One Million Chipped Xbox 360s Could be Banned by Microsoft
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Microsoft clamp down on modded consoles and illegal piracy downloads.
Thousands of Xbox users worldwide have been cut off from their favourite online games, including the newly released Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 for having their Xbox 360s illegally chipped to play pirated games.
Owners of Xbox 360s can have their machines modified by installing a chip or downloading software which opens up the Xbox to run pirated software not approved by Microsoft. The company clamped down on “modded” 360s by banning users for accessing their Xbox Live accounts, preventing them from playing online at all.
Microsoft said the move will only affect a “small percentage” of the huge online community which numbers over 20 million players. However, that small percentage could be as much as 5 per cent of the total Xbox community, with as many as one million 360s believed to be chipped according to some industry analysts.
Users can have little complaint however, the console terms and conditions are very clear that modification violates Microsoft’s terms of use. “All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and that modifying their Xbox 360 console to play pirated discs violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live,” the company said in a statement reported by the BBC.
The statement continued: “The health of the video game business depends on customers paying for the genuine products and services they receive from manufacturers, retailers, and the third parties that support them”.
In other console news, Xbox rival the PS3 could integrate Facebook into its new interface, as the growth of social networking becomes more prominent in online activity.
It’s alright, had the best 5 years of my life.