Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft vs. Modded Xboxes
hikeran writes "The Register has an article about how Xbox live service is now apparently banning Xboxes that have been mod chipped. Basically it seems this is one of the many uses of those unique id's used in Microsoft's software. Next up bannings for using foul language on Xbox live service?? Be careful what you say.. you may be playing with an Xbox Live admin..."
Right or wrong, good move or bad, being as how its their service, Microsft can ban who ever the hell they want.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
I don't really see this as such a bad thing... My ISP does not support home networking, so they will not give help until the network is taken down and proven to not be causing the problem.. Microsoft's support team was not trained to deal with modded xboxes, so I can see why there would be a rule to not giving support to those with the mods done.
Slashdot uses the same rationale to justify its IP banning and $rtbl'ing. But hey, it's "M$", so it must be wrong!
Just disable your mod chip before you use Live. Some people have been reporting that it works fine for them. Be careful though - if you forget to disable it before logging in, your box will be banned permanently.
Doesn't this just help maintain the integrity of the game play? Can't modded X-Boxen be altered to give unfair advantages by changing the software like players did in Unreal?
Btw, users can nark on anyone for foul language -- it doesn't have to be caught by an admin. (Again, foul language seems to mainly come from 13-year olds who think it makes them sound older.)
That'll get rid of all the cheaters, pirates and Linux users.
Hah!
Coming soon - pyrogyra
It'll help keep cheaters off XBox Live. A cheat-free online game experience is something most people I know would give their first-born for.
And as fair as the implication that Microsoft banning people who've modded their XBox, as soon as you modded your XBox, stop whining and just take some responsibility for your actions. It's not like you didn't know full well what you were getting yourself into when you cracked open the case and started messing around with a soldering iron.
NO CARRIER
If you don't like MS's terms, just don't use it... Vote with your money... don't buy the XBOX, don't buy XBoxLive...
Looking for any old 8-bit Heathkit/Zenith software/hardware - http://heathkit.garlanger.com
I'm all for modchips in Xboxes, it's one of the large reasons I use them (I helped work on them before the protection scheme got cracked.) However, I believe it is fair for Microsoft to ban the use of modchips on their Xbox Live service. We all know that Microsoft loses money on their Xboxes, and the regain it with the games. If a player is costing them money, I don't believe they have a right to complain when they can't utilize another (in my opinion) underpriced service. Further, this won't stop everyone, as dual-BIOS setups (one with the regular BIOS and one with the modified chip) for the Xbox have been around for ages.
As much as I hate to admit it, I'm torn between my hatred for the heavy-handed M$ action, and the proported resoning that it will help prevent cheating in their online games.
Nothing destroys a game community faster than the proliferation of cheaters. And, the Xbox stands to profit nicely if it can develop those communities (it's certainly not profiting without them). If I pay my hard-earned money every month to play an online game, the last think I want is to have no chance to fairly compete.
On the other hand...is that what's happening, or is this just another excuse to enable the control freaks at M$ to continue their reign?
Chaos, panic, disorder...my work here is done.
You mean you actually have to *gasp* buy the games to play them online? Jeezus I know slashdoters are cheap but come on. Blizzard has been doing this forever but because their parent company is a foreign evil empire nobody cares. Get over it, if you want to use a Microsoft product you gotta pay for it.
I'm a game producer that has worked on online games, I will say that this is a very good thing. You don't know the trouble that we go through to make sure that people do not cheat in an online game and you know what, they figure out a way around it anyway. This is the first time that we have hardware level control over the game .exe's integrity. With MS's code sign system the game .exe is not hackable and this is a good thing for all of us. Hacking RUINS online games and if this is what they have to do to stop it then ok.
Why would they want to be responsible for some hacker bringing down their server because they hacked their box to do [fill in the blank] and screwed with some important protocol or something that causes their server to crash?
As for using foul language... what is your problem with that? Again, their server, they make the rules. You are not entilted to anything. If you have problems with their rules, than I suggest you don't buy one. Oh, and anti-language rules are relatively common in MMRPGs so it's not like that would be so shocking either. I actually prefer to play games with others who do not continuously spam my screen sexually immature comments.
Where is all the outrage about all those stickers on your components that say "warranty void if removed"? Or do you only rant about Microsoft (that was rhetorical).
