Friday, May 18th 2007
Microsoft Starts Banning Modded Xbox 360s on LIVE
It appears that Microsoft has managed to find a way to recognize Xbox360 consoles with modified firmwares (both Hitachi-LG and Toshiba-Samsung drives) and start banning them from the LIVE network. Even people using the new firmwares with disc-jitter added get banned. As a result, consumers who try to login to LIVE with a modified console will get an error code (Status Code: Z: 8015 - 190D) when trying to connect to the service. These users will not have their account automatically banned from LIVE, but they will no longer be able to access the service from the modified Xbox 360(console unique ID serial gets banned, not the LIVE account).
Source:
Xbox-Scene
44 Comments on Microsoft Starts Banning Modded Xbox 360s on LIVE
its like dell taking you to court for adding a non-sanctioned dvd drive to their pre built rig!
Edit: btw out of curiosity, how would having a modded console effect online gameplay?
It has nothing to do with accessories, it has to do with the firmware. Though if you feel it is required to say things like "they're forcing us" while all they are doing is banning illegal copies go ahead.
they have every right in the world do to this, not that i approve of it, but they have every right to fight game piracy, which is (lets be honest now) the primary function of mod-chips or modded firmware...
Xbox loses money on every system sold and they make it back with not just games but other devices such as harddrives. So maybe this is fair :confused:
M$ is just doing this for the sake of it, seems crap to me - obviously if the mods are being used to cheat then it's fair enough, but if they're simply to enhance console functionality it's doing now harm (except perhaps to M$'s bank balance, but I doubt it's significant for a firm like that).
Edit: if M$ permanently bans the console surely that is bad for them... they lose money each time they sell a new one :confused: So they'd either lose money that way or lose it from people quiting Live.
if so then xbox does have every right to do what they did...the xbox cost 2-3x more to make than msrp...they lose money making and selling the console...they make all that money back, and then some, selling games...being against that is really not much different than being against a pc game with pb running....
So let me see here. Microsoft is selling the 360 for a loss, piraters who are flashing their DVD rom drives are making them loose more money by not paying for their games, so their response is to cut their 360 off from Xbox Live, the only sure way to make some money off these people. :banghead:
Am I missing something? I understand on the Xbox 1 how cheating still runs rampant through Live, but it is relatively contained due to the "banhammer." On the 360 though, as I stated the game modding isn't really a real problem right now.
YOU DON'T HAVE THIS ISSUES WITH PC's...lol...i will never pay a company to play games online (other than isp of course)...or use a pc that would charge me $10+ a month in addition to my isp bill...
saying that i can't help but think that if i did pay a monthly fee to play online and i did buy the machine to play on, i should have every right to tweak or mod that machine...
but i still can't condone modding it to use pirated games...sorry..
Microsoft the faster you close your hand the more gamers will slip through your figures.
I'm glad they are doing this. People who cheat don't deserve to play online.
If someone finds a way around this then I think we'll start seeing console games with CD keys/serials in the future. Which is a bullet-proof method and been working for PC games for years.
In the end if MS succeeds in blocking pirates from their Live servers we will maybe start seeing emulated Live servers. WoW priavte servers anyone ?