Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft, Blizzard Crack Down On Piracy, Cheating

Posted by Soulskill on from the no-means-no dept.

Microsoft has confirmed that they've been wielding the banhammer lately over modifications to the Xbox 360 which allow players to run pirated games. Xbox Live's Major Nelson said the action would also void the warranty on the offending console, and that Microsoft will "continue to employ and bolster anti-piracy security measures to counter piracy in the gaming industry and improve security in the Xbox LIVE community." Meanwhile, Blizzard dealt with 350,000 of their own problem users on Battle.net, saying simply that they wouldn't tolerate cheating. This is likely one of many steps to clean up the system before it gets revamped for use with StarCraft II.

3 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Is this really news? by jcd2025 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm pretty sure that PS3 has the region free games and the Xbox still has nasty region coding on its games :(

  2. Re:So Microsoft... by master5o1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wii is different. There is an exploitable bug (buffer overflow) in the Twilight Princess. This allows for the Elf-Loader hack to load various files, one of which is the HBC installer which installs the Homebrew Channel. This channel is basically just a loader for the same files as the Elf-loader hack does. Completely a software based hack, no harder mods required.

    I've got the HBC on my Wii and it's great. It even looks like an official (to some extent) thing because of it's (visual) quality.

    --
    signature is pants
  3. Re:Is this really news? by iainl · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes and no. Some 360 games are region-coded, some aren't. Just like with Blu-ray movies, oddly enough.

    --
    "I Know You Are But What Am I?"