If you have modded your Xbox to play pirated games, you may be in for a big surprise the next time you try to connect to Xbox Live. According to Information Week, Microsoft has banned over 1 million modified systems from their online service. A Microsoft spokesperson commented on the situation:
“All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and that modifying their Xbox 360 console to play pirated discs violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty, and result in a ban from Xbox Live.”
It is not known how Microsoft is detecting these modded consoles. Considering they have found 5% of their Xbox Live users are pirates, it appears to be an effective one. Some speculate the bannings are related to the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which will likely be the biggest Xbox Live game of the year. Leaked versions of the game were showing up on torrent sites over a week before the game’s release. It’s not surprising Microsoft decided to take action against those who downloaded it illegally and played early.
If you are one of these unfortunate individuals, the banning should not effect your gamer tag or hard drive data. You will still be able to play all of the offline content and earn your achievements. You just wont be able to connect to the Internet with that specific modded console. You should be able to remove your hard drive and use it on another system to play legitimate games online, but since there is no way of knowing how Microsoft is detecting these modified systems, do so at your own risk. In addition, you will no longer be able to install games to the hard drive. A smart move by Microsoft, seeing as burnt games are harder on the laser than legitimate games. This will force pirates to run the game off disc, increasing the chance of burning out their laser. If that happens, they can’t exactly send their modded system to Microsoft for repair.
In a related story, these banned systems are being sold all over eBay and Craig’s list. An eBay spokesperson warned its users about the situation.
“If you are looking to buy an Xbox 360 on eBay in the near future, ask the seller if it has been banned from Xbox Live and be sure to pay by PayPal in case they lie. If you do get a banned console, start a PayPal claim.”
If you were planning on buying a loved one a used Xbox 360 for Christmas over eBay, I would strongly recommend you don’t. Go to a retailer and buy new or used the legitimate way.
How do you feel about Microsoft banning over 1 million Xbox systems from Live?
Sources: Game Spot, Information Week, CBC News
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“If you were planning on buying a loved one a used Xbox 360 for Christmas over eBay, I would strongly recommend you don’t “BUY A 360″. Go to a retailer and buy “PLAYSTATION3″ new or used the legitimate way”
fixed…
“If you were planning on buying a loved one a used Xbox 360 for Christmas over eBay, I would strongly recommend you don’t *buy a console*. Go to a retailer and *upgrade their PC* the legitimate way.”
fixed even more !_!
*sigh* i hate when i have to shell out 200-300$ just for a video card, D:
I agree with Ken J, but I did finally buy a PS3. Mainly for the Blu Ray, but it also allowed me to play NCAA 10 lol. As for the Xbox modders that were banned. It’s about time, but I doubt they’ve learned any lessons from this. They’ll still look to pirate their games, etc. if they can get away with it. They seriously don’t think it’s wrong to do.
!_! I love that myth. My computer is over 3 years old, and I only recently decided to buy a new video card, but even before the new video card, I was playing games that FAR exceed the graphics of either consoles. Meaning 3 years ago I have been playing games with better graphics than what’s possible with PS3 NOW. But now with the new video card (ATI 4890), I’m pretty much set for the next 3 years, lol. Not to mention, you only need to upgrade your video card if you want to play the latest games on the highest settings, which are usually at a graphical level that none of the consoles can do in the first place. So if you’re comparing the games to the graphics of the PS3, I didn’t need to upgrade my video card at all since my old one from 3 years ago is already more powerful than the PS3 or Xbox 360. So I can still play anything the PS3 or Xbox 360 can play, and at higher resolutions and better graphics…
When Xbox360 and PS3 were being developed, the hardware WERE advanced AT THAT MOMENT. But while you guys were stuck in that moment, PC hardware kept evolving. By the time those consoles came out to the market, PC hardware was already a generation or two ahead. PC hardware kept evolving while console hardware HAS to stay the same since all new games have to be compatible with the first system sold, while PC’s are not limited by that factor since they know you can either bump down the graphics settings or upgrade your computer if you want to experience the game in all its glory.
But to all their own, I was just being cute with my comment, just a joke, most people now like to be lazy and just insert a disc and play. I’m in the minority now it seems. I don’t mind actually having to install a game once, a full 10 minutes of “torture” so I can enjoy a better looking game, pay less for the game, play online for free, download content for free, aim with a mouse instead of a joystick, etc. etc. These things might not be too important to some people, but it is to me. If you’re satisfied with the graphics you’ve been getting with your PS3, then that’s cool with me, have fun.
