New wave of Xbox 360 bans imminent - pirates beware

With the release of Treyarch and Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops a mere 3 days away, millions of gamers the world over are rubbing their hands excitedly at the proposition of going online with the latest in this huge-selling franchise. But Microsoft too is rubbing its hands at the prospect of another record-breaking November for consoles sold, especially if last year is anything to go by.

You see it was about this time 12 months ago that Microsoft enforced a huge wave of Xbox 360 bans rendering the consoles of thousands of pirates essentially off-line only. And it was surely no coincidence that this happened merely days before the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

[NYC_Gamer]

expect a lot of 360 units to be sold after the ban

[avengers1978]

and new ones to be purchased... gotta drive those sales up.

[Shadow Flare]

It's stuff like this plus the big rrod fiasco which prove that the 360's real user base number isn't 44 million. It's most likely got a smaller user base then the ps3. Cos it's funny how according to the recent official numbers from Sony and Microsoft that Sony actually sold more software on the ps3, ( a few million more) then 360, despite apparently having a smaller user base. Well, it doesn't. Evidently.

[Biggest]

There are also more game choices and sales regions for the PS3. They may sell comparably in the US, but the 14 people with 360s in Japan don't really use them.

[irish-leprecaun]

then they would ban their IP address and not just their console. we all know they are in it for the money and not what's right for gaming. as posters have said on here if you get a new xbox for 100 dollars and pirate 40 games you are still saving loads of cash.

[Sony360]

Sales are sales, either way Microsoft wins.

[catguykyou]

Banning ip is too easy to get around. Also colleges share a single ip for a big group of users then split that connection. You ban the ip they see and all of a sudden a whole dorm can't get on. Plus even with cable Internet you can get a new ip by unplugging your modem for a few hours.

Besides if your willing to go legit and buy a new console why would they want to try to stop you?

[Skizelli]

If you have cable internet with a dynamic IP, you can also get a new IP by changing your MAC address.

[ASTAROTH]

Pirates are the ones complaining and they doesnt deserved to be allowed to play online. Is good for MS etc. The other point is that MS intentionally overhanded the banning process and they banned A LOT of 360,s that were not pirated. I suffered a ban for a refurbished 360. After that I decided to pirate it. To hell with them as I lost almost a year of LIVE GOLD. Now I have a second 360 (refurbished too) and Im afraid the same thing happens again. If they keep banning their audience, continue to raise the price of everything ( come on 60 for Gold and 29.99 for the 1600 points card??) they will continue to lose fans in the hands of the PS3... or did you believe people are going to buy KINECT at $150 when they could use the money and add the same amount and get a PS3??

[maxcer]

"The other point is that MS intentionally overhanded the banning process and they banned A LOT of 360,s that were not pirated"

this is news to me, are you sure you weren't banned for something else?

[darksied]

@ASTAROTH:

"I suffered a ban for a refurbished 360. After that I decided to pirate it. To hell with them as I lost almost a year of LIVE GOLD."

You realize that pirating games doesn't affect MS in any way, right? Unless you only pirated a MS studio game, you haven't cost them anything. In fact, you might have given them more money in your other 360 console purchase, as well as box live gold on that system. So if you were out to hurt some innocent developers and publishers, you succeeded. If you wanted to make MS pay for banning you (justified or not) then you failed.

[Pillage05]

Actually I'm pretty sure Microsoft does see a little money of each game sold on the 360. Same with sony/ps3. Correct me if I'm wrong someone, but I believe there are some licensing fees for every game.

[darksied]

@Pillage05:

I'm sure you're right, but I would assume they would be very small. I doubt MS or Sony make a lot of money for each game sold, and I would more likely believe the majority of their profits are from first party titles and hardware sales.

Regardless, the excuse above is something I have heard many times before (i.e. I hate Sony, I hate Microsoft, so I'm going to pirate their games). Guess what, you're hurting the people we should be supporting, because without developers and publishers, we would have nothing except casual games and systems.

