[Source Kotaku]

Xbox Live Smashes Mass Banhammer on Pirates

"A small percentage" of Xbox Live users with modded consoles that allowed pirated games to play woke up to find an early treat in their Halloween bag: a banhammer.

IGN noticed scuttlebutt about bannings in technical feedback forums and asked Microsoft about it. A spokesperson confirmed they banzored some modded consoles. Said the spokesperson to IGN:

"We have taken action against a small percentage of consoles that have been modified to play pirated game discs. In line with our commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the more than 20 million members of our Xbox LIVE community, we are suspending these modded consoles from Xbox LIVE."

Microsoft wouldn't say exactly when the action was taken, although IGN speculates that, from the chatter, it's been happening over the past week.

Microsoft Performs Mass Xbox Console Banning [IGN via Hot Blooded Gaming] [Image from KnowYourMeme]

Good its about time. Im tired of people having pirated games especially before the games are even officially released

Good...

Im sure MS could ban everyone doing this but these people can go and buy a 360 in store, swap the mobo and return it. Then people buy that console later and get a deffective unit... the "xbox 360 is not reliable" rumor grows...bad press follows....

So they are doing it slowly.

I personally think this is bullshit. If you're going to punish a handful of people for a crime you don't hand pick a few people out of the damn crowd and claim your doing something good.

hahahahah, I bet lot of people were pleasantly suprised when they turned their 360 on. :D

If Ms wants to go ahead and use the Banhammer on consoles with pirated games be my guest.

The last thing on want is some strange parasitic form of drm appearing onto consoles because of piracy.

lol

LOL, old news, the last ban wave was for early Forza 3 players, another one is due 3 days before Modern Warefare 2 hits as it has already leaked and people are playing it early who will get banned.

None of my customers* "modded" 360's have been banned but of course they only play backups of games they legally own, on top of this I have been keeping an eye on all the major 360 "modding" sites xbox-scene being one and hardly anyone has got banned, the number is like 1 in a 1,000 who played a game early in which case they deserved it.

I've been playing Forza 3 since release date, no ban, all good, and before you all moan at me I do have the LCE edition I bought from Game and also have a full receipt but I still only use my backup disc I downloaded to play it as I have damaged way too many original discs to date and believe it or not a LOT of genuine people only have flashed 360's to play backups of games they already own to stop their original discs getting damaged.

* Please note, console flashing/chipping is 100% legal in the UK and EU, however,  pirating games is against the law and I do not condone this in any way, just because I flash 360's does not mean I am a pirate, many shops in the UK and EU offer flashing/chipping services.

Is the 360 that badly designed that is regularly ruins discs? I have never...never heard of or experienced disc damage caused by the device. And that's DVD players, PCs, CD players, PS, PS2, XB1. But all of a sudden 360 causes all manner of disc damage that necessitates the widespread modding of the console to preserve original game discs in playable condition. All sounds rather unlikely.

Believe it or not yes, they are known to damage discs but i'm also talking about discs in general, most of my discs end up getting damaged if i forget to put them back in the case or they fall on the floor, even when I clean them I sometimes end up marking them, my retail COD 4 disc no longer even loads as it is marked badly, if i want a replacement from MS it will cost me £22.50 if i send the damaged one back!

And yeah, I know a LOT of people only flash 360's to play pirate games but there are also a lot of people that do only flash them to play backups of games they actually own, look on xbox-scene for example, they don't allow any talk of piracy and 80% of members there only flash their 360's for LEGAL purposes, hard to believe I know but it does happen!