Microsoft Crushes Reach Pirates with Banhammer

[etherlance]

And the crowds go wild for this case of extreme justice gone RIGHT!!!

Those guys should be grateful for not facing criminal charges!!

Right, so how does banning these consoles and users from Xbox Live stop them being pirates?

Now the ONLY way to use their console is through FURTHER piracy with custom firmware updates and copied games.

The overwhelming majority of Xbox 360 owners don't bother with online multiplayer anyway (I don't, XBL is a shitolla service (not a pirate though)) and LAN + split screen multiplayer remains even on these banned consoles. Halo has always have great split-screen multiplayer and I believe even a banned mod'd Xbox 360 can still LAN play with a legit console.

I also remember reading about a hack of emulating LAN play over the internet (the consoles "read" it as LAN, but is actually emulated across computers connected online).

"Sticks" don't work against pirates, the more you hit them, the more they move away.

The way to fight piracy is with "carrot", look at what Steam is doing.

OOOHHHH God he's tearing me apart!!!!

Please take someone else I beg you!!!

I have so much to live for don't do this to me there are other comments here you can destroy!!

STAY BACK.........STAY BAAAAACK!!!!!!

 

[Treblaine]

Ban console and player? I'm all for appropriate punishment but isn't banning the machine a bit excessive, even if it is modded?

No. Break the law (modding consoles, stealing unreleased game), the law (Microsoft) breaks you. I have no sympathy for these people, and I don't think you should either.

Wait... how is not being able to Log onto XBL such a terrible punishment?

Most Xbox 360 owners don't even pay for Gold Membership = no online.

And with modded consoles they can play online via means other than XBL.

I don't condone piracy, but I also don't condone ineffective and reactionary "punishments". These bans (from an already shitty & overpriced network) drive part-time pirates into FULL TIME pirates.

Now the only way these modders can play xbox 360 games is through further piracy, banned from XBL they need custom firmware updates to keep playing the latest games. They have no incentive to ever buy legitimate copies of games again.

See, anyone who has modded a console and gotten banned recently... now not they CANNOT BUY HALO REACH as it probably needs an online update to work! Their only way to pay the game now is to torrent it! And they are SOOO EASY to pirate:
-small size only 6 Gigabytes = quick download
-DVD based medium = DVD burners are almost ubiquitous and cheap
-Can even be played directly from HDD with the right mods.

 

[Timmey]

Ban console and player? I'm all for appropriate punishment but isn't banning the machine a bit excessive, even if it is modded?

No it's not... modding a console is illegal, it's the best way to deal with it... and it's too easy to do a new accounts

Dont you think its a bit strange you can buy something, yet not change it anyway you like, other wise its ''illegal''.

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

As uncomfortable as it makes me feel to say this... Good work microsoft!

 

[lacktheknack]

Ban console and player? I'm all for appropriate punishment but isn't banning the machine a bit excessive, even if it is modded?

No. Break the law (modding consoles, stealing unreleased game), the law (Microsoft) breaks you. I have no sympathy for these people, and I don't think you should either.

Wait... how is not being able to Log onto XBL such a terrible punishment?

Most Xbox 360 owners don't even pay for Gold Membership = no online.

And with modded consoles they can play online via means other than XBL.

I don't condone piracy, but I also don't condone ineffective and reactionary "punishments". These bans (from an already shitty & overpriced network) drive part-time pirates into FULL TIME pirates.

Now the only way these modders can play xbox 360 games is through further piracy, banned from XBL they need custom firmware updates to keep playing the latest games. They have no incentive to ever buy legitimate copies of games again.

See, anyone who has modded a console and gotten banned recently... now not they CANNOT BUY HALO REACH as it probably needs an online update to work! Their only way to pay the game now is to torrent it! And they are SOOO EASY to pirate:
-small size only 6 Gigabytes = quick download
-DVD based medium = DVD burners are almost ubiquitous and cheap
-Can even be played directly from HDD with the right mods.

Don't you require LIVE to play multiplayer online?

I'm not sure, I don't have an Xbox.

 

[101194]

Bronze Account success! That is all.

 

[Cabisco]

Though i'm happy they have been banned, I'd personally prefer it if microsoft riped out their souls and fed them to the bungie staff.

But no, sadly I think that might not happen.

 

[Treblaine]

Looks like Reach was still "out of reach" for them.
(Buh-dum-tsh)

But... it's NOT "out of reach" for the pirates

Banned from Xbox Live =/= cannot play the pirated Halo Reach.

