As part of Gamasutra's visit to Shanghai for this week's ChinaJoy game exhibition, we've discovered that Xbox 360 game piracy appears to be spreading notably in the country, with at least one vendor offering Xbox 360 titles such as Hitman: Blood Money for around 30 Chinese yuan ($3.50).

This development has occurred after an incident in March 2006, in which hackers managed to flash changes to the BIOS on the Xbox 360's Optical Disc Drive which allowed non-authenticated (copied) games to be played. Further information on the hack surfaced in late May, when other parties appear to have released a public version of the exploit, and Microsoft's Gamerscore Blog published an official response to the problem.

But, judging by the shrinkwrapped copies of Xbox 360 titles available publically in the country, Microsoft's much-vaunted security system has been definitively bypassed for physical media-based Xbox 360 games - with stores or individuals in Shanghai presumably offering to flash the Xbox 360's disc drive BIOS for a fee.

As for the large selection of Xbox 360 games available, a recent Chinese-language article at Sina.com pictures some of the titles readily available at game vendors throughout China, also including Ninety-Nine Nights, Fight Night Round 3, and Project Gotham Racing 3.

News-Source: www.gamasutra.com