Microsoft bans modders from Xbox Live services

[EPS21]

$60 console + $60 game vs. $289 + $60 game + $25 for just enough points for BL.

Saving $255 (even before shipping) at the expense of no BL (probably not a huge deal for some) is a pretty good trade-off for anyone trying to save some dough. Still lots of other good reasons to have a jp360 and not be banned from xlive though

[undamned]

This is quite good, means I'll be able to get a cheap 360 for Futari and other region-free ports...

and have zero access to DLC...good idea

Yeah, as far as multi-region compatibility, the most realistic way is still owning two different systems

Then again, depending on how many JP co's jump on the multi-region band wagon, folks may be fine with one system here pretty soon.
-ud

[lilmanjs]

you know microsoft has the worst support people in the world that handle stuff like this. and you know microsoft isn't smart enough to ban only 360s that have been modded. you know they probably took ages to look at data and see what all modded 360s have similar in data sigs and stuff and just banned 360s that had similar data thingys. so if your unmodded 360 has a similar thing as the modded ones you're screwed and won't get any help thanks to the worst customer support people in the world. my sister is thinking of getting a wireless adapter for her 360 to play online, but I told her not to take the chance of it being banned for no reason from xbox live.

[jonny5]

you know microsoft has the worst support people in the world that handle stuff like this. and you know microsoft isn't smart enough to ban only 360s that have been modded. you know they probably took ages to look at data and see what all modded 360s have similar in data sigs and stuff and just banned 360s that had similar data thingys. so if your unmodded 360 has a similar thing as the modded ones you're screwed and won't get any help thanks to the worst customer support people in the world. my sister is thinking of getting a wireless adapter for her 360 to play online, but I told her not to take the chance of it being banned for no reason from xbox live.

ummm...what?

[Cuilan]

Yeah, as far as multi-region compatibility, the most realistic way is still owning two different systems

No, you only need one. Unless you can't live without the Rockband games.

[Thunder Force]

The editorial tone of some of the BBC's news articles about this, seems oddly sympathetic towards the banned pirates.

[neorichieb1971]

My friend is the king pirate for 360. He says he's ok for now because he has the latest firmware and he didn't go online just before the new game came out.


He is sitting pretty at the moment. Shame, I wanted him to get it.

[Elixir]

you know microsoft has the worst support people in the world that handle stuff like this. and you know microsoft isn't smart enough to ban only 360s that have been modded. you know they probably took ages to look at data and see what all modded 360s have similar in data sigs and stuff and just banned 360s that had similar data thingys. so if your unmodded 360 has a similar thing as the modded ones you're screwed and won't get any help thanks to the worst customer support people in the world. my sister is thinking of getting a wireless adapter for her 360 to play online, but I told her not to take the chance of it being banned for no reason from xbox live.

It makes more sense for them to ban ~30,000 consoles and 500 of those be accidental bans of legit players than it is for them to leave ~29,500 users out there pirating their goods. That's also 29,500 users who now need to buy new 360s.

[Danbo]

This is quite good, means I'll be able to get a cheap 360 for Futari and other region-free ports...

and have zero access to DLC...good idea

I'd have zero access to DLC anyway.

[Lordstar]

Most habitual pirates have no intention of giving them any money in the first place - but at least now they'll have to buy a new 360. I know loads of people like this, the whole concept of paying for games is nearly insulting to them - they think they're entitled to it all for free, and that people who pay are idiots.

If nobody paid for the games there wouldn't be any.


Lordstar,

Although there are exceptions, most teams of game creators work 40-50 hour weeks like we do. They earn a reasonable salary and go on one or two holidays a year. Thats a bit different from copying Madonna's latest album, she's rich as they come and won't miss a penny of it. I know piracy is piracy, but there is a moral code of obligation to support things you love. I also pirate lots of things, but if I don't like it I delete it and the only reason I do it is "because its there". But I wouldn't hack my PC to bits to play it.. If your willing to do that your definitely in the crowd that need to be banned.

I dont play copy games full stop! last time played a cdopy game was the sierra game hero quest about 6 ears ago. It had stoped being printed and copies go for insane cash. Last PC game i played was Fall out 3 (which i bought from Game) and the last 360 game i played was Samurai champloo which was second hand purchase just the other day.

Im not entirley sure why you think i should be banned off XBL with the rest of them when i play real games on an unchipped xbox majority of which i buy new at full price. I think you may have read me wrong or got me mixed up with someone else.

[Lordstar]

The editorial tone of some of the BBC's news articles about this, seems oddly sympathetic towards the banned pirates.

Why there taking this stance I dont know. I guess i will just download all there TV shows and not watch TV anymore

[neorichieb1971]

I was just pointing out that pirating games hurts a great deal of individuals who work hard like we do. Not like some music artists who won't miss the sale of a few hundred thousand copies of their latest album.

I brought it up because you mentioned you download the odd movie and album thats all.

The other difference is that to play a game and enjoy it for free and then offer no money at all at any stage and continue to pirate is a bit different for gaming than most other media. People share newspapers, people buy one copy of a blu ray and lend it out to 3 different people, music is heard on the radio 24/7.

