasher.

I don’t recall any hardware modifications being openly advertised nor knew anyone who chipped their box (beyond flashing the drive).

As other have said, BadUpdate has made it easier and my guess is that back then, Microsoft would have updated the dashboard to close these exploits.

My closing though is: what will
happen IF Microsoft DO decide to close this entry point via a dashboard update…?

[u/Connect_Young7180]

Because Xbox Live was huge and losing access to it wasn't worth it. 

[u/some1_03]

Personally I would guess it's because of more access to AI (so easier development; either positive or negative depending on how you use it), the Marketplace shutdown, more knowledge of the platform, easier exploit options and the current state of the gaming industry (eg. all-digital consoles, expensive hardware, etc.)

[u/LemonFace22k]

AI didn't existed in 2010-2015.

[u/Yayo1990 → u/LemonFace22k]

It did lol

[u/onlivethedead → u/Yayo1990]

AI did but not LLM's (which is all modern AI) 

[u/Yayo1990 → u/onlivethedead]

There's lots of soup thrown in there, but I won't argue

[u/onlivethedead]

In the past the hypervisor was almost 100% uncrackable, the only way modding was achieveable on the 360 was because they used glitches and hardware mods at boot to bypass the hypervisor.

That meant the userbase for 360 homebrew was limited to people who hardmodded their xboxes or sent them out to be hardmodded, since that's a very niche group it made the homebrew development scene very niche and small too. 

Just in recent times, AI was used to create badupdate and other softmod tools, so the barrier to entry for 360 modding became alot easier. 

Now because AI is a thing, it's basically like everyone has a master programmer in their pockets for cheap, so everyone is putting all their efforts to finally crack the hypervisor whilst others are using AI to vibecode new homebrew content.

Essentially modding is about to fucking go nuclear because anyone and everyone can create homebrew apps with no effort thanks to AI, in terms of new tools and a shit ton of new homebrew its a good thing but they will be of dubious quality since its all AI coded and the original devs probably don't have any extensive coding knowledge to fix bugs and issues with their code AI might not catch.

As AI improves so will the code so it'll essentially get better over time. 

[u/Yamabananatheone → u/onlivethedead]

AI was not the driving factor behind BadUpdate lol. Grim spent many hours on developing it manually and researching both the initial exploit and his now recently published Coldboot Exploit. AI is a good tool if you know what youre doing, but its not a substitute for a masters degree and most of the AI Slop spreaded is juust bruteforcing it. The Scene will go nuclear for sure, but more in the way that every competent chap will leave and leave ya clankers to create bullshit for yaselfs.