Microsoft Bans up to One Million Xbox Live Accounts

[lvl9000_woot]

People should be able to mod their xbox. They paid for the damn things. The people who should be pissed about piracy are the indie developers because they need to sell their games so they can compete with large, soul-less compaines such as EA.

Edit: M$ might also be doing this to cut down on hacking/cheating in online games

 

[Lucifus]

The horrible thing is some people with legitimate consoles have also been done in for this. Microsoft claims that no profiles will be unbanned once banned.

 

[shifty89]

i found this thread very interesting. i pirate games and have done for over a year, and although i acknowledge that it is in essence stealing, its not the worst thing in the world. plus more importantly games are stupid prices nowadays. take gears of war 2 for example, they sell the game at £40 on release, then bring out map packs afterwards at about £10 worth of microsoft points per set. and with a couple of map packs that brings the cost of the game to about £60, which in my opinion is an insult to the gamers. all these games like gow2 , cod and the halo series can fit all the maps onto the game when its sold or even release them as free downloads but they dont, they're getting greedy which is the same as what pirates do. pirates will never be stopped by the different companies and im talking about games, music and film, as long as a person is creating a new way to stop downloads, they're will always be someone with an education to be able to find a way around it. rather than moaning about pirates, maybe you should moan about the dole scum that sit around, do nothing and spend your hard earned taxes because they steal more money from society than any other set of people.

You sir are a dirty thief!

 

[omnibus01]

RE: "Gee, I'm glad I own a PC..."

I own 3 PCs, and a 360. I note that I have not yet received any spam on the 360. Ditto for viruses, worms, and trojans. The 360 printer driver won't stop any software from working because the 360 doesn't have one. I don't have to buy a $400.00 video card every couple of years, and a new PC every 4 years, to play the latest releases. My LCD TV works great with the 360. Gears of War 2 looks really fantastic.

I doubt that you cork-sniffing, arrogant, elistist PC apologists will ever undertand why the vast majority of games are now being made and sold for consoles. I do play PC games, but the majority of my gaming is now on the console; fully understanding the power and graphics limitations of that platform, I find it a more enjoyable experience for most games.

Console gamers, contrary to what you PC'ers would like to believe, are not all pencil-necked, pimply-faced, twitch-artists.

As of yet, no console gamer has died from playing WoW either.

 

[PsiMatrix]

RE: "Gee, I'm glad I own a PC..."

I own 3 PCs, and a 360. I note that I have not yet received any spam on the 360. Ditto for viruses, worms, and trojans. The 360 printer driver won't stop any software from working because the 360 doesn't have one. I don't have to buy a $400.00 video card every couple of years, and a new PC every 4 years, to play the latest releases. My LCD TV works great with the 360. Gears of War 2 looks really fantastic.

I doubt that you cork-sniffing, arrogant, elistist PC apologists will ever undertand why the vast majority of games are now being made and sold for consoles. I do play PC games, but the majority of my gaming is now on the console; fully understanding the power and graphics limitations of that platform, I find it a more enjoyable experience for most games.

Console gamers, contrary to what you PC'ers would like to believe, are not all pencil-necked, pimply-faced, twitch-artists.

As of yet, no console gamer has died from playing WoW either.

You forgot to add the point that anyone using Windows is also subject to MS doing whatever they like with your operating software. Unless people are using Linux, MS owns your OS too.

Let's not forget the delicious irony that these pirates no doubt use PC software to download their games, probably run on Windows too

However, I was a dumb and ignorant gamer back then and didn't realise I pretty much helped kill the DC off.

In the same way farting in a jacuzzi contributes to global warming. I think Sega had bigger hand in the DC's demise with the Sega-CD, 32X and the Saturn.

 

[mikecoulter]

That's a crazy amount. Surely they could have done something a little less drastic? Mind you, that does mean there's now 1,000,000 less 360's that can be sent back with RROD...

 

[Pendragon9]

Again, they should just make it region free. So they don't have to mod to play imports.

Of course, that wouldn't stop the pirating and whatnot, but I'm just saying.

 

[Sethzard]

Serves the theiving bastards right.

 

[Natronus]

I don't have a modded xbox, find it kidna pointless, really.
But those modders kinda deserved it...i mean its a pretty big risk, not like Homebrew.
They should of seen it coming, i have no sympathy.

 

[happysock]

Microsoft Bans up to One Million Xbox Live Accounts

In an effort to combat piracy, Microsoft has banned up to a million Xbox Live users whose Xbox 360 consoles have been modified to allow them to play pirated games.

Ouch - as part of its annual November piracy sweep, the Redmond-based software giant announced that it had banned "a small percentage" of Xbox Live users worldwide from playing online. As with previous sweeps, the banhammer was targeted at Xbox 360 owners who had physically modified their consoles to be able to play illegally obtained copies of games - though as noted in the Guardian's report [http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/nov/11/xbox-modded-consoles-live-cut-microsoft], modded consoles are also used to play homebrew applications and imported titles that would otherwise be unplayable.

The exact number of consoles affected by the sweep has been estimated at anywhere from 600,000 up to one million. While a million is still a pretty darn big number, considering that there are ~20 million Xbox Live users in the world, we're still dealing with less than 5% of the total - which would fit with Microsoft's claim that it had banned "a small percentage" of the total userbase.

According to Microsoft, the annual sweep detects consoles that have had the hardware modded to play pirated games, and adds them to a list which is then fed to Mr. Permaban. While the Xbox Live ban doesn't prevent the console from functioning normally offline, it does mean that if gamers want to play online multiplayer, they'll have to get a new Xbox Live account - and more importantly, a new Xbox 360.