"It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
Microsoft aren't doing anything illegal here, put simply - to use xbox live you require an original microsoft xbox.
:)
People should be free to mod their hardware as they see fit (since it's theirs).
This is a bit like me fitting rocket boosters to the back of my car and driving it around at 200 mph. Sure i can do it and that's probaly legal. Driving it on public roads is of course not.
Anyway i thought everyone that bought xbox mod chips wanted them to make them into linuXBoxes - what the hell will they be doing with xbox live, what they realy need access to is apt-get live
I will admit that not everyone uses modchips for legal purposes, but there are many uses for them other than pirating games. With a modchip, you can write and run your own code, and run Linux, things you cannot do on an unmodified box.
So I buy an Xbox, have it connect through a sniffing proxy (a linux box with a modem and a serial nullmodem connection). Then I mod it, do the same. At this point, I should be able to start spoofing Xboxen, with fake or even strategically chosen GUIDs. That asshole that beat me at Q3 3 times last sunday? He better hope his GUID isn't available to me through my proxy. The admin who chewed me about about saying "cunt" in the #kindergarden area of Xbox Live? He better hope I can't find his GUID.
Hell, you might even just start carpet-bombing things. I can imagine even writing a little worm, that goes out hitting cable modem users, who still have a dialup. Late at night, it dials out to the service, and spoofs a modded Xbox. Hundreds of them, thousands of them. This could be fun...
I mean, there are cryptographic methods that could prevvent something like this, but after all, we are talking about M$.
People with "unmodded" machines are being wrongfully banned as well. Happened to me when I hooked up my xbox live kit.
.[[erax0r]].
Is it me or is the title of the article a little out there?
"MS accused of banning mod chip Xbox from Live service"
They later go on to say,
"...we're already seeing how unique hardware IDs could be used in anger by certain companies."
Well goddamn. I know microsoft is evil, but come on. Just because you don't want to follow the rules, doesn't mean they'll let you play with there toys. And I'm sure Xbox Live is burried in enough EULA's and of course backed with enough laweyrs to prove it.
I would have no problem if this article was rewritten as a non-attack on microsoft, and more as an informative article. Who's accusing them? I'm fairly damn certain,
"MS Found guilty of locking out modding bitchez from Xbox Live, Snoochie Boochies!"
All your fault. You cracked the case. You installed the chip, or had it installed.
--
I'm not anti-mod here either before the flames roll in. I'll be waiting for something worthwhile to mod my Xbox. As an added benefit of waiting for something worthwhile, if I do mod my Xbox modchips will be several years more mature.
Computational Madness in a round package.
the guy in the article is saying "what if". It's not happening now. READ -> COMPREHEND -> POST
Username taken, please choose another one.
Microsoft is allowed to ban whoever they want, for whatever reason.
This is very similar to what sattelite providers have done. Some have used eeprom updates that completely ruined systems that had pirated cards. Microsoft in turn is banning users who have used illegal mod chips which in turn could let a user use pirated games. This is no different than blizzard using serial numbers to prevent people from playing online using pirated versions of their products (blizzard is a prime example of a company that tries hard to curb piracy, despite many attempts to hack their protection such as bnetd).
Most importantly though, if you don't like MS's perfectly legal tactics, you have the perfectly legal solution of not buying their products.
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
It also allows you to play imported games or try and develop stuff for the X-Box.
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
As for the implication about swearing, GOOD! I don't mind a "Damn" when something happens now and then, but if I want to hear non-stop-increadibly-vulgar-peel-the-paint-off-eve ry-single-thing-within-ten-miles swearing, I'm sure I could go find that somewhere. But I don't want to hear it when I'm trying to play on online game. If you can't deal with not doing good in a stupid game without shouting enough obscenities to make all nuns on your contenant have a heart attack, then you need some serious help. I've been using Live a little (I got into the beta) and I haven't heard much of it, but I am expecting a certain level of maturity when I play online (about age 7). The constant idiotic trashtalking is anoying too, and people who make tons of sexual references and innuendo. I HOPE MS bans people who do this repeatidly. Considering that they are positioning this as something for kids, they most definatly should controll that sort of thing.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Of course, it's worth noting that the article says nothing about banning for using foul language. It's what I like to call a "story troll" like the headline about GM corn yesterday.
