"The Xbox Team is looking for a strong PM/Engineer to manage the design and development of the Xbox Game Disc for the next generation Xbox console. This item is a critical component in our game delivery system impacting Anti-Piracy (AP), game development, publishing, platform design, second tier hardware vendors, test equipment development, cost reduction, etc."
These are the first few lines of a job description which Microsoft has posted on its web site. Many have jumped at the chance to suggest that MS is looking into creating a proprietary format for its XBox console in order to have the same success in fighting piracy as Nintendo have had with the use of their own mini-disc system.
The ad of course could simply be asking for a person to assist in the development of some form of new copy protection for games since the introduction of a new game disc format would create some practical problems for the new XBox. For example the console will have to be able to playback movie DVD's and to also be compatible with original XBox DVD games. Even if those problems were addressed there would remain the fact that the console's hard-drive, expected to be much larger than that of the original, would offer further options to those determined to copy games.
Unfortunately it's still to early to draw any significant conclusions but you can judge for yourselves by reading the full Microsoft ad, a link to which can be found by following the download tab above.
