Microsoft bans modified Xboxes once more
With some new major titles hitting the street this week it was bound to happen once again. Microsoft pulls out the Hammer of Ban to free us from pirating trolls. It’s Ninja vs. Pirate all over again. Read more after the break.
Our good friend Major Nelson informed everyone of the new banning spree earlier this week:
“In our our continued effort to keep gameplay safe and secure for our community of more than 14 million members, Microsoft has taken action against a small percentage of Xbox 360 consoles that have been illegally modified in order to play pirated games.”
He also explains once again why they are doing this:
“You should know that modifying your Xbox 360 console is also a violation of the Xbox LIVE terms of use, will void your warranty and result in a ban from Xbox LIVE. The health of the video game business depends on customers paying for the genuine products and services they receive, both from manufacturers and the local companies that support them.”
They always know when to hit: Right after a couple of big releases like, Gears of War 2, Fable 2 and Fallout 3. Unfortunately this will not be the end of pirating on Xbox360. This “war” is bound to go on as long as the Xbox360 is used by gamers all over the world. Do you know anyone that got hit with the hammer? What are your thoughts about this never ending battle of cat and mouse? Let us know in the comments below.
Thanks to Cybermans for submitting!
Can only be a good thing as long as it keeps any obtrusive DRM out
meh
Is it the console or the tag(s) that get banned? Just a thought as friends of a person who got banned may have used their tag on a modded console. Dont affect me but is worth a though.
on the original xbox, it was the console’s eeprom that got banned, though they did do more extensive checks on the other consoles that got logged into live with that account, but as long as they weren’t modded, no problem. i do not know how they are handling it on the 360, but i doubt they would stop charging a live account, whether it was logged in on a modded 360 or not.
As far as I know, it’s the Live account. I read that when you try to connect to Xbox Live, you get a particular error that prevents you from doing so.
Their previous bans were to the specific console ID. So your live account would still be good on another non-banned console.
It’s not the Live account; it’s the console itself. The Console ID is banned. Which is to be noticed is completely independent of the Hard Drive. So you can take the hard drive from a banned console and put it into a clean console and the hard drive will work fine and you’ll be able to login to Live just fine.
Serial number of the console.
correct me if i am wrong, but i believe at this point, because unsigned code is still a no go, this is just decreasing the number of players out there on live.
my experience is unaffected by the fact that they have an original disc in the drive, and i see no way that this makes the experience any more “safe and secure” for the community of users.
why not focus efforts on the real cheaters out there that are taking advantage of any number of network loopholes to truly ruin the experience for everyone. right right, the money.
i pay for my games, and i would like as many players out there as possible (as long as they are not fucking up the game). i do not give a flying fuck if they can afford to pay for their games or not, or whether they pirate or not.
i think if they truly want to improve the experience, they should boot the cheaters not the poor, but hey, like i said, i can afford to pay.
DBS - did they make changes to the system used to protect their digital media? as far as i know, xbox live is LOADED with drm troubles (arcade included), as is quite well illustrated any of the many times we have all had to replace our systems. unless there have been recent changes i am not aware of… you have info?
This is the latest news on the DRM problems.
“Boot the cheaters not the poor”.
I’m sorry, but why you should be allowed to be involved in something like XBox Live when you haven’t paid for it? It’s not a question of being poor. There are as many people who can afford it, but don’t wish to pay for it. Microsoft aren’t running a charity here.
If you mod your box to play pirated games, then you deserve all you get. And if you’re too poor to afford games for the 360, try some other pursuit that you CAN afford.
Does anyone actually take responsibility for their own actions any more?
“I’m sorry, but why should you be allowed to be involved in something like XBox Live when you haven’t paid for it?”
first of all, EVERYBODY on live pays for it. they also pay for their consoles, all the peripherals, and a high speed internet connection. all of these things keep your big fat capitalist ball rolling.
second of all, a lot of the people that have modded consoles already spend every possible spare penny on video games, and it is not like they are contributing nothing. a lot of people put in what they can, and are not in it strictly to rape m$. i am not saying it is right or wrong, i am saying that a lot fo these people are pretty cool, and to take them off of xbox live does NOTHING to improve the experience for ME, or, i assume, you. unless you are looking to be “protected” from these “miscreants” or something. my point is, they CLAIM to be doing this for us, the legitimate user, when in fact, all games are peer to peer, there are no servers to butt fuck, to speak of, and really, i am asking… how does banning people playing dvdr-dl improve OUR experience?
also, because disks are easily damaged, and cannot be replaced, it is not unreasonable to say that quite a few people would like to protect their original disks, in order to keep them usable. if you pay for the game, and simply want to protect your investment, do these people also “deserve all they get?”
i am just saying, this particular issue is being represented poorly. until people are able to CHEAT in these games due to modded consoles, i see nothing to be protected from.
instead of saying “we are keeping you safe!”, m$ should warn those who are considering modding their consoles what the consequences are, or simply shut the fuck up.
this benefits m$, not us. make no mistake.
major dipthong says this keeps gameplay “safe and secure for the community.”
i am just saying, i do not see how this is true, at this point.
