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Microsoft Disconnects Modded Xbox Users
S-4'N3 writes "The BBC reports that Microsoft has disconnected approximately 600,000 Xbox users from Xbox Live because the devices they are using have been modified, either with software or with new chips, to play pirated games. 'Microsoft confirmed that it had banned a "small percentage" of the 20 million Xbox Live users worldwide.
Microsoft said that modifying an Xbox 360 console 'violates' the service's 'terms of use' and would result in a player being disconnected.'"
Apparently some people have gone as far as calling death threats to a "Director of Policy and Enforcement for Xbox LIVE" and his wife (theres also irc logs where he came to say it on #360banned)
There has been modded xbox360 bans before too, so it shouldn't come as a surprise to people when they do get banned. And at least it keeps the cheaters off games.
I took it into a shop [the Xbox], there was a guy back there and I asked him and he did it for me [chipped it]. He charged £75 to get it chipped but at the end of the day I said to myself I'll pay £75 to get it chipped, after two games I've paid the money back.
I've probably saved about £600 and I've copied roughly 30 or 40 games. A lot of them I've downloaded or I've taken off friends that have downloaded themselves.
So at what point do you put two and two together and realize that getting kicked off playing online is not such a bad thing if you've saved £600? Is there really any wonder why XBox Live wants to deny you service? How exactly do you maintain outrage at being banned?
His sob story was going pretty good until he got up to those last paragraphs of admission and even saying he'd never do it again (implying he is wrong).
My work here is dung.
Bought a 3rd-party X-box over 6 months ago. I got a second when it RROD'ed, and noticed that the other couldn't play some games that my original could. I'm guessing that the original has a non-original DVD drive, and that those games are well-silkscreened copies, as they never did come with a case the way the Halo game had when I got the system...
So I wonder if when I turn that sucker on now (it's been solder-reballed which fixed the RROD) whether it will be permabanned from XBL. Mind you the only time I really log on to XBL is when playing video files etc, because it appears for some rather idiotic reason it tied the Codec downloads to your account rather than an overall system update. I suppose I'll just have to run it unplugged from the network.
Overall I wouldn't have a problem with not using the machine on XBL (I don't really do so anyways), but the fact that updates/codecs/etc are tied in there makes it a pain in the ass.
There are some very funny, outraged posts regarding this in the official xbox live forums. Microsoft has also banned players for a number of other offenses, including obscenity and racism, and these posts are great. My favorite: http://forums.xbox.com/29600400/ShowPost.aspx#29600400
concrete5: a cms made for marketing, but strong enough for geeks.
Yes, but with this recent ban wave, Microsoft crippled some non-XBL capabilities. For example, you can't install games to your local hard drive anymore
Yeah, Microsoft has such an awesome track record when it comes to detecting fraud and tampering. I had to manually remove the Office Genuine Advantage system from 4 workstations because it flagged them as non-genuine. The other 50 or so passed inspection just fine. I could find no common thread among those machines that would explain it. They're all the same model computer prepped and rolled out to the floor in the same manner as the other 50 in the batch. I've also had WGA flag systems as non-genuine after upgrading from 2k to XP. Those I was able to isolate to the upgrade process because only upgraded machines got flagged and every upgraded machine got flagged. A clean install cleared it right up.
So, in conclusion, I predict that a significant number of totally innocent people are going to be screwed by this
There are three reasons to mod your Xbox:
1. Turn it into a cheap PC
2. Play homebrew software (basically #1)
3. Steal games.
All of these rely on the same method: replace or disable protections on the OS or base firmware. It's in the quick start guide(the thing that tells you what is and isn't included) that if you mod your xbox, you will not be able to play Live! and may not be able to play the games you own.
So why the hell is anyone surprised about the ban?
And why the hell is anyone even angry about the ban? They expected it!
This is really simple. You don't like the product, don't buy it. Microsoft hasn't misrepresented a thing here. It's kind of the same thing as the hackintosh, actually. Is Apple evil too? If so you have a real simple remedy -- don't buy it. These companies are within their rights entirely. If someone wants to sell a different kind of game console and a different kind of game network where games are cheaper and mods are allowed, then fine. Maybe there's a business there. Maybe this is your big chance. Go start that business and stop whining.
That would be a terrific way to punish console modders - force output to 350x240.
And this information is based on what study? As we know, people who download music from torrents are actually buying more music than those who don't. Why should it be different with X-Box players?
The fact that modders can play some games for free, doesn't mean they pirate ALL the games they have. I'd speculate that people who tinker a lot with their X-Boxes are more likely to get an X-Box game as a present, for example, which generates revenue for Microsoft.
So, now if you want to go to eBay and pick up a used console, you are at HIGH RISK. (This goes for the entire used XBOX market.) MS really should set up some kind of verification system where you can call in a serial number and check an XBOX or "preowned" system where you can get a guaranteed, stamped approval. I'd bet that pretty soon, we are going to see a flooded market of XBOXes that won't be able to connect. Imagine what Craigslist is about to look like.
:) DOUBLE BAM!