Gaming is slightly different because to get anything out of it you need to invest time. That time that would have had you bored out of your mind should merit some reward to those people that spent lots of hours developing what you got enjoyment from.

I wasn't targetting you Lordstar, just a few things you point out on.

[charlie chong]

so pirating independant music doesn't hurt the artists richard?? pirating an indie film does't hurt the filmaker??
no different at all to games. your madonna argument doesn't work either because by those standards i would be perfectly ok to pirate grand theft auto.

[neorichieb1971]

I buy everything I like that I downloaded. I delete everything I didn't like. I bought about 40 blu rays that I sampled through AVI files beforehand.

There are differing levels of conscience when it comes to different media. For me it depends on how easy it is to get and what the quality is like. With games, the quality is exactly 1-1 with the original copy.

[Lordstar]

Thing is you cant make people buy something they dont want to buy. Everyone wants to test drive everything before they put any monry down. I download as does the rest of the internet but if i really like somehting i will buy it. Like the Major lazer album went to HMV bought that and the last EL-P album i'll sleep when your dead. Movies have revenue like TV broadcasts and DVD sales along with there vastley over priced cinema tickets. which seem to be increasing in price a whole bunch when a standard cinemas technolgy and matinance costs have not increased a whole bunch. Dont even get me started on the pop corn. back to games though people who pirate and mod there colsoles cant expect to be able to get the same high quality service that everone else gets. It would be like me using some sort of unit to let me view Satalite dish channels and then call up SKY and complaining when one of there channels goes down. Also Im really disapointed with the BBC for publishing a story which sides with someone who is stealing thats the most disgusting thing about this. I am aware that 1 in 20 people on XBL ive played with have there xboxes modded there is not a whole lot i can do about it. so thats that.

[Ganelon]

you know microsoft has the worst support people in the world that handle stuff like this. and you know microsoft isn't smart enough to ban only 360s that have been modded. you know they probably took ages to look at data and see what all modded 360s have similar in data sigs and stuff and just banned 360s that had similar data thingys. so if your unmodded 360 has a similar thing as the modded ones you're screwed and won't get any help thanks to the worst customer support people in the world. my sister is thinking of getting a wireless adapter for her 360 to play online, but I told her not to take the chance of it being banned for no reason from xbox live.

Oh, really? Let's hear from someone who got their Xbox "accidentally" banned.

Anyway, since some folks who have flashed their drives are reporting their system didn't get banned, I'm guessing Microsoft's detection process may have something to do with recording systems playing games on Live way ahead of the release street date (since games are supposedly first leaked around 2 weeks before). And in that case, for those dumb enough to try that, it's well deserved.

[Lordstar]

Oh, really? Let's hear from someone who got their Xbox "accidentally" banned.

Still not heard of one. but with the ammount of people getting banned ther is bound to be one. Or someone claiming they are one

[Khan]

I have had my 360 since 2006 and never modded it, I know how to and could have done so years ago but chose not to I never really played it much till last year although I will say the reason I bought a 360 was because piracy was possible on it thinking one day i will probably do it. You know why the 360 sells as well as it does? because of piracy the same with the psp/ds........people like to pirate and save their money. Now I will admit I have downloaded a game on PC and played it but if I really enjoyed it I went out and bought the retail copy.

Normally I wouldnt encourage piracy but on the 360? sure go for it! my 360 keeps overheating stuttering and generally some games (Oblivion,GOW,DOA) become unplayable due to the piss poor design go stick it to MS because you can.

Makes me laugh Tesco apparently sold Call of duty modern warfare 2 a couple of days before release day by mistake and microsoft banned all those people who purchased the game because they unknowingly went online to play lol.

[ASK]

I know a few people with modded 360s, not sure if they've been hit by this wave or not. They ask me why I don't mod my 360, but to be honest I have no problem paying for the games (will probably be up to about 20 before the year's out with Futari and L4D2). What I don't care about whatsoever though is pirating games on previous gen systems that aren't in retail anymore. Publishers and producers gain nothing from the inflated second hand market, so why bother unless it's to collect?

[Ganelon]

I have had my 360 since 2006 and never modded it, I know how to and could have done so years ago but chose not to I never really played it much till last year although I will say the reason I bought a 360 was because piracy was possible on it thinking one day i will probably do it. You know why the 360 sells as well as it does? because of piracy the same with the psp/ds........people like to pirate and save their money. Now I will admit I have downloaded a game on PC and played it but if I really enjoyed it I went out and bought the retail copy.

Normally I wouldnt encourage piracy but on the 360? sure go for it! my 360 keeps overheating stuttering and generally some games (Oblivion,GOW,DOA) become unplayable due to the piss poor design go stick it to MS because you can.

Jasper models have the lowest failure rates on the market now of any home console. A lot of folks have been totally ignoring this for whatever reason, although I'm sure 360 sales rates are inflated by older models breaking down like half of the time (it would likely be 100% if everybody played their 360s for hours on end).