[georgeenoob]

Yea beacuse MS's main purpose for banning pirates is for a boost in sales. Lmao, good ol' Sony fanboys.

[Mikeyy]

Are you saying the banned indivuals won't go out and buy new 360's?

I do hope you aren't a betting man Georgeenoob.

[Sheikh Yerbouti]

It was a clear driver of sales last year. I am not going to say it was Microsoft's reason for doing it, but the extreme prejudice in banning refurbished consoles makes them seem suspect.

It certainly didn't dissuade them. If this happens again, I can see a lawsuit brewing, Terms of Conditions or not.

[PSK22]

The truth is the truth dawg, Facts are facts but its the real deal, MS get a boost in sales because of this.

[silvacrest]

isn't the timing a little to perfect for MS? kinect just launched, CoD is coming in 3 days and the PS3 is catching up pretty quick too, add mass banning and they are all but promised strong sales for a while

[Sony360]

I think only gullible idiots believe that Microsoft bans pirates solely to increase sales.

Pirates buying new consoles (IF they buy new consoles)are a side effect of bans. Boost in sales? Yes, no one is denying it could happen. But you're stupid if you believe that's the only reason Microsoft ban pirates.

[darksied]

I have to agree as well. I'm sure MS's main reason isn't a boost in console sales, but I guarantee they know what they're doing. They ban people from xbox live, and many of those people will go out and buy a new console. Not only that, they will buy xbox live gold again, so that's another little boost in profits. It makes sense, and there's one reason alone that I will always believe MS KNOWS about this and will keep doing it: they don't brick the consoles. If they TRULY cared about stopping piracy on their system, really stopping it, then they would put a clause in their TOS warning people, and instead of banning when they caught someone, they would brick their system and ban them for life (name, address, email, etc), NOT JUST THAT ONE CONSOLE.

I guarantee you that if 100k or 1m consoles were not just banned but bricked and those many people were banned from ever having an xbox account again (or better yet, reported to an anti-piracy agency), there would be a lot less piracy on the 360. Not to say that it would be easy for MS, or that it would completely stop piracy on the system, but it would be a truly effective scare tactic.

[punkpop101]

Now we blame Microsoft for driving sales with banning pirates but when we had the the ps3 jailbroken everything was against the pirates huh?

[gamingdroid]

Sony also removed the Linux feature in the name of hackers!

That affected legitimate users!!!

[AwakenTheTaco]

sony removes features because of hackers...

[gigaware]

IamFamous says:

"Idk why they got disagrees.....
u realize that MS does this before holiday season EVERYTIME.....

MS said they bricked over 1 million Xboxes before last xmas season."

Perhaps you think this because the XBL updates with new tools to fight piracy that is part of the overall updates are always at the the end of the year?

[silvacrest]

if you think that is just a coincidence then you are crazy

[phinch]

i think people would just get fed up of it after the second time

[silvacrest]

and its not like they need to buy everything again, just the console it's self, nothing more

also from a pirates point of view it is cheaper to replace a consoles once a year then actually buy games

[HairyArse]

The interesting thing for me is that Microsoft waits until the release of Call of Duty and not Halo.

Shows where they place their confidence. Surprisingly not in their own games.

[macezhno]

.

[kaveti6616]

Well, maybe MS is confident that Reach is a game worth paying for, and therefore won't be pirated. But they're not confident in COD, so they ban them then.

See how easily everything is spun?

[Tainted Gene]

i see it

[vhero]

Its also to do with Kinect too don't forget not just COD. This was timed PERFECTLY. I knew this was coming I mean seriously all the pirates expected it too.

[Baka-akaB]

nothing to do with confidence or lack of .

When you've got two big (three even with fable 3) highly profiled titles so close from each other , what are you going to do ?

Are you going to waste time banning after each ? No you jus wait for the second one to come up .

