You got duped!

[Dave]

It's oh-so enticing: you find a copy of a brand new game like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on a pirate site and the temptation to download it is too strong.

Well, that temptation may have cost up to 1 million users of Microsoft's Xbox Live the ability to use that service. According to a report in InformationWeek, Microsoft has banned as many as a million players from Xbox Live for altering their consoles in order to play pirated versions of games.

This week, Activision's new Call of Duty was released, and InformationWeek speculated that because pirated versions of the game appeared on various sharing sites in advance of the release, the game's developer may have exhorted Microsoft to enact the bans.

"Xbox 360 consoles are equipped with digital rights management technologies designed to detect pirated software," InformationWeek wrote, "but some players have successfully 'modded,' or modified, their machines to circumvent DRM protections."

Even if someone has been banned, their Xbox will still play offline games, InformationWeek said. But it's not at all clear if the bans are permanent or if Microsoft will allow those who have been booted from Xbox Live to return at some point down the line.

In a statement Microsoft said its "commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the more than 20 million members of the Xbox Live community remains a top priority. All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and modifying their Xbox 360 console violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live. We can assure you that if an Xbox Live member follows the Xbox Live terms of use, purchased a retail copy of Modern Warfare 2 and played the game on an unmodified Xbox 360, no action will be taken."

And on the Xbox support page, Xbox Live Director of Programming Larry Hryb, aka Major Nelson, has addressed some of the circumstances that could lead to a player's being banned.

"Players who find their Gamertags banned from Xbox Live have wound up in that situation due to violations of the Xbox Live Terms of Use," Major Nelson wrote. "The Xbox Live team monitors players for not just cheating, but also for things like threats, racism, profanity, and just being an all around poor sport and ruining the game for others.

"When a Gamertag comes up as violating our policies for online behavior, the person who owns that Gamertag is punished by being banned from the service. Keep in mind, this isn't just a ban on a particular game. This is a ban on the Xbox Live service as a whole, so you won't be able to go online at all during your ban. Initially, you may be banned for a day, a week, or depending on severity, permanently! Kiss that $50 goodbye."

This is huge. Like it or not, this is a massive step forward for prevention of piracy in video games. Lee raised my attention to this last night and after some research I found the facts for myself. Now, I do not own a modded 360 but I do know people who do. They have been extremely quiet over the last few days on Live. Now I know why, I guess.

The thing is, I commented about piracy in the thread about Emulators and said that developers needed to either crack down or lighten up. It seems that Activision decided to crack down. I can see their point, to be fair. You send two years developing a game that you pour your heart and soul into. Then you release it after years of hard work, only to be ripped off by some ********s that don't want to pay full price for a game. My attitude towards piracy is very lax. I download songs, sometimes for free and I watch live streams and I download missed episodes of TV shows but at the end of th day, if an album is good, I buy it. If the event is good, I buy it and if the season of the TV show is good, you guessed it. Some people say you only get what you pay for and Microsoft have ensured that the people who spent hundreds of dollars/pounds flashing their 360, have paid for a ban.

Personally, I have never played a chipped game in my life and I am happy playing the real thing all the time. However, I do see how some people see the draw in doing it. It is something for free and I think Microsoft have every right to do it. Also, it is funny as hell.

 

[Lee]

This happened earlier this year with the PSN and Nintendo do it very regularly on the Wii and I've also heard rumours of them trying to do it for the R4/DS combo.

I think it's fair enough for them to do that as it violates the terms of contract of live and I seriously do not understand how people can get pissed about it. Think about it, people are upset because they can't play a game that they have stolen online.

 

[X]

This isn't really anything new, people have been banned from those networks for modding their machines for years now. Definitely a very clever little ploy by Microsoft, but this isn't any major step in combating piracy, video game piracy has long been one of the easiest forms of piracy to curb, this doesn't really change that.