In fact, this has been a blanket ban across ALL modded consoles. Even the consoles that may not have even known about this Halo Reach leak and planned to buy the game.

So when they discover:
"OMG! I'm banned from XBL... why, because Halo Reach is pirated... hmm, and now my ban means I can't buy any more legitimate games... the only way I can play Halo Reach is by pirating it. Well F.U. microsoft, for banning me I don't see why I should honour your copyright, you hurt me!"

Now they cannot buy the game, now the ONLY WAY they can play the game is by torrenting it!

LAN + Split-screen multiplayer remains. I'm no expert on this but I think there are hacks to play Xbox 360 games online but without going through Xbox Live network. But it's clear from the figures that most 360 gamers don't bother with online multiplayer.

 

[lacktheknack]

Ban console and player? I'm all for appropriate punishment but isn't banning the machine a bit excessive, even if it is modded?

No. Break the law (modding consoles, stealing unreleased game), the law (Microsoft) breaks you. I have no sympathy for these people, and I don't think you should either.

Actually the sympathy I was feeling was in a very specific scenario. Imagine you're the younger sibling. Your elder sibling has decided to mod his/her console, and you don't get a say in the matter. Now you won't be able to play online either :-/

Then you punch your older sibling in the face.

If we don't take actions because of other (much less common) scenarios, nothing would ever happen.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

I suspected that they would do this eventually after Reach got out to the public. Better late then never I suppose.

 

[VulakAerr]

Looks like Reach was still "out of reach" for them.
(Buh-dum-tsh)

Doesn't that need sunglasses and The Who?

I remember we had this last year, ad nauseum, when the same thing happened to the early MW2 players. It is my favourite meme. Well played, sir.

 

[Treblaine]

Don't you require LIVE to play multiplayer online?

I'm not sure, I don't have an Xbox.

Echoing iPhones phrase: "there's a hack for that"

You don't NEED Xbox Live to play online, XBL is just a gatekeeper, and authorisation algorithm it actually does very little actual work connecting gamers. Most of the work is done by the consoles themselves, between host console and guest consoles, you just have to hack the authentication mechanism and utilise some manual matchmaking. I never looked into it much as I find online multiplayer on consoles (compared to PC) quite pointless.

And most Xbox 360 gamers clearly don't even bother with online multiplayer anyway. This Ban will have dick all affect on piracy, console gamers have been using split-screen and LAN-based multiplayer for decades and clearly prefer it...

 

[MGlBlaze]

Permabanning is probably a little excessive. For some of them this might have been a first time offense, now they need a new console and account if they ever want to play online again? Personally, I would have made it a 6 month ban. Besides being a little more reasonable, most people would wait that out instead of getting a new XBOX (like they obviously will). Effectively, you'd be banning them for longer.

It might have been a first-time offence for some of them, but we're talking about breaking in and stealing the code for a game before it was even released. First time or not, that seems like a pretty huge offence.

I support the perma-ban.

 

[Jroo wuz heer]

Permabanning is probably a little excessive. For some of them this might have been a first time offense, now they need a new console and account if they ever want to play online again? Personally, I would have made it a 6 month ban. Besides being a little more reasonable, most people would wait that out instead of getting a new XBOX (like they obviously will). Effectively, you'd be banning them for longer.

what have you been smoking? of course the double tap wasn't excessive, if this became popular and seemingly acceptable it would have cost microsoft and bungie millions of dollars

 

[Amondren]

*thumbs up* wait like everyone else

 

[ImprovizoR]

I don't get it. If they ban someone's account completely then they wont receive any more money from LIVE subscriptions. Couldn't they just ban their game or something like that and keep their account open? They might have pirated the game, but they have a legit account that they pay for. And if they keep banning pirated games eventually pirates will have to actually buy games. That seems to have more sense to me.

 

[Danny Ocean]

It looks like Halo: Reach is gonna stay...

*Shades*

Out of Reach.

[HEADING=3]YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH[/HEADING]

Edit: Ah damn I should read the comments more. >.>

 

[Wicky_42]

Looks like Reach was still "out of reach" for them.
(Buh-dum-tsh)

Doesn't that need sunglasses and The Who?

Nah, you have to play it right. Like so:

"Looks like that game...
...was just out of Reach"

YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!



@Danny Ocean: Great minds think alike...