Microsoft Crushes Reach Pirates with Banhammer

[Arkhangelsk]

Serves them right. If it's games that barely even exist anymore because they're 20 years old, it might be arguable, but before the game is even released? That's inexcusable.

he said, illegally downloading Doom for his PC.

Nuh-uh! I buyed Doom perfectly legal!

 

[AbsoluteVirtue18]

....good.

If the rest of us can wait and obey the rules, what makes them think that they don't have to?

 

[Treblaine]

snip

You know, you make an excellent point. With this ban done and over with, those players have no reason whatsoever to buy legitimate copies of any Xbox game.

I wonder how many overexcited fans pirated this one game...

You DON'T EVEN have to have pirated this game, MS just have to detect your console has been modified in any way... that means turning every POTENTIAL pirate into a COMMITTED pirate.

Never mind that most people mod their 360 when they take it in for repairs (quite often considering the rate of failure, so many slip through cracks of warranty) by third parties, the temptation to mod must be incredible when you actually have the case open and the prospect of a few free games. Remember, this is a $300-$400 console that FAILED you, do you feel much loyalty to MS when you have to foot the bill for repairs? I can understand that even if I can't emphasise with their desire to resort to piracy.

I mean, this isn't even that effective a punishment: who cares if they lose their gamerscore? How utterly asinine of Microsoft to think:
"AHH HA HA! We'll teach those rebel scum, when they lose all their precious ACHIEVEMENTS! Now they might as well not have even played all those games if they haven't got a stupid number quantifying it all"

And at $60 per game. Sheesh, as a PC gamer who routinely gets PC games new, soon after release and legitimately for a FRACTION of that cost... I can see why so many 360 gamers can be tempted by the pirate life.

 

[ReaperzXIII]

This is only the beginning of their punishment, on the launch day of Halo Reach, Spartans will be stopping by their houses and entering firefight mode.

 

[gl1koz3]

As they say, "[put the thing you do here] for life". I doubt this will leave any impact on them... but... hooray... I suppose.

 

[Carlston]

Bad priates now go out there! And buy a new Xbox and use your moms credit card for a live account again...


Sheesh.

First rule of doing something illegal.

Don't get caught.

Second

If you can't be smart enough to get away with it. Don't do it.

 

[Towowo2]

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

It's not illegal, it's just agaisnt the EULA. There is a difference.

Also people hackers aren't synonmous with piracy not by a long shot.

 

[oktalist]

modding a console is illegal

No, it isn't.

OT: Ironically, they've just banned Halo's two fans. Will there be any Halo fans left to actually buy the game when it's released?

 

[Lillowh]

IMO the only thing that could deter pirates and scare those thinking of become pirates are permanent IP bans. Unfortunately Microsoft either can't or will not do that because there's the whole thing about maybe the person will move and then the person who moves in can't access live.

 

[squid5580]

Serves them right. If it's games that barely even exist anymore because they're 20 years old, it might be arguable, but before the game is even released? That's inexcusable.

I agree with this completely. And what about those of us who have been waiting for so long to see this game? As a self-confessed Halo and Bungie fanboy, a Microsoft supporter (when they aren't being really greedy), and just generally someone who appreciates good games, I've personally been looking forward to Reach for a very long time now, ever since the book The Fall Of Reach was published. Quite frankly, pirating such a game, or indeed any game, is nothing more than an insult and a slap in the face to all the hard working men and women who put their time, effort, energy, and sleepless nights into making it, so that gamers can enjoy the fruits of their labour. I'm glad Microsoft has taken this approach to the leak, and I hope other developers and publishers also follow suit as and when their games are leaked before release.

Why are the publishers allowed to exploit those peoples labour, but not the hackers?

My first guess would be because the hackers aren't signing those people's paychecks.

 

[obisean]

To the people saying it was harsh to double-tap it, just remember that they could have easily played this game offline with a flash drive or something. and nothing would have happened. They got what they deserved because they were stupid, not just because they were wrong.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Hoo-rah. Get it done, Microsoft.

 

[Deathfish15]

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.

Excessive? First time? So...should a murderer, first time offender, get only 6 months in jail because it was his first time? Hell no!

This is clearly against the rules from Microsoft's TOS as well as against anti-piracy laws (that's right, it's a criminal act). If MS really wanted to hit these people hard, they could have handed over a list of their real names associated with their LIVE account over to the authorities and had them all sued and/or arrested.

 

[Sougo]

I thought they'd sue them for releasing the game. What purpose does a ban serve?

 

[ryanxm]

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.

microsoft makes far more money this way

 

[dochmbi]

Very good indeed, I hope this will bring more banned xbox 360s to the market on ebay and my local finnish auction website, because I'm hoping to buy one cheap. Also, if it's banned, that means I won't even have to hack it myself and can use it right away.

 

[GiantRedButton]

lol playing a pirated game online that isnt released yet so they know everyone on the server is a pirate, now that is stupid and it wouuld nbe pretty pathetic if they didnt ban those.
Playing pirated multiplayer now thats something you can only do on consoles.

 

[ty12004]

Them getting caught isnt surprising.. They practically handed Microsoft their accounts when they went public with their achievement