Microsoft bans modders from Xbox Live services

[CMoon]

Xbox console ban is 'permanent'

Looks like Microsoft is getting serious about pirating, but I wonder how much it will alienate their user base?

[neorichieb1971]

Good riddance to all of them.

If anyone on this site is modding their 360 and putting pirated discs in there, tell me who are you and i'll give you a piece of my mind.

There is no excuse whatsoever. Look after your stuff. If you went to the trouble of learning how to flash your DVD drive and take it all apart, your pirating. End of.

I hope new mods come out.. then MS will screw them over next time and thats another 360 down the toilet for online purposes. Unfortunately, as it always goes. Those people who pick them on the cheap or whatever will find going online a bit difficult.

So, if your buying a used 360, see it running online before parting with your cash.

[emphatic]

Let's just hope they never strike out against people that use foreign accounts.

[neorichieb1971]

It says clearly that if you buy retail software and use it on a non modded machine they have no problems.

[D]

Good riddance to all of them.

If anyone on this site is modding their 360 and putting pirated discs in there, tell me who are you and i'll give you a piece of my mind.

There is no excuse whatsoever. Look after your stuff. If you went to the trouble of learning how to flash your DVD drive and take it all apart, your pirating. End of.

I hope new mods come out.. then MS will screw them over next time and thats another 360 down the toilet for online purposes. Unfortunately, as it always goes. Those people who pick them on the cheap or whatever will find going online a bit difficult.

So, if your buying a used 360, see it running online before parting with your cash.

Yet you somehow want the gow demo without getting the code yourself?
If you got the code, you can play the demo, if not then you'll have to wait.
No excuses
so, eh how do I get this demo then? I'm mildly interested.

[Cuilan]

Let's just hope they never strike out against people that use foreign accounts.

That doesn't facilitate piracy, so why would they?

[neorichieb1971]

Good riddance to all of them.

If anyone on this site is modding their 360 and putting pirated discs in there, tell me who are you and i'll give you a piece of my mind.

There is no excuse whatsoever. Look after your stuff. If you went to the trouble of learning how to flash your DVD drive and take it all apart, your pirating. End of.

I hope new mods come out.. then MS will screw them over next time and thats another 360 down the toilet for online purposes. Unfortunately, as it always goes. Those people who pick them on the cheap or whatever will find going online a bit difficult.

So, if your buying a used 360, see it running online before parting with your cash.

Yet you somehow want the gow demo without getting the code yourself?
If you got the code, you can play the demo, if not then you'll have to wait.
No excuses
so, eh how do I get this demo then? I'm mildly interested.

I would have paid for the demo. No problem there. I got the code legitimately by pre-ordering the ultimate edition. I got the information at my disposal from someone after I got the code.

However, thats not piracy. Its a demo. A very good one as well. I did not mod my machine, break any laws or condone in any illegal activity to get the demo to those that asked for it.

[Ex-Cyber]

Let's just hope they never strike out against people that use foreign accounts.

That doesn't facilitate piracy, so why would they?

They actually want and have technologically and legally pursued far broader control than what copyright offers. The modern console manufacturer makes no real distinction between "piracy" and "unlicensed publishing", and game publishers are increasingly trying to combat the used game market. "Piracy" is merely the most presentable front in their war. Whether fear of public backlash will keep them from advancing elsewhere is anyone's guess.

[kengou]

Disregarding piracy for a second, I have no problem with just modding. I think that if you buy some hardware you should be free to do with it whatever you want. Just don't expect your modded console to work with anything else like xbox live without getting your console banned. There's an expectation that it's your hardware, not microsoft's, but in that case you shouldn't expect your hardware to work with microsoft's software.

[ZacharyB]

Disregarding piracy for a second, I have no problem with just modding. I think that if you buy some hardware you should be free to do with it whatever you want.

I think they're taking extra precautions to create a welcoming environment for game developers. In my opinion, Microsoft also doesn't care about modding, but they know that developers won't be eager to develop for the x360 if there's any threat of piracy. This will indirectly take revenue away from Microsoft because they will have fewer wares to peddle on their Live service.

In other words, it's strictly business. Same as Cease and Desist letters from companies that target any homebrew games or modded ROMs about copyright infringement--the companies don't really care, but if there's a potential loss of money, they have to cover their assets.

[brentsg]

There are some stories out there that I don't doubt, that some innocent people get swept up in these mass bannings and have a hell of a time getting it fixed. I don't doubt this at all, when you're talking about knocking off mass quantities all at once.

[Lordstar]

There are some stories out there that I don't doubt, that some innocent people get swept up in these mass bannings and have a hell of a time getting it fixed. I don't doubt this at all, when you're talking about knocking off mass quantities all at once.

not if its somehting in the software and or the xbox there sensing. The chances of getting put in a catagory like that would be very very very low I imagine. New articles have said that people with ligit copies and 'factory' xboxes have been cought up in this but ive yet to hear of anyone actaully say hey I GOT FUCKED AND IT AINT MY FAULT! even on youtube no ones posted a video yet bitching about it.

I mean anything is possible but. that margin of error would have to be so tiny the chances of being one of them would be something really hard. like being hit by lighting on the day you won the lotto. (watch MS make me eat my words now)

[brentsg]

http://consumerist.com/5402056/xbox-gam ... -no-reason

In my line of work I would "rehome" mass quantities of class 5 VoIP telephone customers from one switch to another switch in the middle of the night. We did this when a switch was approaching a capacity limit which would prevent adding new subscribers. (we might do 60,000 subscribers at a time, all that needed functioning 911 service with no more than a 5 minute downtime)

Well what this really meant in the background, was that we had a bunch of fantastically intelligent 20 somethings writing complicated scripts (perl, whatever) to turn the decision makers criteria for movement into a 2:00AM button push. ie, move all subscribers within certain number blocks over... Of course this is over-simplifying but you get the point.