Vhero has a point too . Every kinect game isnt already downloadable . That's a lot of stuff to try protecting , even for a short while

[morganfell]

Microsoft waits until sales matter outside the game industry - such as Christmas sales - to do this, and they know things don't look good without it since Sony is bringing GT5 and some killer games. It's all about the games.

MS brings their sales and Sony brings the games. Would you rather have the 7 course meal or the proof you paid for it.

MS realize that making up sales numbers that are a million more than you shipped won't work again. Especially since the day after Greenburg told his lie he was countered by his own higher ups. Laughable.

What they don't see is that some of those people will not go back to the 360 if banned. Will some of them? Absolutely. But quite a few won't. Now that they have had a good look at Kinect, they see the empty warehouse where Microsoft keeps their exclusives *cricket cricket*, they look at Sony's exclusives and see what's coming and those people will come to the dark side.

Let MS go ahead and do it. Just more people in the Sony camp that will come to know it's all about the games.

[Baka-akaB]

mmm not buying it morgan . If anything those people pirating on 360 and leaving when banned, will just come do the same on ps3 .

With nothing of value gained for either camp . And there is obviously some interest in kinect (and move mind you) , enough to have all its games being available ripped and dilligently downloaded .

You forget a bit the mindset of a guy with everything for free at his fingertip . He wont care if its good or bad usually , he'll just often collect everything available and probably play it .

[morganfell]

They would except the pirating on the PS3 has been closed. If you own a PS3 and understand what they were doing then you know they shut the door.

People look at such incidents as a good reason for a change. And if they care about games then they know the house of Sony is the place to be. The majority? Hmmmm.....no. But Sony will get sales of the MS ban.

[Nathaniel_Drake]

It's very hard to pirate on the PS3, that has already been shown

@morganfell
Agree big time on the sales vs games aspect

[yippiechicken]

I can't imagine there would be very many pirates that would buy a PS3 after their 360 gets banned. Isn't their whole reason to pirate is to get the games for free? If a pirate switched to the PS3 and had to buy all their games, they could only buy about 6 games for the same price as getting another 360 and getting all it's games for free.

To be honest, I would bet a lot of pirates already own a PS3 also if they are into gaming for the love of games and not just having a 360 for free games.

I have never pirated a game in my life so I could be way off in my thinking here but it just kinda makes sense to me.

:)

[Theonik]

Well they've been doing this close to CoD releases for a bit now. Not really surprised. Anyone would have called it for Black Ops.

[maxcer]

"The interesting thing for me is that Microsoft waits until the release of Call of Duty and not Halo."

you ever stop and think these bans happen just after the fall update?

..ooh no wait im on n4G, nothing but conspiracy and underhanded MS tactics at work here. smh

[sak500]

well than i guess MS has been banning consoles since the launch of slim as the sales of 360 had been higher than ps3s since past 7 months.

Your SONY bible excuses 101 should be updated by now.

[Shazz]

u.s doesnt = the world m8 coz ps3 still outsells 360 in europe and japan

[kaveti6616]

Europe and Japan don't equal the world mate, because 360 still outsells in the US.

Or how about we stop talking about sales?

[Elven6]

Where the heck are people getting European sales figures from? I've been asking for them every time someone brings it up since the ones I look at (on Chart Track for software at least) don't have numbers.

No one responds...

[Thecraft1989]

Elven6 sony publish them on there official site I got link from some one before can't see find it. Its page with all sales added up in each quarter for everywhere in the world.

[Elven6]

Yes but unless Sony also includes Xbox 360 and Wii sales figures I don't understand how people can say it's outselling in Europe.

The only regions we do have solid figures are Japan and until a few weeks ago, USA.

[Mikeyy]

@Elven6

All 3 companys release Quarterly Reports. You just need to look harder.

[Karum]

Consider that we've had NPD for the US and it reports that 360 outsells PS3 in the USA.

Also take into account that Microsoft released a year earlier and had around a 10 million or so head start on units sold/shipped or whatever.

Now consider that both Sony and Microsoft have just released figures of their units sold/shipped or whatever and the difference is around ~3 million or so.

