Xbox Banning and Piracy
 

So MS started banning 360s again and a couple of friends of mine got banned. The next thing that happens is that they start saying that MS suxs and that they're EVIL for banning Xboxs that are modded to play pirated games and that they're not buying a new Xbox just because MS does this to make them buy a new 360 (at least that part I believe has a bit of truth). This has really upset me these days. What makes people think they have the RIGHT to piracy? Seriously! How can you get upset with a company that gets back at you for modding their consoles to play pirated games? If anything, people have proven to be way more greedy than players when they pirate games. The one friend that was upset the most even sells pirated games. How can you get upset when you're making money off of something you don't own!?!?!?!?

Seriously, what do you think about these kind of people? I'll write more later, but I'm running out of time now.

Re: Xbox Banning and Piracy
 

... Also, if you really like videogames, then you know how much piracy hurts videogame companies and how many companies are struggling to turn in profits. The guy that sells copied games says that he doesn't have money and he can't afford them. Now I know he has a though time making money but still... you can't excuse yourself saying that. And still the fact remains that he sells software he doesn't own and takes the sales away from the developers. What the videogame fans are becoming really pisses me off.

Re: Xbox Banning and Piracy
 

For the most part, people are getting what they deserve.

The only part that's "bad" about this, is that some people put "non Microsoft certified" hard drives into their 360, to increase space. This counts a mod, and last I heard anyone who did this has basically bricked their xbox.

This isn't really fair, because all the hard drives are the same - except that the microsoft certified ones for the xbox are very expensive.

Re: Xbox Banning and Piracy
 

1) I will agree with your friend's assertion that they did this to force people to re-buy Xboxes, I mean come on just a week or so before the biggest release of this generation.

With that said, I think they got what was coming to them. Piracy is a bitch, and its especially rough in this day and age where companies are going belly up left and right.

Now I was trying to reconcile while I have an issue with video game piracy, but not with like movies and music, and I guess the only thing I could come up with is that its the sole source of revenue for games. You can see a movie in theatres, you can pick up a DVD or Blu Ray copy, you can rent it via Blockbuster, and I do all of those, and tend to buy anything I truly enjoy. Games though are just that, if you don't buy it.. there's nothing else. Not a lot of them get merchandise tie-ins or sponsors and stuff.

Also, for anyone who doesn't care to play online... there are a TON of cheap Xboxes on craigslist.

Re: Xbox Banning and Piracy
 

I really think that it had to do with the leaks of Forza 3, Borderlands, and of course MW2. All bigger titles, just led them to start cracking down.

Re: Xbox Banning and Piracy
 

Serves them right, they knew it was illegal and they did it anyway.

I am often appalled by the open advertisements of console mods or R4 cards. It's just too easy.

Re: Xbox Banning and Piracy
 

I agree with you that although they're probably pissed off, people are getting what they deserve. I heard that HDDs are Accessories and therefor you're allowed to use 3rd party hard drives. If that's not the case, does then the 250GB HDD I bought for $70 online might not get connected to my 360 when it arrives. Anyone else here more about this?

Re: Xbox Banning and Piracy
 

You can't use 3rd party storage devices with the 360 anymore. It was announced a few weeks ago, but I'm not sure when it takes effect.

Re: Xbox Banning and Piracy
 

Well that's donkey nuts, they should drop the price of their damn harddrives then.

Re: Xbox Banning and Piracy
 

I agree. The 120 GB HDD is ridiculously over-priced.

Re: Xbox Banning and Piracy
 

According to the blog of an employee working for MS, certain memory units are going to fail. Users won't get banned for it though, probably because of some sort of twisted remorse they feel for fucking everyone out of the splendor of having a competitive market with competitive pricing. We'll see how this hard drive works out when it gets here. I'll keep anyone updated if they're interested.

Re: Xbox Banning and Piracy
 

I feel like sometimes it's ok to pirate games. Like Japanese games I'll never see released over here in the states but I would enjoy playing. I've been pirating fighting games for years now because the competitive scene here in America plays a lot of them. Arcana Hearts (which did finally come here), Big Bang Beat, Hokuto no Ken, Certain versions of guilty gear, Melty Blood. It's either pay 160 dollars to ship the game here from Japan (Basically in japan they go for 30k yen, aka 30 dollars), or pirate it. We chose to pirate. No shame.

I also feel about 60% of game or more are just terrible. Over-priced pieces of shit to be honest. I would say it's more like 80% of wii games.

I'm sure everyone here knows exactly the feeling when you spend your hard earned munnies on a game thinking about how awesome it will be, then "BAM" shitty game.

There's nothing you can do in that situation either, except take it to gamestop and trade it in for like 25-30 dollars on another game. To think of all the games I've played on the R4, and I don't really think any of them I would have ever bought except for Professor layton and it's sequel which I did end up buying the sequel.

There will always be piracy, there will always be over-priced systems and games, and there will always be people who tell you that if piracy stopped those things wouldn't be so expensive. Those people will always be full of shit.

I don't see piracy effecting the current growth of the game industry because if you haven't noticed, pirating is kinda complicated and I would say the majority of casual gamers and even serious gamers have no clue how to go about doing it.

Also those who got caught obviously didn't know how to mod their 360s right, or they did it with a chip. In that case sucks to be them...

Re: Xbox Banning and Piracy
 

http://gamepolitics.com/2009/11/19/l...ss-action-suit

Seems like there may be a class action lawsuit against MS for the banning. It shall be most interesting.

On one hand, MS has a point.
On the other, it does look like a way to boost holiday sales around MW 2.

Re: Xbox Banning and Piracy
 

Microsoft has the best lawyers ever and the people who got banned clearly broke the ToS. How do they expect to win this?

Re: Xbox Banning and Piracy
 

Because the issue isn't that they were banned, it's that Microsoft will sell them another 360 even if they broke their original T.O.S. It's a very shoddy business practice with online accounts (even in online games like WoW). They don't care if you cheat, they'll make more money off of you when you eventually are forced to either resubscribe or quit (or in this case, buy another console). And more specifically, they waited until a major release (when many of the modders very well may have purchased a legitimate copy of the game already) and then banned people.

I agree that the modders shouldn't have done what they did in the first place. But I think allowing them back on the network with a $200 down payment is a little absurd. Particularly when they use something like the release of a highly anticipated game to encourage it.