New Xbox Live Security Update Bans Cheaters

NiteStar writes "Major Nelson, the Xbox Live Director of Programming, has released a statement stating they have initiated additional security measures on the Xbox Live service. These measures are aimed to block out cheaters who used modifications to gain an unfair advantage over other players, such as faster cars in Project Gotham Racing 2. He also says "Modified consoles will be banned, and information about those banned machines will be tracked to prevent them from connecting to the service again." Thanks also to BlueMoon who wrote in to mention that "The Xbox enjoyed 53% market share among consoles in the UK last week."

Comments

So?

[ASkGNet]

Certainly, one could follow common sense and don't connect with his modded XBox to Live.

Alternatively, one could modify the Live component to always return Good, regardless of actual status

xbox cd-key?

[Ziak]

Anyone who has installed linux on there xbox knows that you have to back up your x-box key... before you do any HD changes just incase you lose it.... so how easy is it to just get a generator.... if you get banned just changed the xbox key

Re:xbox cd-key?

[wolfmanXUG]

Actually you would have to get a new eprom as that is or at least was the way each xbox was banned, but the actual xbox live account was not banned. Now if you did not replace the HDD with a larger one, and boot without the mod chip on I do not see how they can detect if you have one installed.

Hacking the real issue?

[(SM) Spacemonkey]

The article seems to suggest the justifcation for these bans is hacking. However they are blanket banning everyone with a modified console. People don't mod their xbox so they can hack. They mod their xbox, so they can play copied games, or a media centre. I think, the issue is, microsoft loses a large chunk of money on each xbox sold, and tries to make up for it with volume on games sold. If people are buying their xbox to mod, and not buying the games to cover it, microsoft loses money. If it was merely about hacking, they could just ban by instance of hacking, not potential to hack. I support your right to mod your xbox, it is, after all, yours. But it also seems logical that microsoft has the right to only offer the live service for the equipment they choose.

Re:Hacking the real issue?

[aafiske]

I dunno about the money issue. The thought process I would go through would run something like this:

You can't cheat unless you have a modded xbox. So if all modded xboxes are blocked, there can be no cheaters.

Otherwise, how would you detect cheating? Each game would have to have logic built in for that. Logic which could, of course, be hacked. They really seem to want to have a fun experience with Live, and cheating seriously harms that. They get money when people buy games because their friends say 'Dude, this game is so fun, and unlike the PC, there's no cheaters!' At least I do.

Re:Hacking the real issue?

[AuMatar]

You can cheat without a modded X-Box. Run it through a proxy and have the proxy do the cheating. Some networked PC games act like this, you can run the proxy on the same box or on another.

I have not experienced cheating yet

[MacFury]

I have not experienced cheating yet, However...I have experienced total idiots...AHH!!! Why does everyone turn into an obscenity screaming team killing fool when the play through Xbox Live? I go on to have some fun and I spend half the time reporting pricks to M$.

It wasn't that bad on Rainbow Six, but it is terrible on Star Wars Battlefront.

Re:I have not experienced cheating yet

[evilmousse]

heh.

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=89
http: //www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=46

Re:I have not experienced cheating yet

[KevinKnSC]

Even more to the point:

John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory

damn!

[maddh]

I had that 'Naked Master Chief' hack all ready for Halo 2 online.

Ooo, suckers

[Zareste]

Modified consoles will be banned, and information about those banned machines will be tracked to prevent them from connecting to the service again.

Heh, "Oh, just this once, I'll buy a game system from the world's most psychotic computer company. What's the worst that could happen?"

'Course I'm not one to complain, I actually bought a PS2. It doesn't read disks now. The ONE time I steer away from Nintendo and it bites me in the ass...

Re:Ooo, suckers

[Babbster]

There isn't one psychotic thing about keeping modded consoles off Xbox Live. The bottom line is that if cheating becomes rampant, as it is with other hardware, then Xbox Live as a service is worthless. As it is, with Microsoft aggressively trying to keep cheaters off the system, it's worth the $4-5 a month (at least by the yearly fee) to subscribe for a stable, cheat-free environment.

Action Replay

[Araxen]

Does this mean they'll ban people who use this device? If they do there will not be many people left on Xbox live.

Re:Action Replay

[jkeyes]

Actually the Action Replay for Xbox is just a glorified save manager program the only real cheating that can be done is with the Evo-X Trainer engine.

I'm pretty sure that

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

there's no way to detect the physical presence of a modchip per se; they're looking for a modded BIOS and/or a modded game. If you install a modchip with multiple BIOS banks and switch to the original (MS) BIOS before going to Live, I'm pretty sure that they won't notice. That should save the people who use XBMC, Cromwell (Linux boot only), alternative BIOSes like EvoX solely for the emulators, etc.

Besides, there's no reason to ban non-modded boxes with a third-party BIOS chip (it isn't really a modchip now, is it?).

They can detect HD size differences ...

[Viewsonic]

Which is usually the first thing anyone mods on their XBox .. More than likely anyone who dumped a larger drive in their system will be banned right along with those whose BIOS doesn't match up correctly, or those whose dashboard isn't the correct checksum either. There are so many ways they can run checks against a system being modded it isn't funny.

Banning modded consoles

[Chuq]

"Modified consoles will be banned, and information about those banned machines will be tracked to prevent them from connecting to the service again."

I've always wondered how this was supposed to be a threat? I'm not a heavy online gamer, in fact I hardly play online, and haven't done it since I had my xbox modded a month ago, so it doesn't mean a huge amount to me. But when they deal out threats like the above line, it means there are two options:

* They don't ban me, I continue paying A$8.95 a month, and can play my occasional online game and run XBMC
* They ban me, they don't get my $8.95 a month. I continue playing games (though not online) and continue running XBMC.

(Not to mention, the fact that copied games can be played offline, but not online, means that people like me may be more likely to just copy games if they aren't allowed to play online.)

So they are threatening to not take my $8.95 a month? And that disadvantages me.. how?

XBMC is a far greater benefit than XBL.