@Mandarr
I bought a HD-DVD/Blu Ray combo drive for my PC for $99, and use a HDMI output to my tv so I watch blu ray or HD DVD’s that you can buy for like $3 a movie now that the format is dead, lol, through my PC. Works pretty well.
And now with crossfire, the next time I plan on upgrading my PC, it’ll be good for probably up to 5 years, maybe even more, since all you have to do later down the road to play whatever the newest games are, I just add another video card, so you don’t need to replace anything, just add on, so the PC’s power just multiplies, lol.
A true all-in-one machine. I can do my work on it, go online, watch movies, edit photos and movies, play games, love it, there’s nothing better!
kenj lol my card is old like 05 or 04 dont remember but i still have it its a radeon 9250 256MB, i did a stress test for it when the source beta came out, especially for BF2 i had the setting at its max and it was spot on, but iam not to sure bout todays games though never tried. thinking of getting of MW2 but there are no dedicated servers(wtf this is really important for pc gamers) and its only 18 players max.
@!_!
PC gamers have been getting screwed a lot lately. But you really can’t blame the developers, the profit margins are probably double for console games than for PC games, and as we all know businesses are there for profit, so until they find it profitable to invest in perfecting their PC versions, we’ll keep getting PC versions of games that are buggy or that are lacking critical features like dedicated servers.
MW2 making the PC game more expensive than normal, closer to the price of console games, MIGHT actually have a somewhat positive side-effect. If enough developers can get PC gamers accustommed to paying higher prices for their games, maybe the developers will find it profitable to focus a little more on the PC market and maybe the quality and game selection could go back up in the near future for PC’s. But of course, we’ll have to suffer through having to pay higher prices… I preordered Left 4 Dead 2 for PC for $39.90… Valve can sell the same exact game for Xbox360 and PS3 for $60. See what I mean? They make so much more money on the console versions. I’m so happy that Valve have remained pretty committed to the PC market despite this. I love Valve, I can’t freakin wait for Half Life 2: Episode 3…
This is awesome… Hopefully they catch’em all. When it comes to shooters, the GTA series, open world games that involve heavy gun use i use my pc for it (new pc at that!!!), but for everything else i like the console better.
@ken j
There are several games that you have to install aswell when playing in the ps3… So i’m pretty sure thats not the reason more people don’t play pc. Me personally i play alot more on consoles because i’m doing so much other crap on the pc already but when certain shooters come out i’m all pc. Can’t wait for avp and bioshock2.
@jago
I don’t know then, what advantages do consoles have over PC?
But like you said, you have to install some games on PS3, notice the Xbox360 is more popular than the PS3??
And I’m sure they bought the system thinking you don’t have to install anything, but if they had to, I’m sure they’re not going to throw the system away because they ran into a game that needs to be installed, they’ll just install the game since they already have the system and the game…
@ken j
I don’t know about the 360 all that well i dislike it because of all the fee’s, game, memory, internet, and that controller just sucks in my opinion.
But like i said i like the consoles because when i play on them that’s exactly what i’m going to do and when i get to the computer there’s so many other things that i want to do that really don’t consist of gaming. So in a way i like the console for its disadvanteges… unless they’re the type of games i mentioned above. Certain shooters (not war games they pretty much come out every month or so and i’m just tired of them), the GTA series and most open-world games that involve heavy gun use. If i had some of my all-time favorite computer games back i would definately use it more for games (albion, day of the tentacle, rise of the triad, descent, duke nukem (the very first one), the commander keen series, the amazing machine, sid and al’s, etc.)
Wow, Rise of the Triad, I remember back in the day when that was like so graphically amazing compared to other games, lol. Did you find that one level where they had a glitch in one of the moving blocks in that instead of stopping at the wall, it clips through and just keeps going? But when that happens it actually crashes the game, but not before you see a full screen hand-drawn picture of a block flying away with a happy face on it with the words “I’m Free!” written below it, lol. It was an easter egg and you can only get to it by cheating and jumping levels. But it’s pretty funny. Here’s a picture of the drawing that shows up when the game crashes because of that wall:
http://www.eeggs.com/images/items/1814.full.jpg
I did cheat alot in that game but i don’t really remember that… One thing i do remember is changing the date on my computer to certain holiday dates so i could see who from the team would wear the festive colors or costumes for said holiday. Another game i loved and it was mainly because of the sound… “Raptor”. The sound was epic for it… At least to me. Sanga street fighter was pretty fun aswell… Never really learned the special moves though.