Xbox 360 BAN WAVE

[Backstage]

I feel like Corey would want to chime in on this. Wonder if he can still run his fantastic Friday Night Halo get-togethers.

 

[theSTEREO.]

I feel like Corey would want to chime in on this. Wonder if he can still run his fantastic Friday Night Halo get-togethers.

What exactly happened there? I keep hearing these legendary Corey Halo rumors, but have no idea what they are about...

 

[Man Called X]

What exactly happened there? I keep hearing these legendary Corey Halo rumors, but have no idea what they are about...

Um, Corey posted pictures of himself, and basically everyone was ridiculing him, but the kid just kept going at it, being completely oblivious to how much he was being mocked. It was an amazing thread that should've never been deleted, just locked for posterity.

 

[Marcus]

Um, Corey posted pictures of himself, and basically everyone was ridiculing him, but the kid just kept going at it, being completely oblivious to how much he was being mocked. It was an amazing thread that should've never been deleted, just locked for posterity.

That thread was deleted? What a shame...

 

[TAS]

Microsoft bans up to 1 million Xbox Live users

Anywhere between an estimated 600,000 and 1 million players who use Microsoft's Xbox Live gaming service will be cut off from the service because they have modified their game consoles or played games that were illegally downloaded from file-sharing sites, according to the company.

"All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and that modifying their Xbox 360 console violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live," Microsoft said in a statement Wednesday.

(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

The timing of the statement coincides with the release this week of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," a highly anticipated Xbox 360 game. The game's release means big sales — but also sales of pirated copies, which are illegal.

There are more than 20 million players worldwide who use the Xbox Live gaming service, according to Microsoft. The service lets gamers play each other online as well as buy and download games.

"It's fair for people to feel that they should be able to do whatever they want with something that they have bought, but it's also fair for Microsoft to do everything it can to reduce the risk of piracy," said Dave Taylor, publishing director for GamerZines.com.

"In some cases though, modding (modifying) is done to allow a bigger hard drive, and given that the supplied hard drives are still very small comparative to what is available on the market, and expensive also, you can see why some people are going to be very angry."

However, he said, "the biggest problem in banning modded consoles — and this gets missed by most people — is that it is the console itself that gets banned. So many of these consoles get sold secondhand, even sometimes unwittingly by stores (that) accept them as trade-ins, to people who assume they have just bought a functioning console. And while it might technically boot up, the console is blacklisted and therefore pretty much useless to them."

Microsoft, he said, "needs to find a way to address this, or else it risks annoying the modders who make up 1 percent of their audience and the second-hand purchasers."

The company "needs to do a better job of explaining to people why modding consoles isn't acceptable, and needs to find a way to help people tricked into purchasing blacklisted consoles," said Taylor.

In its Xbox Live and Windows games' "Terms of Use" agreement, as of September 2008, Microsoft says that players are to use "only authorized software and hardware to access the Service," and that they agree that their software and hardware "have not been modified in any unauthorized way ... and that we have the right to send data, applications or other content to any software or hardware that you are using to access the Service for the express purpose of detecting an unauthorized modification."

In addition, "any attempt to disassemble, decompile, create derivative works of, reverse engineer, modify, further sublicense, distribute, or use for other purposes the Service, any game, application, or other content available or accessible through the Service, or any hardware or software associated with the Service or with an original Xbox or Xbox 360 console is strictly prohibited and may result in cancellation of your account and/or your ability to access the Service, and the pursuit of other legal remedies by Microsoft."

Some sites have warned about gamers tinkering with their Xboxes.

"Do not mod your console, you will be wasting money on something that will get you punished," warns one site, WikiHow in an article about "How to avoid getting banned from Xbox Live."
© 2009 msnbc.com Reprints

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33866696/ns/technology_and_science-games/

 

[Chardon]

My cousin got the ban.

 

[kookoo]

My cousin got the ban.

You make it sound like a disease, haha.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfkDxF2kn1I

 

[MYoung23]

So people were not smart enough not go on XBOX Live playing a game they downloaded?

 

[JayP146]

Just thought I'd share this article:


Update: Potential Fix for 1 Million Banned Xbox 360's Has Arrived

No ETA for fix, but modders are hard at work

Every fall Microsoft tends to try to find ways to ban Xbox modders from its Xbox Live service. Microsoft detests modding, as it allows users to accomplish forbidden activities, such as playing backups of games, playing out of zone DVDs, installing alternative operating systems, or playing pirated games.

This holiday season Microsoft has a special surprise in store for "naughty" Xbox 360 hackers -- a particular sweeping ban that relies on spotting modified drive firmware. Rolled out starting last week, the ban, according to sources, blocks the installation of games on the Xbox hard drive, blocks the Windows Media Player media extender, corrupts saves/Gamertags used on the machine, and most significantly prevents the console from accessing Xbox Live.

According to early estimates 600,000 consoles were effected, but more recent estimates put the number at close to 1 million consoles.

Microsoft has suggested that users with banned consoles find another Xbox. However, users with a banned Xbox 360 may not want to throw away their consoles just yet. According to the site 360Mods, c4eva has abandoned work on his Lite-on and Hitachi drive mods to try to establish a workaround.

The new workaround, dubbed iXtreme LT (Light Touch) aims to provide a minimum amount of security checks and aims to make the firmware as close to the stock firmware as possible to prevent detection. This fix may allow modified consoles to return to playing backup discs and other forbidden materials without Microsoft noticing.

Other members of the community are working on strategies to try to undo the changes made by Microsoft, which neuter the banned consoles, depriving them of much of their functionality (though they still will play games offline). Like Apple's attempts to brick unlocked/jailbroken iPhones, it seems only a matter of time before the creative and dedicated community comes up with a full work around.

Correction: Earlier we posted a link to an older version of iXtreme, indicating that the software was done. It is, in fact, not yet done. We will issue an update when the patch is released or when other workarounds are completed for the banned Xbox 360's.

Update: Friday, Nov. 13, 2009 12:30 p.m.:

A fix appears to have arrived, according to some of the forums, but it is rather complex and requires access to either an Xbox 360 you know the CPU key of, or did not update over the summer. According to user k0mpresd on Xbox-Scene:

what you need:

your 8955 live console + cpu key
a 2nd unbanned console
nandpro b + flash cable
xell loader
degraded
1888 fs
robinsod's flashtool

process:

use nandpro and dump nand from unbanned console.
flash xell and use jtag hack to obtain cpu key.
use flashtool to extract file system.

dump nand from 8955 console.
use flashtool to patch nand dump with kv.bin from unbanned console.
save patched file (patched_kv.bin).

open degraded + 1888 fs.
create 1888 downgrader image (downgrader.bin) from your patched_kv.bin file.

flash downgrader.bin to 8955 console.
attach hdd + ethernet cable and boot console.

connect to live and update to 8955 dashboard.

console is now fully working and unbanned!
​

Again, this relies on a variety of free tools, and can be a somewhat complex process. You are using the key to gain access to keyvault on the unbanned console. Without the key you will not be able to access the keyvault to transfer to the banned console. Also, it may not be wise to log the fixed (banned) Xbox 360 on to Xbox Live at the same time as the console you grabbed the keyvault from. Some users are suggesting this could result in the ban of both consoles.

Restoring your console may add to the EULA and legal violations you may already have committed and we do not recommend or condone it in any way.

 

[Nicky]

A lot o people are trying to unload their banned consoles by selling them. Pretty shady what some are doing with this. I've seen notices for an Xbox with a controller on facebook for $125. And I know someone is going to jump on this and then realize that it's been modded and banned.