Microsoft bans up to one million Xbox Live users

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Home Call of Duty

11:00 AM on 11.13.2009, Hamza CTZ Aziz

122 comments | 5883 views

Microsoft bans up to one million Xbox Live users photo

#Banned #Call of Duty #Mods #Xbox 360 #Xbox Live

Microsoft went on a banning spree this past week and up to one million users have been banned from Xbox Live for having modded consoles. Don't feel sorry for those idiots as you should know not to connect your Xbox 360 to Live if it's been modded because piracy is bad.

IW reports (by way of CNN) that the banning may have had to do with the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The game showed up on torrent sites days before the official release and Infinity Ward may have put some pressure on getting Microsoft to go on the ban modders.

Users with banned Xbox 360s can still play games, they just can't do anything online anymore. Well, users can sell their banned Xbox 360s on Craigslist, as Hot Blooded Gaming points out.

Anyone in the land of Destructoid get their console banned? And if so, why they hell did you connect online you moron?

[Thanks, BS3Owner!]

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next 50 comments

122 comments | showing # 1 to 50

timtheterrible

Those making legitimate backups have my sympathy, the rest can go fuck themselves.

Arsenic13

My friend was caught. I stay online and not mod.

andycadaver

Never modded, never will. I will always stay uselessly loyal to my rulers and overlords, Microsoft.

blur99

Those 2 pictures are together are so funny.

Colette Bennett

You know how much I love that picture. :D

Jon B

@Hamza
You can get stealth chips that were previously undetectable by MS.

As for me, I'm not modding my 360. I value that �40 I'm paying for online and the experience I actually get from playing online. Free games isn't going to make me live in a world of singleplayer games any time soon.

RenagadePanda

I have no sympathy or respect for modders. To hell with them all, banning isn't enough.

Tim Adkins

YES! 2-day old news!

Either way, modders suck and have always sucked...too bad they ruined the Halo series for me in 2004 - oh wait, that may have been Bungie...

BalloonFighter

I think pirates should be beheaded so Microsoft can put their heads on pikes in front of their HQ. That would show other pirates that Microsoft means business.

Los255

And MW2 was the bait? Hooah!

Jonny

@Job B
No, stealth chips are not necessary. It was purely a flash of the DVD firmware if you had a sata cable connection to your pc. M$ made it simple and accessible, that's why the numbers are so high. I'll be posting a blog about it fairly soon if you want to check it out.

CapnCrunk

I want to know if they can tell the difference between someone playing the Internet leak and playing a legitimate copy they obtained early.

Toneman

People are dumb for connecting to live. Seriously, come on.

ohno

@RenagadePanda

Yeah, how dare people install a stronger fan or fix their own system?

They're not just banning pirates, they're banning anyone who does anything to the insides of the console at all.

Space Moose

M$ needs to fuck right off

xaliqen

I have mixed feelings about this.

On one hand, it is totally legitimate to ban people from Xbox Live if they play pirated games.

On the other hand, it is complete bullshit to ban people *just* because they have a mod chip. Since homebrew software and applications are a great tradition in console gaming, it's stupid to punish the people who contribute to it and are some of the most dedicated customers for the console.

Occams electric toothbrush

This event created a lot of nerd rage and that makes me very happy.

dwolfwood

Not sure why people pirate. Unless you do everything yourself, seems like too much trouble. As for fixing the RRoD stuff, yea I would do that myself since it's a simple fix.

RenagadePanda

@ ohno

They can't tell if you swap a fan out, and only certain system fixes can be detected. Fans and other parts don't have any communication with the mobo at all, they're strictly power. They're banning people with actual system modifications, things that cause an irregularity in how the system operates compared to a stock 360.

Neeklus

If you were banned because you modded your 360, and then, like a whole lot of people seem to be doing, complain about it, I seriously hope you either are currently or soon to be rendered infertile.

Diaport

If you got banned for modding your 360, do what every other braindead asshat does on the internet: start a petition.

runtheplacered

@RenagadePanda,

Banning isn't enough? Should we shoot them all in the face? Dude, it's just a bit of piracy. These aren't terrorists or anything.

Threaded

8 million dollars says a group of people who modded their boxes for purposes besides pirating take this to court. And probably demand 8 million in damages!

Meanwhile the ones that pirated simply shrug this off because they saved enough money pirating to buy 3-4 360s, and will just wait for another patch / chip so they won't get caught for years again. After they sell their banned 360 for cash of course.

Meanwhile (yes again) in some Microsoft compound, execs are pleased that more people have to get new 360s since demand has dropped for their little RRoD box.

xaliqen

Anyone who doesn't realize that a lot of people with modded consoles aren't pirates is an idiot. 'nuff said.

deaddays

Totally fair. It's not like they're disabling their xbox from working, they're just banning them from online. Fitting punishment for those ripping you off.

dj-anon

OMG, all of them must be former PC users.

XrayZwei

From the conspiracy theory camp:

3 million users would have wanged XBL --> MS "Let's ban oh...about 1 million users so it does't crash" --> MS reports 2 million concurrent users as a milestone for the service during the same news cycle.

Why would MS ban a million people that would have raised that golden stat so significantly? Because they knew that many users would have broke the service, and it would have been Xmas 07 all over again. Huge PR disaster following the release of MW2. Dogs and cats living together.