/sarcasm
It's obvious that microsoft wouldn't ever run an unmoderated message board, but that thread is so uniformly in support of banning modd'ed xboxes that I suspect the whole thing is faked. Kind of funny to think about microsoft paying people to sit around writing stuff like "Xbox is tehe best anyway so why bother moding it??" and "well mod chips cost 500 dollars". I'm just waiting to see someone with a PhotoCD stock image for their user photo...
__
Choose mnemonic identifiers. If you can't remember what mnemonic means, you've got a problem. - Larry Wall
Then we could connect to the live service and get microsoft to bann a twenty thousand Xbox numbers.
Just go in sequential order and make them think there are 30-40K Xbox's out there with mod chips in them. Perhaps if all thier customers were banned microsoft would rethink thier stance on it and open it up.
-THIS SPACE FOR RENT!
No modchips to let you cheat :-)
It's not unprecedented either. Drop in a modchip on your cable converter to get HBO for free and see how fast your cable company splices YOUR wire when they find out.
Hack YOUR copy of quake or unreal and see how many anti-cheat servers will let you log on if they discover you're not running the default client.
It's very, very simple. If you don't like the rules, don't join the service.
You mean, they're actually trying to ban people from using pirated software on their network? What nerve!
Seriously folks, does this shock (or even surprise) anyone? Any company would do the same damn thing (yes even Redhat).
The challenge is - can you install the mod and get on Xbox live, anyway?
Can you enable your intellectually pedestrian friends to do the same? The entire nation?
MS is doing this to *encourage* modchipping. It's like a contest; MS awards m4d pr0p5, in the form of a l4\/\/5u1t, to the first h4x0r who builds a kit that can modify the xbox in a way their servers can never, ever detect; it must be usable even if the person you give it to:
1) Has no technical training.
2) Lacks even a basic understanding of electronics.
3) Hell, they can't change a lightbulb.
4) They're blind.
5) They're a technophobe, they have alzheimers disease.
6) Hell, they're dead. Ease of use must be total.
The winner gets instant geek celebrity and free representation by the EFF.
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
You'd think, getting caught once or twice at it. . .
I agree with you but it surprises me that you (nor anybody else afaik) has mentioned the superior online strategy adopted by PS2 and GC.
They leave it to the individual game makers to provide the infrastructure and rules how to play. This is much better
If you get banned due to modding from Xbox Live you are hosed as far as internet gaming is concerned. Not so with the other consoles.
You can play US games on your Eur PS2 with minimal penalty risk as an example. Second you can decide to give your business to the game maker that mostly align themselves with your "View of the world" .
Help fight continental drift.
I have a modified XBox. It's great for things like streaming movies to the TV. I was on the Live beta and got caught in the first ban on Nov. 12th playing legit games. I figured it was coming... Anyone with sense saw it coming...
I just bought a second XBox to play on Live and it's well worth it. I'm glad I won't be messing with cheaters. I'm sure chipped boxes will eventually get on, but most likely they'll be with the chips disabled. I suggest anyone that has a modified XBox be VERY careful. It's easy to target modified HDs.
For those bitching that they spent $50 and can't use it, read the EULA. It says plainly that you can't use a modified XBox on the service. Once it is modified they say it will NOT be considered normal if you remove it. Too bad. My only complaint is I wish MS would have come out right off and said "Yes, we banned modchips." or at least had the XBox give a better error than "XBox Live Not Found.". That just makes it look like a connection problem.... It ends up causing their support too many issues.
If this device fails to function, buy a new one.
Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but what if this was say, aoltimewarnercnn-multi-whatever, and they banned users off their network if they were found to be running linux? and used the excuse "All of our complaints and legal inquiries involving hacking and spam ended up resolving to end users that ran linux, so we've made this proactive step to ensure a secure online enviroment for our customers."
Total BS, but what can an end user do about it? Ask for a refund? "Sorry , TOS violation, suck it."
Its not all that far-fetched....
This modchip issue has been quite the 'problem' lately in the Xbox 'scene'. I, like many others, have a modchip in my Xbox, and also have Xbox Live! Now, how is this possible?
