according To Adrian Kingsley hughes at zdnet.com:
If my email inbox is anything to go by, Microsoft has once again gone on a Christmas Xbox Live banning spree, and once again innocent users are caught up in the crossfire.
Here's the deal - if you mod your Xbox then Microsoft reserves the right to ban your Xbox from ever connecting to the Xbox Live online service. This isn't the first time that Microsoft has taken this action, and Microsoft is well within its rights to do this (if you have any doubts, read the terms and conditions). Problem is, each time Microsoft takes this action, I hear from people who have been banned who claim that they have been banned despite running unmodded consoles. And each time the story is the same - there's no one customers can turn to for help.
This time is no different.
Now, I have no way to independently verify that the users who have approached me are actually running unmodded consoles, but given that I know that Microsoft's track record in identifying non-genuine Windows operating systems isn't 100% accurate, I'm going to assume that the same is true for identifying modded Xbox consoles. The problem isn't so much that Microsoft might be mis-identifying unmodded consoles are modded ones, it's the fact that there's no one that users can turn to for help to discuss the problem. Several emails that I've received over the past few days make mention of tech support not being able to help "due to the nature of the ban" and that Microsoft is unable to take the consoles back under warranty to check whether they have been modded or not. If fact, customers being told that the only way to escape the ban is to buy a new console.
I'm not going to suggest that Microsoft should stop banning consoles that it suspects are modded. I'm also not going to push for 100% accuracy in detecting modded consoles (after all, I'm a realist) but I am going to forcibly suggest that they company put in place a system by which people who claim that their consoles are not modified can somehow prove their innocence. "Just buy a new console" isn't a good enough answer.
This could be fun as they make great tables. Go big or go extinct. Prime your senses for a neural handshake and step into the cockpit of a Jaeger. It is on you to cancel the apocalypse when Pacific Rim Pinball comes to Pinball FX on May 16.
Microsoft just posted the third quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $61.9 billion in revenue and a net income of $21.9 billion during Q3. Revenue is up 17 percent, and net income has increased by 20 percent.
Xbox content + services up 62% while hardware down 31%... seems about right with the way they tout you don't need the hardware to play. People can play on their phones or smart tv or other means. I don't hardly play on my consoles directly since getting devices like the logitech g-cloud and ps portal. Which is to also say I have been playing more digital than physical because of these devices.
you should apply in MS PR team buddy, I think you will do a great job in my humble opinion :)
MS: "Xbox services and content without AB up 1%, with AB up 62%. Hardware down 31%. In total a loss of 350 mill."
darthv72: "Seems about right."
MS: "Excuse m ..."
darthv72: "I don't hardly play on my consoles directly."
MS:
What he said was facts. How he plays games is no concern of you. Don't get too mad about it.
I can tell people like you are an absolute minority..
If service is up means their fans and fanboys accepted this model and subscribed to it. The near future you will see a big decline because the service is saturated.
But that's been ms for years. When things aren't going their way they try to change the way things are said. For instance console sales are down, they stop telling how many sold instead telling us how many hours spent in halo or headshots. So it makes sense console sales down just say people are playing on more devices then previous. What they won't say is how many xbox players jumped ship to ps5.
Hardware sales are so bad that Sony and Nintendo are blowing the sales off the water with their hardware.
If Xbox are losers, others aren’t..
Xbox already tried everything with Xbox live then subscriptions went down so much that they had to find something else. Their fans subscribed then reached saturation rather quickly.
Hardware and exclusive games is where it’s at! Keep gamers excited, announce decent software and people will support you
@shin
Well keep it simple Sony 's operating income is down 26% and Microsoft's is up 32%. No MS spin there, just facts. 😉
Cheers
Odd that a company that touts you dont need the hardware to play is already touting another console in the works.
They are not reliant on the HW but still want to maintain a presence (no matter how small) is a good thing. It shows commitment to the craft. It reminds me of SNK and how they made games for their own hardware (Neo Geo) while also making them for others because they knew there was a market to do so. They knew they would sell more to others but also sell to their own niche fan base.
In the last two years they've started exiting the consumer market altogether. All of the newest Surface products are business models only. They can't seem to work out what they want to do with it.
Too expensive hardware when others offer the same or more for less? Good work, Green Team.
"Despite some early successes for Xbox games on rival platforms, Xbox hardware is down by a massive 31 percent this quarter."
"Without Activision Blizzard, Microsoft’s overall gaming revenue would have actually declined this quarter."
"Xbox content and services would have only been up a single percent without Activision Blizzard..."
"It looks like next quarter is going to be a similar story for gaming at Microsoft, too."
That is crazy... so A/B/K is carrying the whole Xbox gaming.
Oh and Microsoft will be fine. Windows, Office and Cloud are growing with each pc purchase.
Activision: "we gonna need a bigger rucksack/backpack please"
Microsoft: "why's that"
Activision: "to carry yo' weak ass'
Top brass have also wanted to start seeing returns on the 100 billion they have put into various Xbox related moves so seeing more multiplatform games is highly likely especially from abk
It's basically saying that PlayStation is the reason Xbox is afloat right now thinks to Ps5 versions of COD
The only growth MS will get out of the console industry is if it supports it's rivals platforms. Xbox is a pointless machine now. I can see them on a big push for live next, and they won't give up on trying to buy Steam.
As of right now, there are no monopolies in the games industry, and for the sake of the medium as a whole, they never should either.
And yet the biggest tech companies in America are essentially that. They buy up all the small comps only to kill them off and steal what they have, and if they can't buy em they bleed them to death.
Eventually they’ll realize the value is with the employee not the company. Buying an IP means nothing if the people who contributed are let go. They’ll get it one day.
tech is different because they buy threats and then kill them. Twitter bought Vine and did nothing with it. Despite people seemingly liking it. Could've had tiktok a decade before bytedance. go figure.
They buy IPs not talent. That's why these buyouts never work and the IPs die. Right now it's too expensive to develop games - but I expect that to shift maybe as AI tools can make it easier. The best games have been indie games for awhile as big developers fuck their ips to death with "games as a service" -
and i'm still up and runnin. feel sorry for the innocent
I've never seen anyone who was banned from Xbox Live convincingly explain that they were not violating the terms of use. It's always "my little brother was playing and threatened to deer-shank that dudes mom" or "i dropped it and then it would play burned games, but it's not modded."
I'd be contacting an attorney. No help, that's bull and MS should have someone you can talk to on this matter.
Since march was when I got the system. and today I turned it on to just add a friend. so if i magically get banned [which isn't really possible] it'll be funny xD
agreed if you've never done any thing to modify your console then they need to setup a way to prove so.