While I’m no expert the on the subject, nor having used the service, doesn’t MS offer a free game disc for a scratched one? I do believe one of the prerequisites is that the game be damaged while inside the disk tray of an Xbox 360 console.
But then there is the matter of just damaged CD’s and that does happen, so I don’t see a problem with making a spare. However, the problem arises when making a “spare” becomes “selling it to your friends and neighbors”.
Like I said, I don’t know MS’ take on the whole damaged disk compensation program, but if it doesn’t involve a clause for “wear due to prolonged use” clause, they shouldn’t be bitching about people making “spares.”
If you think that people mod their consoles primarily to make back up copies of games they have purchased then you are the height of naivety, my friend.
As for damaged discs, I don’t recall ever scratching one of mine in all the years I’ve been gaming. If people are stupid enough to damage something that costs up to £50 then fuck ‘em. (Consoles damaging the discs is a different matter but then there’s a claim against MS so you’d expect some kind of compensation from them.)
“If you think that people mod their consoles primarily to make back up copies of games they have purchased then you are the height of naivety, my friend.”
read what i wrote. i never even mentioned that situation. you only perceived that because i mentioned reasonable circumstance in which the ban hammer may be aimed at an innocent party.
“also, because disks are easily damaged, and cannot be replaced, it is not unreasonable to say that quite a few people would like to protect their original disks, in order to keep them usable. if you pay for the game, and simply want to protect your investment, do these people also “deserve all they get?””
i simply stated they may want to protect their investment. you read what you wanted.
consoles damaging discs is not a “different matter.” no one wants to wait six fucking weeks to play a game their console scratched, OR their little kids. especially when the 360 got SHITLOADS of publicity on how they scratch the hell out of discs. i could see a self-proclaimed “savvy” dad buying a modded console for his kids for that reason, it is certainly not out of the realm of possibility. besides, who cares? that has nothing to do with my point.
i am not NECESSARILY trying to convince you what they do is right or wrong, i am just saying that, at this particular juncture, claiming that we are being protected from these deviants is a little bit misleading. it is just decreasing the size of the gamer pool we are all splashing around in. if you want to be splashing around all by yourself, there is a little plug in the back of the box, just pull it.
again, if modders were able to use a modded box to cheat online in games, that would be different. if major dipthong wasn’t claiming he was making “us,” the gamers, “safe and secure,” that would be different.
this issue is purposefully manipulatively portrayed, in my opinion.
*at Pasty
“also, because disks are easily damaged, and cannot be replaced, it is not unreasonable to say that quite a few people would like to protect their original disks, in order to keep them usable. if you pay for the game, and simply want to protect your investment, do these people also “deserve all they get?”
I was just picking one argument, don’t be so quick to assume that I think all xboxes are modded primarily to play copied discs. I actually agree with Mu on the subject of making a copy and not cheating, however I broached the subject of “the problem arises when making a “spare” becomes “selling it to your friends and neighbors”. ”
2nd, you may not have scratched a disk, congratulations, but other people do, for whatever reason, shit happens.
Mu, don’t bother trying to talk any sense to the fucks on this forum. They’re already firmly saddled to their high-horse, riding off into the valley of self-righteousness.
It’s like a fucking catholic church in here
Like Mu said:
“first of all, EVERYBODY on live pays for it. they also pay for their consoles, all the peripherals, and a high speed internet connection. all of these things keep your big fat capitalist ball rolling.
second of all, a lot of the people that have modded consoles already spend every possible spare penny on video games, and it is not like they are contributing nothing. a lot of people put in what they can, and are not in it strictly to rape m$. i am not saying it is right or wrong, i am saying that a lot fo these people are pretty cool, and to take them off of xbox live does NOTHING to improve the experience for ME, or, i assume, you. ”
It goes hand to hand with my experience. And “I’m a pirate”…
Just please read and think of yourself in my shoes.
I do have an xbox 360 that’s modded.
