Xbox Players Banned by Microsoft

The company is upset that file sharers use pirated copies of their games

Microsoft has again problems with illegal file sharers. Suspecting that a very large number of Xbox Live users have modified their game consoles to be able to use pirated copies of games on them, the company has banned nearly a million players around the world from using their online gaming and digital media service. The players whose access has been blocked can still use their consoles provided they don’t connect to the Internet (they won’t be able to log into their account or play on Xbox Live network).

In a recent statement Microsoft warns its customers they “should be aware that piracy is illegal and that modify the Xbox 360 violates the conditions of use on Xbox Live, the console will invalidate the warranty and cause the ejection of Xbox Live.”

The reported losses of revenue due to copies of games appearing on p2p file sharing networks have increased considerably lately. While some developers have found a pretty daring solution to this (like ) going after pirates seems the predominant way to deal with it these days.

What urged Microsoft to take such a decision was probably the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a game surrounded by high expectations. However, as much as the company struggled against it, unlicensed copies of the game were quick to pop up on p2p networks even before the official release.

(via It-Chuiko)