Liam Allman

Ahahahahaha, oh....oh...rich!

gains

So did they ban them before or after they connected to MW2 and boosted the record number of XBOX users online at the same time that Maj. Nelson was tweeting about?

socialnorms

I wish this included keyboard and mouse modding. Fuckers.

Shadowiii

If you really cared enough about that, just buy a new Xbox to play online and have a modded one. They only cost like $200 for a freaking arcade.
And yes, if you have a modded box and go on live thinking you wont get caught, you are a moron. That's like stealing in front of a security camera, then complaining when you get caught because you thought it wasn't on.

NubPhiSh

should of had there consoles bricked in my opinion pirates don't deserve to play

Emrah

Increase teh XBox sales!

Draconianviper

As if a million Xbox 360s cried out and were suddenly banned.

;p

Snidesworth

Good stuff, I say. The plebeian masses who support those despicable consoles were getting a bit to uppity for my liking. They should, and have been made to realise that modifiable hardware, reasonable game prices and non-DLC content are the prerogative of the PC gaming master race and thus far above those of their station. Jolly good show.

killerpickles

And boom goes the dynamite.

xaliqen

@Shadowii -- No, it's like modifying your automobile and not being able to buy any new parts from the manufacturer as a result.

Modifying an automobile is legitimate. Street racing is illegal.

Modifying a console is legitimate. Pirating is illegal.

It's really easy to see that MS is in the wrong here.

Shin Oni

just goes to show how lazy companies are when it comes to modded systems being online. They need another company to pressure them into banning people they should've banned awhile ago.

Ibutsu

They got less than they deserved.

Ganjookie

MUWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA who wants their chocolate milk now kiddies!

(I have no idea what this means, but somebody requested I write it)

Shadowiii

@xaliqen

Um, the banned Xboxes still play games dude. So you can still get "new parts." You just can't take it online.
Also, you agreed to a terms of service before getting on live: you wouldn't mod your box. It's in the EULA. I know most people just hit "I Accept" regardless, but it actually says you can't do that. People modded their xboxes and took them on live after committing to Microsoft they wouldn't. Heaven forbid they enforce this.
There is nothing wrong with this. Sure, you are all going to nerd-rage about it because you can't steal games anymore and it's oh so unfair, but the point is modders got exactly what they deserved. If they were smart enough to know how to mod the box but dumb enough to go on Live knowing full well the risks, then...well, just desserts.

xaliqen

@Ibutsu -- Yeah, MS should send assassins to decapitate anyone who modifies their console.

Also, people from Intel should come over and kill you if you dare to put a new CPU in your PC, and Ford should shoot people in the head for putting a turbocharger in their car.

agentarsenic

Why people pirate - games cost money that people don't have, because they're too busy paying rent/bills/insurance/everything. But, people still like to play games, so there you go. Why did people start downloading music in 1999? Same reason. CDs became overpriced and people didn't have the cash, another channel opened up (original Napster), and the music biz was forced to stop being dicks to the consumer (although they still screw over artists).

JForceGames

@Xaligen

No, MS is not in the wrong. If you want to make "homebrew software and applications" like you said, you use XNA and publish it through Indie Games. The vast majority of every modded 360 is used to pirate, or cheat in online games.

whormongr

they all get what they deserve, in fact I hope MS charges more money and makes a law that we all must own xboxes, also let's give more $ to rich people and demand that everyone pay money to carry a national ID....
seriously people that come down so hard on "piracy" need to take a deeper look at what they are supporting and how they want to live their life rather than knee jerking-
that said I think that MS has the right to ban whoever they want from their online service, you mod your console you give up the right to play in their pool- personally if I had a 360 I would like to have a modded one to go online with and another one to screw around with but I don't right now- I was going to et one last year to add to the ps3 and wii but I got laid off right 'bout then- nuff said on all that

mix

I would guess that 99% of people who mod don't do it to JUST play homebrew apps/games they steal games as well.

You stole, you got caught and you got in trouble so who cares?

Shadowiii

@whormongr, agentarsenic

The fact you used "piracy" in quotes makes me think you don't believe piracy is stealing.
You can attempt to justify it in any way you like (say the games are "too expensive" or the industry is "evil"), but piracy is stealing. There is no other way around it.
And yes, life is expensive, but guess what? You actually DON'T need games to survive. Yes, you are in a capitolisitic society and want to own everything you set your eyes on, but you actually don't need half of these things. Pirating them is just the same as going to a store and walking out with the box under your coat. It's stealing something you can't/won't pay for. There is no up-side or way to spin this. PIRACY is STEALING.

xaliqen

@Shadowiii -- I'm not talking about the contents of the EULA (the legal viability of which is questionable anyway), I'm talking about what's right. I don't just blindly believe that enforcing EULAs is justifiable, especially when such EULAs are on shaky legal ground to begin with and have draconian elements seriously restricting the rights of the end user.

<i>"Sure, you are all going to nerd-rage about it because you can't steal games anymore and it's oh so unfair"</i>

First of all, I don't have a modded console. Second of all, your opinion that all modders are pirates is simplistic and uninformed.

Bigmoose85

File sharing is not Piracy... Piracy is some shit you do on the high seas!

oh i love File Sharing :)

xaliqen

PIRACY is STEALING

No, Piracy is copyright infringement. End of story.

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