Warhammer of Banhammer, Microsoft Bans 1 Million Live Players, Gets Sued

The inevitable has happened. 360 owners who had their consoles modded to play pirated games were greeted with a message saying that their consoles had been banned from Xbox Live. The number isn’t a paltry 10,000 for that matter, but a million people received the banhammer from Live just for playing pirated Modern Warfare 2.

In a statement Microsoft said, ” [our] commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the more than 20 million members of the Xbox Live community remains a top priority. All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and modifying their Xbox 360 console violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live. We can assure you that if an Xbox Live member follows the Xbox Live terms of use, purchased a retail copy of Modern Warfare 2 and played the game on an unmodified Xbox 360, no action will be taken.”

There are so-called “stealth mod chips” that can be turned off and can’t be detected by Live which caused the problem. As a result, Craiglist has been flooded with modified Xbox 360s for sale, going for as low as $150 for the Elite.

One thing that I should note that only the console has been banned. The gamertag is still intact, so you can purchase a new console, recover your gamertag and continue playing on Live. I’ve heard rumors that piercing the warranty sticker on the back of your console gets you a ban, but this is not the case. It’s just a piece of paper and Microsoft has no way to detect whether you’ve broken it.

In response to a possible class action lawsuit, here’s what Microsoft had to say “Piracy is illegal and modifying an Xbox 360 is a violation of the Xbox Live Terms of Use. Microsoft is well within its legal rights to ban these users from Xbox Live.”