Microsoft Bans Live Accounts For Modded Consoles

[herkulease]

I hate to beat a dead horse but it still doesn't address the issue of people who resorted to fixing their own console when MS continued to send them non-working ones or when they got the RROD after the 3-year extended warranty was up, in order to save some money vs. paying them $100 to do the same thing. As I said, I know it violates their TOS, but I think banning people who have done home repairs is a bit of an extreme punishment for something that I don't think is on the same level as modding in order to steal games. Again, voiding the warranty is one thing. Banning you from Live is another.

The argument that people should have voted with their wallet doesn't hold water. If you can't afford to spend $100 to have MS fix your defective console, then you also can't afford to spend $300 to buy a competing product as well (not to mention having to re-buy all your games). And the truth is that a lot of people ARE voting with their wallets. The PS3 is finally gaining some steam after years spent in the Xbox's shadow.

There has not been an proof beyond some claims that they were "repairing" their console. If you replaced a stock fan with one that was parted out from someone's broken one you wouldn't have any issues. The voltage draw would be identical. There wouldn't be any flags.

If you had to replace the DVD drive if you bought an identical one you could just swap the logical board you'd still be fine. since really you're just replacing the lens in a different matter. If you went the long way of dumping the original firmware to get the key and put the key to the newer drive and got ban well sorry. all you need was a hacked firmware and you're off to playing copied games.

RROD fixes use a heat gun. there wouldn't any flags of system being turned on without a dvd drive attached.

Or worst case check to see if Microsoft will still repair it for free. It seems that for the system that I returned a year a go still qualifies for the free rrod repair. I'm guessing its 3 years for every console they send you adn its not 3 years from your original purchase. my 3 years from original purchase are already up it was a launch system.

Of course that is only my system, maybe I'm lucky.

 

[JackBurton]

Exactly. They will still pirate the games and just play those they don't care about online on the modded machine. Not to mention, if they burned 20 games, they likely wouldn't even have purchased all 20 of those in the first place.

Great. They can play those games OFFLINE. And let me tell you, that is a pretty big deterrent for someone wanting to play MW2. Everyone knows MP is were it is at with a game like that.

I don't understand the "level the playing field" point either. They weren't cheating in games with modded xboxen...

If you hack a system, you open it up to pretty much anything. A simple integrity check from Microsoft makes sure everyone is playing with the same hardware and software.

I'm not trying to defend dloading and burning games, don't get me wrong. But I'm sure MS takes a pretty good hit up front on XBL fees pretty quick. Does MS get a %age of each game sold? or just 1 time licensing fee per title?

Microsoft loses a lot more from lost game sales. You don't think people will go out and buy MW2 once they find out they can't play their pirated copy? I'm willing to bet they'll not only go out and buy the game, but they'll also go out and buy another 360. If they don't, well, they don't get to play online. Sorry, Microsoft doesn't need to extend their service to people that DON'T pay for their games. If I have to pay for my games, so does the other guy. And if he doesn't, he doesn't get to enjoy the service others pay for (Live AND the game).

 

[Homerboy]

Interesting seems they not only ban you but also corrupt any profiles that were ever used to connect to XBL.

I just picked up a already banned console, plugged in my old HDD and 4 out of 6 profiles are picked up. The 2 that were used in the past to connect to XBL are corrupted. Now THAT is a slick ass move by MS. Kudos to them.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

The corrupted saves and profile crap are bullshit. The rest is completely reasonable (I haven't been banned).

 

[Raduque]

3) every person i know with an xbox 360 has had it fail. i bought one a year after launch and am on my third console- and i barely even play it. a good friend bought one two years after launch and is also on his third. pretty much everyone who ever purchases one of these turd boxes will have it fail, and many will have the replacements for their failed console fail. it's one thing to have a large number of something fail and require replacement with a 'fixed' model. it's completely another to have made nothing but excruciatingly meager quality upgrades over the four year life of a console that still results in most all of them failing. if you can't admit that this is as close to a 100% failure rate as consumer electronics can get, please take microsoft's cock out of your mouth and explain why.

You and all your friends must really be some of the most unfuckingluckyest people on the planet.

<-- Launch-day Xbox360 running strong like a fine Swiss watch. Never had a problem, even when the cat was blocking the fans, while playing for close to 5 hours.