Now what about if you aren't using LIVE? Nothing's going to stop you from running pirated games now, and it's probably going to be really cheap to get these "dead" consoles now. Life's good! If you buy a $50 or $100 used console and download a few games, you have already saved yourself the cost of a console. BAM!
There aren't that many good online LIVE games IMO, so it makes a lot of sense to have the cheap "dead" console to play the majority of the enjoyable ones. And if you really want to play LIVE, just mooch off your friend
Aren't Xbox 360 consoles sold at a loss and subsidized by game sales? If so then one would think that Microsoft would prefer people to buy a used console rather than a new one if given the choice.
Well, to be fair, if we can infer anything from the recent music studies, the same people that are hardcore enough to mod their xbox and steal some games are still buying other games. In music's case, it's been shown a few times those people downloading music frequently are still legally buying more music than the average consumer.
recent reference: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090828/0444096038.shtml
Having said that, we can't really know for sure right now since nobody has studied games specifically, as far as I'm aware. It's probably not that far off.
I'm a little torn on this though, since I have a modded original xbox for xbmc, but my 360 is unmodded. I like the idea of getting rid of cheaters, but there still are some valid reasons to mess with your box in some cases.
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but the XBOX 360 mod is basically flashing the DVD drive so that it can load games from backup DVD's.
The mod does not however remove the protection such an extent that homebrews can be loaded.
So, assuming this is still correct (haven't had a a 360 for over a year), what can you possibly do on a modded xbox 360 if you aren't copying games?
If you watch this video, his behaviour is not so surprising
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEWIw-a0GJw
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
I routinely use my live account on 2 different consoles. They can't just cancel an account because it was used on a modded system. If I went to my friends house and logged onto his 360, and then they cancelled my account because he modded his system without me knowing, I'd be pissed.
I've got to call BS on this. I have a fully updated xbox and a live account and I can still install the games to my HD. You still have to have the disk in to start it (unless you downloaded over live), but after that, the disk doesn't even spin.
Now if you mean modding it so you can load to and play from the HD.. well, that's what they're out to stop...
I put on my robe and wizard hat..
With all the money these guys have saved on pirated games, they can just go out and buy a new Xbox.
I don't think it's a big deal to have a separate, modded box for development. And after this development, modded Xbox 360s should become cheaper. This is about the Xbox 360, right? The headline says Xbox, but I know what's up :p You do not have to pay Microsoft to put the content on your own box, you have to mod it. How you accomplish that is up to you. What Microsoft (rightly) restricts you from doing with their online service afterwards is up to them. Now, if it interferes with any offline activity, that is some total bullcrap... It's your box, and you ostensibly have a legal right to do as you like with it (as otherwise permitted by law.)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Is it no surprise that among those 600,000 users banned (nearly 4% of their users!) that there was some collateral damage?
One user, who reported having spent over $5200 on the xbox and XBLA, wrote to Consumerist that Microsoft banned his fiancé's unmodded console, and then treated them like criminals when they tried to get Microsoft to fix the problem:
http://consumerist.com/5402056/xbox-gamer-says-he-was-banned-online-for-no-reason
Linked from there is a story from another user whose xbox suffered a fan-induced RROD. Not wanting to wait nearly a Month for Microsoft to fix it, he took it to the shop to have the fan replaced, apparently tripping some sort of modification flag. Microsoft's response to him? Literally (and I quote) "But this is what you get for tampering the console." (sic).
What a disaster.
Another example: Rockbox.
It now runs on several mp3 players, and adds additional codecs, crossfeeding, better EQs, better battery life in some players, etc, etc.
:x
Oh please. They mod their consoles for one reason: to not have to pay for games. Sure, maybe SOME people use modchips for homebrew but do honestly believe that most do? You probably also believe that most people go to ThePirateBay to download Linux and BSD ISOs
This is still correct and the answer is there is nothing you can do with a modded xbox except play pirated games. End of story.
Some people are confusing the two because this wasn't the case with the original gen 1 xbox, others are confusing them because they don't know the full story and I guess a few are deliberately blurring the issue because they want to believe in the nobility of modding consoles or something. However MS make a pretty sophisticated (.NET based) dev kit available for free so you can write your own software, and will even help you sell them to a huge worldwide audience. You don't have hypervisor level access but then you don't need it to write your own software.
Reminds me of the recent bans on the EVE Online MMO, "Unholy Rage":
"While the number of accounts banned in the opening phase of the operation constituted around 2% of the total active registered accounts, the CPU per user usage was cut by a good 30%. That is a whole lot of CPU for the rest of you to play with, people."
http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=687
When an Xbox 360 console is banned, there are offline features that are disabled too - the most significant are playing games from the hard disk, and using the console as a Windows Media Center Extender. Once banned, the console will corrupt the saves on memory cards and hard disks that it comes into contact with so that they can't be used on a non-banned console without re-downloading them from Live.
Not true. You can also play backups of games you legitimately own. This allows you to avoid buying the game anew when the disc is scratched. If you've got kids, you get this point.
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