We get Media Create figures from Japan on this very website, PS3 outsells 360 there.

Europe is one of the top 2 gaming markets in the world, USA, Europe and Japan being the big 3. We know that 360 owns the US, PS3 owns 360 in Japan. Now considering the gap has been closed so much without the US situation having changed too much, would you not agre that even ithout having actual sales figures for the region that the PS3 has used that other big market (Europe aka the SCEE region) to close the gap, thus outselling the 360 in that region?

I'd say it's a very safe assumption that PS3 outsells the 360 in the SCEE territory, which I believe also happens to be a bigger territory in terms of countries included than it is for Microsoft.

[HairyArse]

What's this got to do with Sony? There's no mention of Sony or sales of the PS3. This article is nothing to with console wars nor favouring one console over the other you douchebag.

[Sheikh Yerbouti]

No...

It is because every 360/MS criticism is due to Sony fanboys as if 360/MS is perfect.

*circles around ears*

[PRHB HYBRiiD]

i remember my first ban ....forza 3.

[vhero]

I remember mine... Wait I don't... Filthy pirate!! LOL I kid a good pirate is one that don't get caught and I never did my only 1 modded 360 out my 3 died (the DVD drive died funnily enough!)

[jashmister]

I remember my first ban as well, i did nothing and got banned.

[PRHB HYBRiiD]

j-tag

[BARF]

MW2 for me... god i regret that lol.

[Eamon]

lol, you guys...

http://fc00.deviantart.net/...

[EazyC]

hehe one of my mates cant go update for the new xbox dashboard because of the pirate-scanning bot it comes with. He can't play his beloved Black Ops now!

[Eu]

the pirates will be on the PC version anyway...who buys a game that is on both PC and X360 and pirates the consoles version - and will problably get the now anual ban -when the PC version wont get you banned? And Idiot i'll tell you.

The OL argument doesnt works...want to OL on the game, buy legit.

[Baka-akaB]

Why you say ? Because oddly enough some people do prefer playing on their console ... especially if that's where friends are .

Consoles are a pain to mod and watch out for updates , with the exception of the wii and the ds (well not really but once you've purchased a card , you are set) , still communities for each console keep thriving .

There is a definitive interest there then .

[Eu]

Well, the pirates dont really have an interest in the community the consoles created. They are there for the cheap fix on their gaming necessities. The pun is intented.

I agree with you Baka-akaB, but we should remeber this simple fact.

[alex3369]

wtf dont give out false info you tard, and also there is no ban tool in the new dash. c4eva even tested the dash to see if there was any hidden objectives. btw c4eva is the man who makes all of the firmware necessary to play backups. people get banned because no matter how great c4eva you cant beat a man at his own game. m$ made the console and they know the second you sign on xbl that you modded the dvd drive so dont be an idiot btw every the banwave hasnt started yet so idk where this site is getting its info from.

[jdktech2010]

Wow, so they ban cheaters and thiefs and all you people talk about is sales......they're doing what they SHOULD be doing and you all get crazy.

No matter when they ban, they'll buy more consoles....it's their own fault and I've got no sympathy for them....

Just read these comments a week from now and you'll see how pathetic they make all the sony people look. I could care less which console "wins" this "war" because I have both but dang people, they're banning people they should since they're violating the TOS and you say it's all about just MS wanting sales....grow up people

[Ducky]

I like the logic behind the conspiracy theories.
Pirates will repeatedly buy a console, but will never settle for buying the actual games. :D

[Graphics]

I don't understand what you trying to say? are you saying that pirates are dumb? buying the console is cheaper than buying the games. $200 a year to play unlimited games sounds like the better deal to me. The pirates don't care if they get banned, they always in a win situation.

[alex3369]

yup you are right, i play games early, get them for free, and dont have to worry about protecting a disk from breaking because dl dvd's are so cheap. and btw you can even get consoles as cheap as $85 console only. so we the pirates ALWAYS win.

[Eamon]

Basically, both Microsoft and pirates win.

