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Halo 2 Used to Sniff Out Mods
TexasDex writes "C-Net tech news is reporting that users of Halo 2 who have installed mod chips are being banned from the X-box Live forums. It is unknown specifically how the Halo 2 game finds out the console is modded, Microsoft will only say in the X-box live Terms of Use that "Xbox Live may only be accessed with an unmodified [...] Xbox video game console.'" In related news, the New York Times (registration required) has a quickie interview with the folks behind Red Vs. Blue about changes Halo 2 bring to the series.
It's not Halo2 that's banning the xboxes. It's just xbox live. People *without* halo2 are getting banned as well. And it's not everyone. They record the hard drive serial # and the eprom serial when you first sign onto live. If one changes and not the other you are banned. If you modded your xbox before you ever signed onto live then you'll be fine.
It's only banning people that mod their xbox. There's notthing evil or mean about it, it states clearly in the ToS that they don't want modded xbox's on live. It STILL lets you do everything else. Why would they do this? To piss off gamers? Make more money? No. The great thing about Live is its a VERY closed system. If everyone and their grandma start running linux on their xbox's, and find out how to hack live, then they can ruin alot of other players experiences, which sucks. Also, I guess it keeps people from finding out how to steal xbox live, but if no one pays for live then it isn't going to exist any more. Normally I hate MS as much as any other self respecting person, but I have to applaud them for doing this.