I also have an xbox 360 that’s not modded.
I have 24 xbox 360 games that are original, and I have paid for.
I have 10 xbox 360 games that are pirated and I’ve never paid anything, except the price of an Dual layer DVD (about $2)
Back when I had only 1 xbox 360, it broke down. I had to send it to be repaired. The motherboard was changed.
2 months from that, just when GTA IV was released, my xbox 360 died again. It had started to give me those “unreadable disc” errors with some games and when I got my GTA IV, that I paid for(original), it gave me the unreadable disc error the first 5 minutes of the game. And GTA IV never worked.
I had to send my xbox 360 to be fixed, again. 2-3 weeks of waiting, to get my hands on GTA 4. And everyone was playing it. I didn’t, even though I had paid somewhere around 3000 dollars to microsoft by then.
And I’ve been a member of xbox live from the very beginning when xbox 360 was released.. didn’t even include that in that “around 3000 dollars”…
And yes, both times I had to wait for the 2-3 weeks to get back to play. While, of course, they charged me for my xbox live time, that I couldn’t even use.
So, eventually bought an xbox 360 arcade package, just to have a backup console and at least I got to throw a few lanparties.
So, why did I mod my another xbox 360? Isn’t it obvious?
I’ve already paid HELL OF A LOT of my cash, that I don’t even really have, to microsoft and they’ve given me alot of grief.
And now I don’t dare to update my console, since I only have 1 harddrive and a memory unit. If the fall update would render my modded xbox 360 useless, I wouldn’t get another one, obviously.
So… Am I really the winner here? Am I a BAD GUY? I’d enjoy xbox live, I’d pay for it and sure as hell would buy all the best games, IF I’d be a bit more pleased how microsoft handles their customers and products. And I just now bought the rockband instruments and again they got my ~150 bucks.
So I completely agree with Mu. I would, even if I didn’t own an xbox 360 that’s modded.
But oh well.. now I can enjoy free single player campaigns, but I can’t enjoy xbox live. And I’ve never had a single complaint when I’ve played online, coz I’m not an A-hole who trashtalks and offends everyone while playing. So yes, one less decent player on xbox live.
I guess I’ll buy myself another HDD and eventually buy every game that I wanna play on xbox live, coz I don’t wanna risk breaking the another (modded) xbox 360. or getting it banned…
*sigh* Kinda depressing, really.
Sorry for the double-post, but as H34RT 4TT4CK said:
“However, the problem arises when making a “spare” becomes “selling it to your friends and neighbors”.”
I just gotta say that I’m definately not selling illegal copies.
And just to point out; I did lose my varranty, of course, when I modded my xbox 360. So it’s not up to microsoft anymore, to fix the console, if it breaks down. It’s up to me.
That already is a risk that I took, and am aware.
Most “modders” are really decent people and just that they’re intelligent enough to do it, means they’re probably a bit more decent acting and not doing it as a way to “troll” or rip anyone off. I’m all into supporting gamehouses all the way.
Hell, I’ve enjoyed my “illegal” copies now since I didn’t have the money to buy em all NOW - I still might buy the originals. I just didn’t want to wait. Again.
I wonder if I asked microsoft whether I should mod my xbox 360 to be satisfied with microsofts faulty console, as it compensates for my losses OR give up on xbox 360 and buy a PS3, what would they say?
Well.. whatever. Just don’t see how enthusiastic gamers “taking some matters in their own hands” hurts the gaming community. Coz you know, they’re still there - playing their free games. A ban from xbox live just means they won’t be contributing to the community at all, but playing alone AND forced to seek for new single player games constantly, instead of actually enjoying out there with the rest of the gamers.
my system is still ok and not banned SUCKERS.
your system is still FAGTITS.
four words too many.
your message is lost.
What kind of a world are we living in when even fagtits can’t be relied on?
indeed, it MUST have been an imposter.
i got a modified xbox
Yeah me too neither, I think so. What about you? Do you have blue balls from cheating on your wife, I mean M.S.? Well I once read it in the Daily News. It was all a dream once my life had begun. Man I got this spittin headache and I don’t know if I wanna live or die in LA. I just don’t know anymore why people in the U.S. can’t support American products when the economy sucks ass. I say F the Japs market and let all vote for Obama, you in guy?
i own 42 modifed xboxes and yes i agree
Microsofts Replacing a disc due to console damaging it whole skeem there. Was and is a flop, I called becuase I put a game disc in and took it out 30mins later with Rings around the bottom… called xbox and they said what do you want us to do about it. So I started Modding`