It's actually a matter of simply installing a switch. When I'm using Xbox Live!, I simply use the switch to disable my Enigmah modchip (use a DPDT switch for wires 15 and 21). That turns off the modchip, and there's no conceivable way that Microsoft can detect the presence of the chip because the voltage going to the chip is simply shut-off.
If a person wants to use their modded Xbox, do not go on Xbox Live! What this means is that one should disconnect the network cable going to their Xbox when the chip is enabled, and presto.
So that's how to by-pass Microsoft's pseudo-detection. The overarching issue, however, is if Microsoft has a right to 'ban' modchip users from the Xbox Live! service. Arguably, they do because their is always the possibility of users downloading 'hacks' and 'cheats' for Xbox Live! enabled games. This would obviously be 'unfair' to other legitimate users, as well as Microsoft. And obviously, they have a right to protect their service.
Perhaps someone may argue that the modchip detection deters piracy. Maybe, but the amount of people who have the technical skills to install a modchip are arguably a negligible amount. In my case, soldering ~ 30 wires for my chip was a huge hassle. I doubt any of my friends and collegues could have done so. Nor would they even bother. How many people really want to run Linux on their Xbox just because it can be done?
In the end, if a person has the 'smarts' to install a modchip (even if it is the no-solder Matrix/Xodus chip), they should also have the intelligence to forsee that using such a chip has obvious consequences.
Don't you want to grow up to be just like Noone?
Noone seriously runs linux on an xbox.
What did this Noone fellow think about how Mandrake runs on his Xbox console? Does he also run homebrew games on his GBA?
Noone legitimately backs up their software.
So do I. When I download free(beer) software or video clips from the Internet, I put it in a folder to be burned to a durable CD-R next time I get 600 MB or so worth of stuff.
Noone uses the iso images they leech off their friendly neighbourhood Gene6 ftp server to 'evaluate' before making a purchase.
The next console title I plan to buy is "Balloon Kid" for Game Boy, because I liked it on the emulator. I have recommended that a university buy copies of Syntrillium's Cool Edit for my senior project team after having tried the waveform editor's demo, because I liked the graphical interface for signal processing, and recreating the same thing in Matlab would be a chore.
I find myself to resemble this (fictional?) Noone quite closely.
Modchips are so you don't have to pay for the games.
Perhaps, but they have the same substantial non-infringing use as console emulators: letting anybody with a PC and a console write and run homebrew software for the console.
A game being 60$ one week, 30 the next, then 20, then eventually 10. It's crap. I refuse to pay an unreasonable price for a game. So I pirate them
Or just rent it for $5 or so at Blockbuster. If it's a PC title (which can't be rented in the USA due to 17 usc 109(b)(1)), just wait until (as you pointed out) the title hits the $10 bargain bin.
Will I retire or break 10K?
if you're doing that then you're not going to be using Xbox live very much.
It doesn't matter whether or not I use a mod chip on an Xbox because I don't subscribe to Xbox Live. I don't subscribe to Xbox Live because Microsoft doesn't want me. Microsoft doesn't want me because I'm on dial-up.
Will I retire or break 10K?
it's being worked on already, and basically as you've said - there's an eeprom that holds the serial number, and it can be reprogrammed with a different serial number. the suggestion of "flooding" m$ with hacked serials has been brought up, but i suppose the success of that will depend on how acurate m$'s database of known xbox serial #s is.
Look at THAT
A non-governmental entity can impose any restriction on speech that they want to at their private functions/on their private property/on their private gaming network
Write this on the back of your hand so you don't lose it
BTW, IAAL
utter rubbish
If you play EQ and use a hack like ShowEQ and they find out about it. Guess what? You're banned. No refund, banned. Even though it is a service that you paid for and you are just running programs on your own computer, all the other things you are griping out. So come on folks, get off of MS for once EVERY online game service has this provision. You play the game on the service fairly or you are banned, end of story.
No, but if the manufacturer refused to service the car because someone put a mod-chip in the onboard computer to get more HP out of it, and put it back to normal before they sold it to me. I would be pissed off at the manufacturer because there is nothing wrong with the car. If the chip was still in the car when I took it in for service, then that would be a different story.
