This year’s annual November sweep of modified Xbox 360s is estimated to cut off a little chunk of Xbox Live’s 20 million subscribers. By little chunk, I mean that anywhere from 600,000 to 1 million Live players are projected to be weeded out due to extra, unsanctioned hardware being equipped to their 360.This wave of console castration won’t result in bricked units, but gamers will definitely be unable to connect to Live. If you think that terabyte of extra hard-drive space you custom added to your 360 is passable by Microsoft’s standards, you better think again, as non-Microsoft storage devices also raise the ban flag.Last week, Xbox Live’s Major Nelson issued the following reminder:"All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and that modifying their Xbox 360 console to play pirated discs violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live. The health of the video game business depends on customers paying for the genuine products and services they receive from manufacturers, retailers, and the third parties that support them. “Remember kids, only you can prevent video game piracy, so keep your noses clean. Nobody wants to be denied online play with so many amazing games releasing right now.
Great news.
At least they're doing something.
Good, even though they are taking a bullet in the foot it's nice to know that Microsoft is looking out for their consumers (Besides building a console that breaks more than any other released)
I'd be more enthusiastic about the bans if it was indeed a cut and dried issue of piracy or cheating. People who add larger hard drives aren't necessarily doing so to steal games. My 120 GB drive has about 10 GBs free because of the songs I've downloaded, games I've installed, and XBLA games I've downloaded. Microsoft needs to make larger drives available for purchase (and not only as part of hardware bundles). It would be great if they weren't outrageously expensive, too, but that will never happen...
If Sony doesn't copy this move, we might see more former 360 owners moving on to the PlayStation.
I agree that piracy should be enforced, but just about all of my friends have modded 360's, and from all the instances that their 360's broke, I'm sure they would be willing to move on to the PlayStation if they could no longer go on Live.
Well, every decision has its consequences...
Id love to add another hard drive bc my 20-gig-but-really-13-gig is out of space. Why should I spend 120 dollars on a 100gig M$ hard drive when I can buy a terabyte for the same price?
Good to hear. I read somewhere that those people banned could sell or trade-in their banned consoles,And when someone buys that banned console that preson won't be able to log on to xbox live...@ Jeff cook I just bought the modern warfare bundle and can't tranfer my data to the 250GB because xbox are out of tranfer kits and it will be 4-6 weeks until they get them.and on top of that charge $12.90 for the kit..
Good, I pay, they pay. little snot nosed basterds
F(_)ck piracy! and hackers!
While I'm not personally affected since I don't own a 360, I think it's foolhardy to ban people who have bigger hard drives. I don't think that's a clear sign of piracy.
Glad to see Microsoft doing something against piracy, doesn't effect me much cause I don't own one. Wish Sony would catch on and do something similar themselves.
why dose a HDD 120GB form MS cast me 120$!? But I can go out buy a 2.5in HDD and it 320GB only 70$ also put in PS3 and wont get ban PSN but MS you pay a 1$ a GB? why?
The hard drive thing is annoying, since I'm in the same boat as Jeff right now, but I'm glad they're cracking down on piracy at least.
it's good that there banning people who modded there consoles for illegal reasons but they are also banning the people who made there hard drives bigger to download more stuff because they love xbox live,there getting rid of customers because they didn't want to spend hundreds of dallars on a hard drve because microsoft turned something simple like a hard drive into something to make more money,why do they only care for money?
The hard drive thing is a rip off. Let's see the jump in sales that will be from people replacing their systems.
The hard drive banning really irks me. If Microsoft were smart, it would offer several affordably priced, large hard drives to consumers and still be able to police for piracy. Instead, the company's price gouging and gross negligence of consumer desire has created a skewed market where legit 360 owners look past the insanely overpriced, undersized official hard drives and buy a regular hard drive that can house MORE PURCHASED CONTENT. The result? They get punished for it as if they were pirates. It's a joke.
Basically, Less 360 users.
You know, If 360 had better hardware and *** than it would have less mods.
that goes to show that microsoft listens
whateva
Microsift is an unreliable company.
The fact that people are still buying 360's is really retarded.
Oh well at least 360 will be getting 2 good games this year.
The Adventures of the Red Rings of Death.
The Legend of E74:Descendant of Red Rings of Death.
Should be AAA titles, huh? I mean everybody who owns an Xbox 360 is gonna get one of em.