Microsoft announced yesterday that it is seeking beta participants for an updated Xbox 360 disc format. It turns out, according to well-known Xbox hacker C4Eva, this format is dubbed XGD3. Highlights include additional disc capacity for storage, a new layer for “protection issues,” along with more AP and content integrity checks — presumably to combat piracy.

While the media remains the same — DVD, dual-layer at 8.5GB — Microsoft’s current format structure creates a partition weighing in at around 1GB, filled with anti-piracy sectors. It’s believed that this update tweaks the approach to significantly save on space, or omits the partition altogether. At any rate, this would give developers a nice bump in space to work with.

Additionally, CV4Eva says the 20500 SDK adds support for this format.

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