As much fun as I know you would all have, an unregulated XBox in such an environent is akin to dropping a pirahana into a salmon farm. The point of Live is that it's a level playing field. A closed circuit. My box isn't souped up and neither is yours. I don't have to worry about you having some script that'll ping my connection to death, auto-aim for you or whatever because you're running Linux behind the scenes. I didn't say you would do that, but we both know there are plenty of assholes that would like nothing better than to gut Microsoft's gaming network from the inside. "Look ma! I'm 133t!". You may even be legitimately using your mod to increase hard drive space or store stuff other than the MS sanctioned material. Which is fine. But their's a trade off you're going to have to decide on. In fact, I'm betting that if you were smart enough to mod your XBox, you were smart enough to see this very real possiblity on the horizon and now you actually have the nerve to bitch about it. I can't count how many times I posted here to that effect either. there are simply too many tricks MS can pull with this quasi-computer of theirs.
So does Mullet feel sorry for you because you thought you were sticking it to the man by getting a $300 (now $200) machine with an advanced graphics card, only to find out one of it's key features has been disabled in modding it? Fuck. No.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
I never thought I'd be stepping up to defend the big M but I think that you're missing the point. 1. I like the xbox live, it keeps me sane when I need to play games instead of smashing my client's head open in frustration. Games with modded xboxs will give rise to cheating and then live will cease to be a fun place to play. 2. It's not like Microsoft is using questionable business tactics here, they're protecting their investment on an enterprise that is currently operating at a loss. Why would any company just turn a blind eye to theft? You wouldn't stay in business very long. 3. If you want to mod your xbox, that is, alter something that was designed to be a closed system, then go ahead. But please don't expect the world to bow down because you think it's your god given right to steal from game developers. Besides, if you're that into gaming, buy another xbox for online play. Of course, if you do buy an "straight" xbox then I guess you'll have to actually start supporting the developers who make those games afterall. Wow, let me shed a tear for the poor little kid living in his parent's basement. In conclusion, Video Games are not a right. If you want to better the world and reduce monopolies, go use Linux and quit bitching about capitalism. Regards, A REALLY TICKED OF GAMER....
Happiness is a slider variable
Just a couple things I'd like to know about this situation which is quite humerous to me, at least.
1. A modded X-Box will probably eventually start generating "Unique" IDs of their own, possibly each start up or every time you tell it to. How long it'll take to actually do this is questionable, but the whole mod chip running things sort of points out that this whole setup won't work unless you start banning more than specific UIDs.
2. All the remarks about cheating, see #1. While anti-cheat tools make it harder to cheat by forcing you to appear that you're not cheating, at some point the connection to the physical box is just data and any data can technically be manipulated. Whether or not it'll be done in a reasonable amount of time might, however, might make it unreasonable for most people so at least in that they've served that purpose, but it doesn't fix #1 since the same people who spent all the effort to mod their X-box in the first place have a pretty large incentive to mod again their x-box to void the whole setup scheme (read PS1 mod chips, mod chip detectors, and future generations of stealth mod chips).
3. Banning people for modding their systems is bogus. Read #2. Those who are motivated enough can, if given sufficient time, cheat. This is true with or without mod chips. Encryption, hashing, etc are what is meant to protect the X-Box in the first place from inserting "invalid" code. Mod chips might be able to let you run arbitrary programs, but unless MS and co. are complete morons, they're encrypting all traffic to/from each X-Box system to avoid sniffing. You still can't debug an X-Box very easily and while you might be able to run arbitrary programs, you still need to use the system keys to run the games involved. So, if that's given you're back to doing physical tapping to attempt to read the unencrypted code at some step.. Or you could always try to brute force check all the encrypted output. In any case, all this amounts to is a very small and arbitrary additional barrier to #2. So, modding a system is more about a "we don't like mods" than any nature of true protection for gamers or their network at large. After all, an X-Box is just a computational device so it's not like using it to run arbitrary programs makes it any more of a threat than any other equally fast/bandwidth capable device. And the data coming in is still just data so it can always be sniffed. UIDs just make it harder but that won't stop people, just will slow them down.
So, all this rant amounts to is apparently a vain attempt to slow down the modding of systems in the hopes it'll actually prevent modders from getting on the network. Good luck with that, MS. Hope that works out well. If you've written a secure enough system with encryption and signings at every turn, you may make the system so unreasonable to break that no one but a tiny few will bother attempting to break your system for their own needs. If not, you're back to square one.