As for sales influenced by the ease of piracy, although that's a good guess, piracy isn't a big reason. The PS3 is currently outselling the 360 in the US and last I heard, there's still no easy way to crack it.

[louisg]

For every person who knows how to and intends to pirate games on a console, there are probably a couple hundred who don't. I wouldn't count on that encouraging sales.

[Lordstar]

Makes me laugh Tesco apparently sold Call of duty modern warfare 2 a couple of days before release day by mistake and microsoft banned all those people who purchased the game because they unknowingly went online to play lol.

MS has said that the worst that would happen is you have your score reset and you would not get banned if you had a legit copy of the game and a none modded console. I think its just the rumor mill churning again.

For every person who knows how to and intends to pirate games on a console, there are probably a couple hundred who don't. I wouldn't count on that encouraging sales.

I dont know how to do it right now but i could quickly find out and i know a friend of mine who would do it for me for free/cost. I dont intend on doing it ever though.

[CMoon]

The only thing I'm wondering about, although I don't think any of us here are in support of pirating, those people who modded their systems had to first buy a system, and probably they bought some games legitamtely too. What Microsoft risks is alienating these people forever from any future consoles. I'm sure Microsoft is thinking they don't care about those consumers, but ultimately THEY ARE consumers. I'm not saying they might not buy more games if pirating is impossible, but now they may buy nothing at all from Microsoft. So, in the end it may be a bad move.

[Ed Oscuro]

As far as Microsoft is concerned, this is just a big tax write-off. They weren't selling many games to the pirates, so they can just assume that the loss they took on the console won't be made up. If the pirates try another console (which would be foolish) that will end up costing Microsoft yet more to go through this process again. Of course Microsoft can safely bet that their pockets are deeper than a pirates'. I bet new releases will be doing their best to target known mods and not work on those, while staying compatible with the five original 360s left in working order

[Lordstar]

The only thing I'm wondering about, although I don't think any of us here are in support of pirating, those people who modded their systems had to first buy a system, and probably they bought some games legitamtely too. What Microsoft risks is alienating these people forever from any future consoles. I'm sure Microsoft is thinking they don't care about those consumers, but ultimately THEY ARE consumers. I'm not saying they might not buy more games if pirating is impossible, but now they may buy nothing at all from Microsoft. So, in the end it may be a bad move.

majority of people have no back bone to follow though with said things. People who said oh im never buying a MS console again will no doubt have one. You only have to look at the thread about the MW2 boycot on steam to see majority of people are full of shit. But I think its a lot more important to keep the companies who produce the games and publish the software happy as no one would want to make games for a system which openly supports piracy.
nice little vicious circle there ya see

[brokenhalo]

The editorial tone of some of the BBC's news articles about this, seems oddly sympathetic towards the banned pirates.

wow that's a strange article. it should have read "hello my name is raz and i'm a whiny pirate douche."

i wonder if he had the decency to actually purchase modern warfare 2, or if he's "gutted" cause he can't play his latest pirated game. fuck guys like raz and their sense of entitlement.

Fair enough, one game once in a while but the amount of games coming out, good games, everyone wants to play them all. And for them to pay £50 a game?

reminded me of this video kid rock pro-theft psa

[E. Randy Dupre]

Makes me laugh Tesco apparently sold Call of duty modern warfare 2 a couple of days before release day by mistake and microsoft banned all those people who purchased the game because they unknowingly went online to play lol.

This isn't true. I've got people on my friends list who were playing MW2 online on the Sunday and who haven't had their accounts banned.

[Khan]

Makes me laugh Tesco apparently sold Call of duty modern warfare 2 a couple of days before release day by mistake and microsoft banned all those people who purchased the game because they unknowingly went online to play lol.

This isn't true. I've got people on my friends list who were playing MW2 online on the Sunday and who haven't had their accounts banned.

And why wouldnt it be true? just because your friends got the game early and were playing it fine means the rest of the populace was immune to Live moderators? im sorry but it doesnt work that way, Microsoft has banned many consoles in the past for people going online early you only have check sites like maxconsole and gamefaqs to read reports of people being banned just because they recieved such a game early.

But I dont blame MS for cracking down, if somones pirating and not supporting the deserved devs then they deserve banning. Personally I've always thought of live as a joke sooo laggy and so many squeling kids who constantly whine and swear at you when you beat them I can honestly say I only ever enjoyed playing live for the first couple of weeks after that I really got sick of the bullshit, but imo going online on a console to play fps or mmorpg games just doesnt feel right to me.

anyway just a little vid that this thread reminds me of

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up863eQKGUI

[neorichieb1971]

I don't know why this is still a topicable debate. In 3 years time, windows 7 will have a similar function. If you use bad websites, you will be KNOWN! Your facebook picture will be on their most wanted list. The boys will come round and kick the shite out of you.

Your ebay account will be null and void, you'll have no credibility.

The power of the digital world can be reversed in their favour. One day your bank account will be empty, because the government will say that using piratable software costs 10x as much as buying officially. One day, the system will say "You don't wanna fuck with me pal".

Until then, carry on.

[Taylor]

Can I have that tinfoil when you're finished with it?