News19,133 Articles

November 12, 2009

Microsoft bans 'modded' Xbox console users

Xbox Lite blocks consoles tweaked for pirate games

Matt Peckham

Microsoft has banned a number of gamers from its online gaming service because they have modified their Xbox consoles to play pirate games.

The company said a "small percentage" of players had been affected, although some have speculated it could be between 60,000 and one million of the 20 million players worldwide.

The users affected are those that have tweaked their console with extra chips or hard drives, not only so they can play pirated games but also games purchased in other regions than where their console was purchased.

Microsoft said the move was "in line with [its] commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay". The company has been checking the machines of its online community once a year since 2002.

Any machine that is banned because it has been 'modded' is unable to rejoin the Xbox Live community in the future.

"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," the company added.

See all games reviews

See also: UK Xbox Live users left in limbo

Free whitepaper: Phishing for victims - Truth, myth and cybercrime

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Comments received


jimmy said on Friday, 13 November 2009

So they spy on peoples consoles which they bought and own not microsoft and if u modified it then they ban you from a vitial part of the consoles intended use which you are paying extra for without even knowing if you are playing pirated games with it. Plus what if you bought the console second hand allready modified and only own purchased games. WHAT A JOKE

R J Sebire said on Friday, 13 November 2009

I Pimped out my xbox, all it takes is linux, but like all linux, thats only a start, then you ftp xbmc on to the drive and enable it as your frontend.
A 60GB xbmc, plays .mkv's easily, allows you to install widgets and emulators like SNES ect, and have around 40 games on the harddrive anyway, so if you get banned from xbox live, just use a private server, there are allways loads of game to play in.
If you wanted, you could install xbmc on a 60GB PS3 too.
XBMC is the best thing on the xbox apart from its games anyway and they know it, so banning people for improving there system is microsoft all over.

Jimmysdumb! said on Saturday, 14 November 2009

When you sign up for live you are signing a contract which basically says if you mess with it they can ban it.

R J Sebire we are not talking about the xbox 1 its the 360 which really can only be modded to play backups. There are no dashboards for it yet and I doubt there will be.

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