For the record, Sony has been very anti-mod as well. I'm sure once their online PS2 service is launched, they'll have a similar method for checking for mods.
#include standard_not_that_Im_defending_Microsoft.h
This message brought to you by the Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People.
On top of that, the idea that Microsoft cares about having a loyal following of people who are trying to make it easier to pirate software is also hard to believe.
The loyal following that Microsoft wants includes people like myself who:
1. Enjoy games on the Xbox.
2. Buy Xbox games.
and 3. Know the difference between a PC and an Xbox and use their Xbox as intended.
Banning modded consoles from Xbox Live does nothing to alienate that following...oh yes, and Mechassault is a downright blast on Live, if anyone is interested. :)
...I can tell you that the average consumer isn't going to have any problems with this. Most of these folks don't even know what a mod chip is, and wouldn't install one if they did. Most folks are basically honest, and they just get even more honest if you inform them that they won't be able to play online if they install a mod chip. Furthermore, I would be willing to bet that the "average consumer" will actually be in support of it. I'm constantly hearing people complain about the rampant cheating in various game communities. If Microsoft takes an active role in banning those who abuse their services & hardware it'll be seen as a step towards eliminating cheaters.
The folks who do care about mod chips usually fall into two categories - collectors and pirates. The pirates want mod chips so they can play all their games without having to pay for them...and honestly, I can't think they'd be terribly surprised by getting banned. The collectors usually want mod chips so they can import games that aren't available here in the US...but that really isn't a problem (yet) with the Xbox. Sure, there are also some other folks who mod their Xboxes...tinkers and developers and such...but again, I don't think they'd be very surprised to get banned.
yrs,
Ephemeriis
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
With a modded XBox it may be possible for you to modify a game and play it online with a super charactor. or in other words cheat. and I am willing to bet the security on XBox live is weak at best without the getting that key. There is nothing that makes playing online games more fustration when people hack their software so they have super stats and kill all the honest players who are playing with all the balance code built in. Then when you get a bunch of cheaters most of the honest people will just stop playing the game and not use XBox Live. I am willing to bet sometimes when they try to do something that we think has pure evil porposes it may be to help their other users. But I still think if they stopped making Crappy Software and price them fairly then they dont need to worry about all this extra protection.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
This might be a good thing. Has anyone played on Battle.Net recently? The strength and vocalness of people's anger and rudeness absolutely astounds me.
The people are what have prevented me from allowing my son to play on it.
One other notable thing I read about this, is that XBox Live doesn't play nice (read: not at all) on AOL's broadband service, and that MS is currently pursuing obtaining rights to have the service work on their network. Not that I'm some kind of AOL sympathizer or anything, I think they're a sad, sad service but you'd think MS would have locked that kind of thing down earlier. Like it or not, there's a pretty hefty userbase on AOL (although admittedly I don't know any numbers on how many people are on their broadband service). Comments?
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
In the xbox world, Microsoft has a good claim that the mod chips hurt their business. People wanted to get pirated software, and MS said 'that hurts our profits'. If you want the ability to run Linux they have made a way to do that: GET A DEVELOPMENT KIT. If you want to make your own games, get a dev kit. If you want to play pirated games, you are a theif, (but could do it with a dev kit).
In the bnetd world, Blizzard has a poor claim that bnetd hurts their business. People wanted Blizzard to improve their online sites. People offered to pay; ISPs offered to host; Consumers complained. They could have EASILY said "We'll offer new servers", or "We'll license ISP's to host", or "We'll let corporations like McDonalds host and add BigMac items that restore lots of unit health". When the bnetd folks asked them for help, they just said "no." When bnetd didn't do the things Blizzard did, they could have made an agreement with bnetd to include their 'security code'. Did they? No. They filed a law suit instead of implementing their 'security code'.
To finish the comparison: Where Blizzard just filed law suits, MS said "keep stuff you have changed off our servers." Where Blizzard said "No other networks, period, we don't care if you are legit or pirates", MS has said "Developer networks are fine, just show that you are developers and not pirates."
See the difference? I personally dispise xbox mod chips because they hurt my paychecks. But MS were to somehow require that you used their servers and couldn't use dev servers? Or if their servers get clogged and they won't let new game developers enable custom servers? Then you will have a valid comparison.
frob.
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement