Microsoft Crushes Reach Pirates with Banhammer
- Thread starter Logan Westbrook
- Start date
Just my thoughts:
They banned the consoles and players, meaning that any of those people are going to need to buy new consoles and get new accounts, and probably rebuy some games if they had any legal ones. And then buy Reach (maybe). Sounds like profit for Microsoft to me...
And btw. playing a game on online servers which isn't out yet? Bloody morons
They banned the consoles and players, meaning that any of those people are going to need to buy new consoles and get new accounts, and probably rebuy some games if they had any legal ones. And then buy Reach (maybe). Sounds like profit for Microsoft to me...
And btw. playing a game on online servers which isn't out yet? Bloody morons
I still think that if i buy something i can do whatever i want with it. If i buy a new computer i can change anything within it, i can even throw it out of a window for fun if i want, because i own it. If someone wants to Mod their console they should be able to.Talvrae said:
Good. Nuke em. If you're greedy enough to pirate and dumb enough to play it beforehand with a connected console, you deserve every ounce of pain Microsoft can bring you. Shame they can't just brick the consoles they found that were doing this, so it can't even be used offline or for further pirated goods.
Love how in your own comment you explain why this banning is such a bad idea:poiuppx said:
"so it can't even be used offline or for further pirated goods."
But they can. Now with no Xbox Live they can ONLY BUY PIRATED GOODS! This is driving customers away. It is an utterly asinine argument to think "they are pirates, must hurt them, must isolate them" that will only mean one lost sale guarantees ALL FURTHER SALES are lost!
A smarter thing to do would be to temporarily ban them, long enough that they regret what they have done, but not long enough that they resort to further piracy. Give them re-instatement if they take their console in for "repairs" removing all modification.
Microsoft is going to have to wake up to the fact that the bricks of their walled garden are beginning to crumble, they can crack the whip but eventually they will have to learn - as PC gaming has - that they cannot rely on containment and exploitation but genuinely valuable and unique services.
What kind of a dumb bastard would play a pirated game on a modded xbox and THEN connect to xbox live?
Sounds like they totally deserved it for a) Being a jerk pirate and b) being a total moron.
Sounds like they totally deserved it for a) Being a jerk pirate and b) being a total moron.
Srsly? It's overkill? They pirated a game, that was released early from people who stole it. If they'd stolen something that was physical out in the open, they'd be arrested! Permabanning is probably the best thing they could hope for!Milky_Fresh said:
Good on you Microsoft. All devoplers deserve a chance to make money on thier creations and these pirates have deprived Bungie and probably other developers of that basic right. If we were to continue to allow pirates to rip off developers all the money in gaming would dissapear and there would be no more new games. As for those people who pirate old games thinking its ok because its old; ITS NOT!
Simple, piracy is illigal.
Simple, piracy is illigal.
Banning their consoles is a terrible idea, that guarantees that they will have to pirate to play their games. Good job Microsoft, indirectly encouraging piracy yet again.
Exactly why I said they should just brick the stupid things. You pirate, we nuke you. Then you don't even get the ability to pirate anymore, and have to pay up in full again to rejoin the gaming population. You lose a few customers, but you gain long-term stability and can enjoy enhanced console sales from all the guys who need their gaming fix too badly to walk away. Heck, if some of them are habitually stupid, you get a good chunk of console sales out of them!Treblaine said:
I'm afraid that is impossible. Not only technically but it's pretty illegal to have a remote control "kill switch" in a product that is sold... cutting support is one thing but bricking is liable for criminal damage. Remember, piracy may be a crime but it is vigilantism for companies to start deciding what is a fitting punishment.poiuppx said:
Even if a company were bold enough to try that, step one of any mod would be to disable that kill swich. Many devices are liable to be bricked WHILE being converted to a modded state (or flashed with custom firmware) but after the matter it is too late... all DRM measures are removed or pacified.
Also, slight problem with that as although Microsoft make a killing on peripherals... they make a significant loss on every core system. And that is all people have to replace, a new Arcade model and a new account. This could end up COSTING Microsoft a lot if LOADS of people buy the base Arcade/4GB model and hack it for third party peripherals and pirated games.
Xbox is going to have a VERY difficult next 5 years as the genie is out of the bottle, everyone sees through the Emperor's new clothes... the old console model of control and price fixing will be undermined and these hacks (of both PS3 + 360) make them as open as the PC model.
See Xbox Live is such a BASIC service a pirate network can function just as well in it's place, unlike those WoW pirates there isn't even a central server owner that you can sue.
Which leads to the inevitable question; if the cat's already out of the bag, should they even bother? Any punishment could result in new 360s sold- which hurts them, as you pointed out -or leads them to go elsewhere, to other consoles or to the PC platform or to drop the hobby altogether. Multi-month bans sound good, except if the console is already being used for piracy, what good does that do? Hell, it's equally bad in the short run, since that means developers releasing games during that time period get less sales new, and right now that'd also mean taking a hit on the sale of things like the Kinect... something they really can't afford to take any hits on. But if they don't do something, the result is that it looks like anyone can get away with piracy, and that could open the floodgates all the worse.Treblaine said:
Now, you suggest quality service as the means to get back to stability. Can they even afford to revamp their services right now? As said before, they dumped a lot of money into Kinect and they're also gambling hard on Halo: Reach... even if they wanted to, where could they cut from or dip into that would let them perform such an overhaul? It's not as simple as snapping one's fingers and assuming it'll work out... even just from a customer relations standpoint, that's a lot of retraining, possible firings, hirings...
The long and short is, I think Microsoft made the best choice out of a limited pool given where they found themselves. Against those pirates it might drive them to piracy only, but it implies to the rest of the gaming population 'Do this, and you're out', or at the very least, 'We will not tolerate this kind of behavior and will come down on you for it'. I still say if they could find the means to do so legally, a kill switch option would be my preference. Would even half as many people pirate if they knew there's a good chance it would turn their console into an expensive doorstop? Either that or direct prosecution. Yeah, it didn't turn out so well when the RIAA started going after every grandmother and what not, but we're talking about people with full online profiles (seriously, how dumb do you have to be to pirate a game and play it with your 360 hooked up to the internet?) in an age where a little online research would help them pick safe targets nine times out of ten. You wouldn't get everyone, but even ruining a few pirates' lives would help spoil the pool a little.
Bottom line, I'm probably being a little irrational. But I hate pirates. I hate those who pirate games, I hate those who think they deserve games free of charge, I hate the people who help them to pirate these games, and every time I hear about a game studio being closed down or having to fire a bunch of folks or cancelling projects or having to stick to sequels because they need to do something safe rather than risk money on a new IP, I hate them that much more. Anything these companies can do to bleed pirates dry and make their lives suck a little more, I'm in favor of. Ban them, brick them, sue them, anything it takes. I do agree Microsoft should- if viable -improve its services, make them more worthwhile and fruitful for the gaming population who don't break the rules, but the issue I see is that won't stop the pirates. Carrot for the consumers, stick for the pirates. And I advocate a big damn stick.