Because they can keep their gamertag but MS get's another sale.

[Thoreau]

help micro sell more 360s

[Eu]

the worst thing is...the people who get banned actually go and buy again...just to pirate it again! And go and get banned next year...again! This is just crazy....

[PirosThe4th]

They think they save money... but not really cuz they have to buy many of them... and fix them and stuff...
I had a friend who only wanted to paly some racing games and he couldn't get his 360 working and he bought like 3 to hack... what a douche... :P

Anyways... I bought my 360 elite with the games I wanted to play and that's it.. Now has rrod... piece of shit.. >__>

[GameOn]

what kind of pirate would buy a new console every year?

[Baka-akaB]

you'd be surprised . Every guy i know with the 360 modded (and now the ps3) , keep a second one ready just in case .

Of course they like to think they are so smart ... "because you dont fool them , they bought it cheap!!"

Obviously nothing that smart , it's still a purchase .

[rodeoo]

I save a ton of money by hacking and buying a new console once a year. I played around 40 different games this past year. you do the math

[wissam]

How smart of you.I used to pirate games I am no saint
but with ps3 having almost 4 years without piracy I got
used to buy legal games.and I am quite happy with it.
and I don't even call you type gamers. you are cancer
on gaming.

[alex3369]

How are we cancer to gaming? we get stuff for free, the real cancer are the people with jtags who ruin online gaming by running around wallhacking and cheating

[Gohadouken]

You dont see how ?

How about carcinogenic like giving every studios and publishers excuses to keep increasing prices , to shaft us with even more dlcs and drm measures , shorten single player , and tackle on poorly thought out multiplayer modes with ressources diverted from single player ?

Slow , eroding , painful , and deadly , seems like the very definition of Cancer to me .

[The real killer]

A fine way to sell more 360 to the same people just they always do if a good game comes :)

[SpongeFreak52]

Not that I condone piracy, but there is no guarantee that a banwave will take place on all flashed Xbox 360s. Here's what I can make of the situation so far:

1) Certain new titles contain a new anti-piracy check called AP2.5, which is used in the new dashboard firmware. Fable III was the first game to use this system.
2) When a burned game with AP2.5 is inserted into certain models of flashed drives, the system can recognize that the game is illegitimate, and flags the system for a ban. HOWEVER, there are certain models of 360 disc drives that do not support AP2.5, and therefore those drives are invulnerable to the new checks. Microsoft can't do anything about those types of drives unless they come up with a new method of security checks.
3) There is a new custom firmware in the works for all drives with AP2.5 support that will bypass those new checks while remaining supposedly undetectable, meaning that ONLY THOSE with AP2.5-compatible drives that insert a burned AP2.5 game will be flagged for banning. There will not be another 1,000,000+ console ban this year.

[BillOreilly]

Yea if you dont update to kinect dash you can play all burned games even fable 3. The new kinect dash has ap2.5 so the only way they wont work is if you update. I got a used modded 360 for 80 bucks banned for singleplayer games but ive since realized that great games like alan wake wont get sequals unless we gamers BUY them. Its wrong to steal. Its not worth selling your soul for a damn game. Nothing is worth that. You might not think that its stealing but i promise you GOD does. Ive realised the value of a clean conscious and honestly you appreciate games more when you have to really consider your purchase and get the best bang for your buck. When i burned games i had so many i didnt finish them all or enjoy it as much as focusing on one good game and seing everything in it.

[jukins]

incoming ban means incoming xbox sales at retail. yay for free gift cards, games and whatnot

[DXM1]

it may backfire this time... Since the most anticipated game is COD and that is multiplat... And considering that sony has games like GT5 coming out for xmas... Id really think twice if i was MS about this banning business.

Im sure some people will just buy a ps3 this time around. Why not?

[prodigal_twit]

Well, everybody knows the risks and consequences of pirating very well. If it's a gamble they want to take, then they know where the blame lies when they get banned.

