Microsoft Bans 1 Million Xbox 360 Pirates

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admin

Audioholics Robot
Staff member
Over 1 million Xbox Live players around the world lost their ability to access their online accounts when Microsoft dropped the bomb on suspected "pirates". Microsoft stated the banned consoles were modified to allow them to play bootleg games, many of which were downloaded from pirate sites and burned onto disc. Tech bloggers drew an immediate link to the release this week of blockbuster Xbox 360 game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.


Discuss "Microsoft Bans 1 Million Xbox 360 Pirates" here. Read the article.
 
Seth=L

Seth=L

Audioholic Overlord
If you are not in an area that connects to the internet and you want to confirm the status of the online support for your xbox 360 how would you be able to do that? Basically, I want to know how you can buy an xbox 360 and be certain your aren't buying a banned unit without being connected to the internet.
 
tbergman

tbergman

Full Audioholic
If you are not in an area that connects to the internet and you want to confirm the status of the online support for your xbox 360 how would you be able to do that? Basically, I want to know how you can buy an xbox 360 and be certain your aren't buying a banned unit without being connected to the internet.
I doubt there is a way, because I doubt Microsoft is telling how they detect modded 360s. I would avoid buying used from someone you don't know. On second thought, you could burn a 360 game and see if it will play it. If it plays then it's been flashed so it would probably be banned. This would require you to either rent and rip a game or DL one, both not exactly legal but it's not like you plan on using the burned game.
 
jinjuku

jinjuku

Moderator
I would call M$ to find out... Or I would tell the would be seller that you need to test out before completing the sale.

It's your money, protect it.
 
krzywica

krzywica

Audioholic Samurai
I would call M$ to find out... Or I would tell the would be seller that you need to test out before completing the sale.

It's your money, protect it.
I don't own any consoles but don't they have tamper tape on them? That would be the first thing I would check.
 
Seth=L

Seth=L

Audioholic Overlord
The 360 was a concern for me last night, today I could care less since I am no longer involved with the company that was buying 360s. I bet pawn shops see an influx of xbox 360 systems very soon.
 
J

jared555

Junior Audioholic
In theory if the auction described it as a non banned/unmodified 360 and that wasn't the case when you got it it would fall under buyer protection and you could either reverse the payment or take it to court.
 
In a perfect world you could... In reality it's a massive hassle. At this point buying a used Xbox from a place like eBay is going to be almost impossible without tremendous risk. The upside is that you can likely land a banned console with tons of games if you don't care about Live.
 
davidtwotrees

davidtwotrees

Audioholic General
Games.............I guess if you can't play the game by the rules then you don't get to play at all, right? Good for Microsoft. I'm totally against pirating and downloading for free. I would pay good money to see the looks on all those gamers faces when the bomb was dropped!
 
J

jared555

Junior Audioholic
Games.............I guess if you can't play the game by the rules then you don't get to play at all, right? Good for Microsoft. I'm totally against pirating and downloading for free. I would pay good money to see the looks on all those gamers faces when the bomb was dropped!
There are some legitimate (non cheating/piracy, not necessarily in compliance with microsoft's EULA) reasons for modding that are not just for piracy. Running different software like linux or a custom media center frontend, backups of games you own, not sure but I think with the original xbox you could copy your games to the hard drive (great for people with kids who don't want to deal with the original disks getting destroyed).

Plus you have a lot of homebrew games on the wii (and probably other systems).

Unfortunately the piracy overwhelms the legitimate uses.
 
BigSkreen

BigSkreen

Junior Audioholic
I have to agree with Jared555. I modded my original Xbox. While it had a lot of advantages both to legal and nonlegal uses the thing became a media center. It became the hub of my movie watching. Now I don't agree with pirating - especially now that I can afford what I want :) - but I think a lot of what makes the 360 great came from modded original Xboxes.

The trick is to keep pirating under control while still using the mod community to beta test ideas and software. If a company can manage that then they have won the battle.
 
Nemo128

Nemo128

Audioholic Field Marshall
with the original xbox you could copy your games to the hard drive (great for people with kids who don't want to deal with the original disks getting destroyed).
360 can do this too, but you still need to have the disc in the drive. I know from experience (RE0 for Gamecube) that having your disc destroyed (cracked while removing from its case spindle which was too tight) and being told you need to pay $20 for a replacement can really suck when the damage wasn't your fault to begin with.
 

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