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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."
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
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
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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.
It wasn't that bad on Rainbow Six, but it is terrible on Star Wars Battlefront.
I had that 'Naked Master Chief' hack all ready for Halo 2 online.
Does this mean they'll ban people who use this device? If they do there will not be many people left on Xbox live.
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.
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?).
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.
"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.
- Chuq