Well no matter how many weeks and months of preparation and testing we did, there were always "oh shit" moments after we kicked off the scripts. And once it was started there really wasn't any going back due to all the third parties that also had to move in sync (other carriers and such). Maybe something was missed in a script, shit happens... But most often we would find that some small percentage of accounts were simply built wrong, or reality somehow didn't line up properly with what was in our billing system, or provisioning system.

All I'm saying is if you kick off a script to do a million of anything, there is going to be some fallout. You'd better have your bases covered because these people are gonna need to be fixed ASAP.

[Ed Oscuro]

Let's keep in mind this is the great idea service where you can be banned for a day if enough people wrongly report you as being a "bad sport"

Also, jeez, they swept up 1/20 of their entire userbase, so they say. A million people out of 20 million. That's a huge number. I have to admit I see that's not a great fact to bring up in pro-PC debates

[Specineff]

Perhaps MS thinks it's doing itself a service by getting rid of "pirates". But isn't blocking a sizable chunk of those gamers a sure way to NOT get any money from them in the future?

[system11]

Perhaps MS thinks it's doing itself a service by getting rid of "pirates". But isn't blocking a sizable chunk of those gamers a sure way to NOT get any money from them in the future?

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.

Good riddance.

[Jockel]

How is that news? They do it every year around november.

[icbluscrn]

There are some stories out there that I don't doubt, that some innocent people get swept up in these mass bannings and have a hell of a time getting it fixed. I don't doubt this at all, when you're talking about knocking off mass quantities all at once.

i have no problems in what msft is doing and am enjoying the havic its causing i say sacrifice the few .mS should do it nintendo style and kill the system that would be great even though one of my consoles just got banned (one that i thought had no chance of being caught) strangely enough couple of others are doing fine.

anyone see how craigslist lite up with these consoles still the prices people are asking for them is ridiculous.

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.

well cost of 200 pirated video games ~ $400 vs ~ $11000 for retail copies, cost of 1 new system $400 should not be a problem with all that money they saved

modded+banned 360s are on craigslist for as low as $60 in my area.

if they were that cheap around here i'd pick up a few.

[Ganelon]

This is a long overdue fix but came at a perfect time. It's a simple 5-minute job to crack a 360 to play "backups" (although not imports...). Microsoft would get much more money from their share of licensed game sales anyway. Plus, folks can still enjoy their "backups" offline, which is still more than they deserve (which is nil).

[antron]

How is that news? They do it every year around november.

to 1/5 of the subscribers?

modded+banned 360s are on craigslist for as low as $60 in my area.

[louisg]

Wow, that's pretty crappy. Not that I think people are entitled to pirate whatever they want, but there are bound to be some of those owned by people just wanting to play imports or mess around with OSses or freeware, right? Or mistakenly deactivated units? Maybe only 10% of those are active given how frequently those things break I can understand, say, not letting people onto XBL until they remove the mod. But making people purchase a new console entirely pretty much just sounds like they figured out how to squeeze their customers more to me.

So, if I got a cheap-ass banned unit, would it be able to play imports? This is actually kinda appealing.

[jonny5]

Wow, that's pretty crappy. Not that I think people are entitled to pirate whatever they want, but there are bound to be some of those owned by people just wanting to play imports or mess around with OSses or freeware, right? Or mistakenly deactivated units? Maybe only 10% of those are active given how frequently those things break I can understand, say, not letting people onto XBL until they remove the mod. But making people purchase a new console entirely pretty much just sounds like they figured out how to squeeze their customers more to me.

So, if I got a cheap-ass banned unit, would it be able to play imports? This is actually kinda appealing.

modding does not allow for play of imports, backup or retail...region locking remains

[antron]

So, if I got a cheap-ass banned unit, would it be able to play imports? This is actually kinda appealing.

probably not. it would need to have a chip that replaces the kernel. they exist, but most modders just flash the dvd drive.

[jonny5]

So, if I got a cheap-ass banned unit, would it be able to play imports? This is actually kinda appealing.

probably not. it would need to have a chip that replaces the kernel. they exist, but most modders just flash the dvd drive.

correct me if im wrong, but you can only change the region, you cant unlock it so it will play multi region....so you could do it so a NTSC-U unit will play NTSC-J releases, but it will no longer play region locked NTSC-U titles....

doesnt seem like a very good option

[Lordstar]

Funny you should mention that some guy out right laughed in my face the other day when i mentioned i bought a game new (batman arkham) He chipped his console. Last thing i heard about him though was he was skipping out on paying his child support though so you kinda get the idea here. people could say the same about music or videos. I do download a lot of music and videos without paying for them but albums and movies I really love I go out and buy because i like to actually own things. One of the reasons why im not a big fan of DLC.

[neorichieb1971]

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.

[antron]

So, if I got a cheap-ass banned unit, would it be able to play imports? This is actually kinda appealing.

probably not. it would need to have a chip that replaces the kernel. they exist, but most modders just flash the dvd drive.

correct me if im wrong, but you can only change the region, you cant unlock it so it will play multi region....so you could do it so a NTSC-U unit will play NTSC-J releases, but it will no longer play region locked NTSC-U titles....

doesnt seem like a very good option

one of the chips out there lets you swich kernels. but you're right, still too much trouble.

[Specineff]

Not to start a war, but I am kind of glad I got a PS3.

[Danbo]

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

[jonny5]

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