[wissam]

They don't even fighting piracy.their main goal to sell more units.

[pimpmaster]

whats the risk to pirating? you get banned and can continue to pirate offline, until u go and gut swap it with another 360. :|

[Dark-Cloud4]

why you people think the ones who will get ban will go andd buy another xboox360 ? .. i had an xbox360 copy but sold it because it's useless now , no good games ..... i played all the good games ...

[Raider69]

All good games that are out now (fable 3 included!)can be played on the 360!The only thing people have to do is:until C4eva releases FW LT+,dont update your dashboard,and dont go online!until the end of the year there are only 3 games that will be releaseand I would like to play: Splatterhouse,Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom,and two worls 2,since this games already went gold they most likely will not come with AP2.5checks,and even if they come since my modded 360 is still on the latter dashboard the will be played!At the begging of the year wend the first major release is out ( dead space 2 ) january 25 most likely LT+ is out too!If you dont upgrade your dashboard theres no worry about AP2.5 checks since this checks are not on the disc itself but on the new kinect dashboard!Of course that will be games latter on that will require people to update to the new dashboard ( kinect games are mandatory has of yet!!),and some that will have the new dashboard on the disc itself but until them LT+ is out!

[Raider69]

And since i dont give a Sh%t about COD BO online ( since im mostly SP gamer ) and kinect line up!M$ can suc% my dick because and still going to play games at 3€!Thats how much it cost me every backup!If the wont people to stop pirate get the games cheaper!It almost five year since the 360 was released and games still cost the same!At the begging i was all for the support but i do not have deep pockets!

[Gohadouken]

and for those same five years guys like you kept stealing and driving prices up , not to mention turning dlc into a "must have" source of income .

[Raider69]

"driving prices up!?".What the hell are talking about?Xbox 360 games costs the same they cost 5 years ago!So pirate games on the 360 didn't make prices go up!And if DLC has becoming a source of incoming the blame shoud be putted on developers and publishers for wanting to screw gamers and release unfinished games just to capitalise more profits!Just to let you now yes i have a modded 360 and an original one but i also have backup games an original too!Mostly collectors editions of some IP that i love from beginning!But for much a certain new game IP come release and went AAA if it only haves 4 to 6 hours of SP campaign and cost $60 bucks or 60€ im going to pirate it for sure!

[jack_burt0n]

christmas comes early for Microsoft.

[d3nworth1]

Pirates suck! When was the last time you heard of ninjas getting banned? See ninjas are better than pirates.

[Karum]

Well you can't really blame Microsoft for banning people with modded machines, they lose out on money as do the people who make the games.

It's not really right to criticise the timing of the bans either I don't think. I mean you have to just tip your hat to MS for being smart about it. They know that this is the time of year where most consoles are sold and they know it's the time of the year where normally the most in demand games are released.

They know people will want to play those games, especially the likes of COD so they ban them from getting online knowing full well those people can't resist and those people will either buy a new 360 or will say "screw this, gonna get a PS3 not paying for LIVE again" - although I'd say the vast vast majority just replace their 360.

Can't blame MS for how they are working this, I'd do exactly the same if it were my business and I imagine anyone else would too. I mean it is a business after all and you want to maximise profits....what better way is there to do it for this situation?

[SephireX]

This year, things are different. LT firmware is out which isn't detectable. The new Kinect dashboard check checks the games, not the firmware and there will be a new firmware update early next year that bypasses those checks. So if M$ thinks they've beaten the hackers, they should reconsider. However, with no no temporary solution to the new dashboard's enhanced security, consoles will sell like hot cake at half price because of Black Ops. Thing is, I've no intention of buying Black Ops and I've no intention of playing it until, well, early next year :).

[testerg35]

Wow.. they did this before and you guys are surprised by this? I love it when PS3 was hacked all the fans said BAN the pirates.

[xg-ei8ht]

Keep looking up and move!!! that ban hammer is coming down hard.

[Bounkass]

I have 1 thing so say: "Hahahahahahaha!".