It's unclear exactly how Microsoft detects whether a console has been modded or not (since it isn't like they're physically coming into your home to check), and the company is unlikely to reveal specific details anytime soon, lest clever modders figure out how to fool the system. That isn't to say that nobody thinks they can dodge the long arm of the not-quite-law - some modders claim to be able to turn off the chips in order to avoid detection, viewing a no-pirated-game-November as preferable to getting banned from the service for good.

While virtually all hardware modification of consoles is illegal in the United States and Europe, that hasn't stopped it from becoming a fairly large business. But remember - as this mass banning shows, mod at your own risk.

(Via Edge [http://www.edge-online.com/news/up-to-one-million-xbox-live-accounts-banned])

Permalink

Can I just add that the Live accounts aren't banned it's the consoles that get banned, happened to my console I got off of ebay, still 600 thousand consoles is a lot of money taken from microsoft.

 

[Alcari]

"In other news: Sales of xbox 360 games plummet as Microsoft removes 1 million potential customers from the market."

I own 3 PCs, and a 360. I note that I have not yet received any spam on the 360. (...) The 360 printer driver won't stop any software from working because the 360 doesn't have one.

Yeah, not having an email function works great against spam. My car's never suffered a landing gear malfunction, therefore, it's better than an air plane.

I doubt that you cork-sniffing, arrogant, elistist PC apologists will ever undertand why the vast majority of games are now being made and sold for consoles.

Is it because console gamers are willing to hand over larger amounts of money for lower quality games than PC gamers?

As of yet, no console gamer has died from playing WoW either.

No, console gamers shoot their mothers. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/teen-daniel-patric-shot-dead-his-mum-in-halo-3-row/story-e6frev00-1111118558654

See, I can make Non sequiturs too.

 

[nielsvk]

So basically Activision is done with PC gamers and turns to the next platform. One million (probably) pissed off gamers today, with some help from Microsoft. Not bad. I lost count somewhere. This time it weren't customers, but looking at the killstreak they did with PC, this ofcourse was just the beginning. The joy never ends.

 

[stiver]

I download games and will continue to download them. Now go on and continue to rage over the actions of other people.

Canceled Live a long time ago. PC gaming is where it's at.

And it isn't just mod chipds. They probably found a way to detect all the firmware hacks, as that is the news spreading around the internet. It is not people playing games early. I don't even download and play games(let alone even play on live), but my console was banned also.

 

[THAC0]

Good! Lock 'em out!
I can't stand piracy, so it's good to see something else being done besides ineffective DRM.

Agreed

I paid good money for countless AAA titles on my 360 and I don't want some wanker with an internet connection and a modchip to be get the same title for nothing, they are parasites like Paris Hilton and the Conservatives so I have no sympathy for them

agreed.

i like the use of the term parasite, because that is really what they are. They are mosquitoes pretending to be cool.

Dude, there was this bloke at my old college who LITERALLY scored a girl because he was "fighting the system" why was he? because he got Prince of Persia (the new crappy one) for free because he had his XBox modded, and he was all like "yeah I don't believe that Microsoft should be making us pay for this software, we should all contribute man, you put something up, we will too and we will all enjoy it together!"

yeah he was an arts student... and yeah I was seeing that girl at the time... I am very bitter

don't blame you for being bitter, but if she feel for that, then you are better off without her.

I really hate the self righteous, anarchy now, attitude that these "pirates" tend to take on.
Why should it be free? the people who spend their time making the stuff have a right to be paid for their time and effort, if you don't like it, don't buy it and shut up.

they aren't fighting the system, they aren't putting it to the man, they are not standing up for anything other than their own sense of entitlement.

 

[Dogstile]

Wow, it turns out that Microsoft are a bunch of spastic childish cocks.

Also, since it is clear that you haven't been on this side of the earth's crust for the past millenium......IT WAS EARTH ALL ALONG!!!

xx

I don't understand you, how exactly are they childish?

ahh well, thats 1 million modding scum gone, kinda strange how this was right after mw's launch though, i imagine many of them pirated that and are rather annoyed

 

[Otterpoet]

Just you wait! Dollars to donuts, there'll be a class action lawsuit from disgruntled Xbox Fan-Boys, claiming "emotional damages" from not being able to play their pirated games. I mean considering those morons in Texas sued for $5M for a few simple outages, who knows what they'll pull this time.

"But...but less than HALF my games are pirated. * pouty lips * That means I should be allowed to play the other ones at least. It's not fair...waaaaah!"

A$$holes.

 

[GloatingSwine]

Banpocalypses like this are the reason why, for instance, the noclip and shoot through walls hacks on CoD4 on the PC and PS3 versions never showed up on Xbox Live. If you have a console capable of running unsigned code, the banhammer falls, and that means that you can't use your hacked save on Live.

This, actually, is probably the biggest reason for the Banpocalypse being just before MW2. Keeping Live a level playing field has been one of Microsoft's priorities for the service, and that's doubly important when there's a new release out which is going to get a lot of online play.

(Note: MW2 has already been hacked on the PC, so if you get shot through a wall, all you can do is sigh, because IW will probably not be able to stop people just making a new IWNet account, whereas blocking a console from Live means you have to buy a new one if you want to play online. The console will still work and play all the downloaded games you like, you just can't sign on to Xbox Live with it.)

 

[The Hairminator]

Since I do not have a modded xbox I don't care. Good riddance though.

 

[SextusMaximus]

I'm glad. I hope my "friend" has been banned as well. He'll have a nasty suprise