 

[Queasy]

The corrupted saves and profile crap are bullshit. The rest is completely reasonable (I haven't been banned).

Actually, they are perfectly understandable. Some people modify their consoles to get unearned achievement, cheat in games, etc. Preventing the 'hacked' profiles and gamesaves from being moved to another console makes perfect sense. The account owners can still recover a 'clean' gamertag using the account recovery process on a non-modified 360.

 

[nitromullet]

Not sure about anyone else here, but I was curious about ebay and CL sales of these, so I checked out my local CL... Sure enough, there were people selling banned consoles (some with a library of stolen games), but there were also a number of people looking for banned consoles for cheap ($50).

It seems to me that there might actually be a fairly large number of players who read about the ban, looked at their gaming habits, and realized that they actually don't play online THAT much. To someone willing to steal their games, buying a banned console for playing offline games in addition to their legit console makes financial sense. Of course there is still the obvious risk of buying a used (no warranty) 360, but if it's cheap enough I'm sure a number of people will go for it.

...no, I'm not condoning theft, nor do I have a modded console. I buy all my games (and still have more than I can keep up with). However, I'm wondering if by doing this MS has simply advertised to the world how easy it is to mod their console. Not only that, but it looks like they've inadvertently created a new black market demand for banned consoles from people not willing to mod their own consoles.

 

[zerocool84]

You and all your friends must really be some of the most unfuckingluckyest people on the planet.

<-- Launch-day Xbox360 running strong like a fine Swiss watch. Never had a problem, even when the cat was blocking the fans, while playing for close to 5 hours.

Maybe you're just lucky. I've had friends with RROD. My launch Xbox has been fine but I only play it once every couple weeks.

 

[JackBurton]

You and all your friends must really be some of the most unfuckingluckyest people on the planet.

<-- Launch-day Xbox360 running strong like a fine Swiss watch. Never had a problem, even when the cat was blocking the fans, while playing for close to 5 hours.

No doubt. I bought my XBox 360 Elite the day MS released the Elite and it has been running perfectly to this day. My nephews also have 360s and theirs are running flawless too.

 

[Cobalt]

My console was banned and corrupt profile didnt do much just delete the profile file and not the game save files and everything was fine on my new box.

 

[flashbacck]

I don't know anything about PS3 modding... Does Sony check and ban modded PS3's?

 

[fr]

I don't know anything about PS3 modding...

Good news! You know about the same amount as anyone else.

 

[zerogear]

I modded my hard drive 120GB -> 320GB = banned, woot. I don't play online to begin with, so I don't care

 

[Homerboy]

My console was banned and corrupt profile didnt do much just delete the profile file and not the game save files and everything was fine on my new box.

Wait, how'd you get the game saves then if your profile was dead?

 

[purbeast0]

Wait, how'd you get the game saves then if your profile was dead?

just delete the profile and no items associated with it, then when you recover gamertag on the non-banned console the save games still work no problem.

i was banned last week, thursday actually, but i fixed this other RRoD 360 that was given to me for free, and now I am just going to have 2 360's.

i will probablly hardly even play my modded one at all anymore because 95% of my gaming I'd say is online.

 

[Homerboy]

just delete the profile and no items associated with it, then when you recover gamertag on the non-banned console the save games still work no problem.

i was banned last week, thursday actually, but i fixed this other RRoD 360 that was given to me for free, and now I am just going to have 2 360's.

i will probablly hardly even play my modded one at all anymore because 95% of my gaming I'd say is online.

Ah.... but I'm trying to recover on an already banned console I picked up for pennies when my banned one get RRoD'ed at the same time. So I can't recover a gamertag. No biggy.

Good to hear/see ya too Purbeast! Hope all is well.

 

[purbeast0]

what you mean 'recover a banned console' ?

gamertags are not tied to consoles, and they are banning the consoles.

hope all is well with you too and the job market!

 

[Homerboy]

what you mean 'recover a banned console' ?

gamertags are not tied to consoles, and they are banning the consoles.

hope all is well with you too and the job market!

to recover the gamer tag though you have to connect to XBL, and you can't connect to XBL on a console that is banned (which I bought).

Edit: oh and quite honestly the job market SUCKS and things are not "well"