Estimated 600,000 consoles banned
Microsoft tends to be fairly forgiving toward jerks and cheaters on LIVE, but if you start ripping the company off, the ban hammer will come down hard.
The Xbox 360 manufacturer warned last week that it would be taking action against LIVE members who have modified their consoles to play pirated games; this doesn't prevent pirates from gaming offline.
In a statement, Microsoft notes that their recent actions should not come as a surprise to anyone, least of all pirates:
"We have taken action against a small percentage of consoles have been modified to play pirated game discs. In line with our commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the more than 20 million members of our Xbox LIVE community, we are suspending these modded consoles from Xbox LIVE."
They have opted not to release any specific figures, but reports out there are suggesting high numbers -- possibly up to 600,000 accounts. Hopefully no one was banned by mistake.
Update: Following the ban that chopped between 600,000 to one million Xbox 360s from LIVE, these "modded" units are popping up on craigslist. Microsoft is warning buyers to be careful of these consoles.
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I don't have an XBox, regardless, I think it's a good thing they are fighting against hackers and pirates.
I also feel kinda dumb because I feel like I should have put some quotations in there...oh well, it's sorted out now, so it doesn't really matter.
Also, I'm wondering if they banned the actual accounts, the XBox systems themselves, or both. I suppose cheaters should have it all taken away if they didn't really earn it.
These reports that haven't been independently confirmed came from Information Week, BBC, and MSN. But independently confirmed or not, that's a lot of XBox 360's to ban.