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Microsoft fires off salvo of Halo: Reach pirating permabans

by Griffin McElroy on Aug 25th 2010 12:01PM

If you were one of the ne'er-do-wells who thought downloading a leaked copy of Halo: Reach and then playing it online was a really, really great idea, you might have received a stern email from Microsoft like the one recently dug up by MaxConsole. The document informs these red-handed pirates that "your Xbox LIVE account privileges have been permanently suspended due to illegitimate prerelease title play."

Xbox Live Director of Policy and Executioner Stephen Toulouse commented on the bans on Twitter, explaining "as with all unauthorized play on Xbox LIVE, anyone playing any unauthorized title runs the risk of account permaban and console." In short, you do the crime, you pay the time. Wait, is "forever and ever" an actual measurement of time?

Via: GamePolitics
Source: MaxConsole

Tags: ban, bungie, Halo-Reach, microsoft, permaban, piracy, stephen-toulouse, xbox, xbox-live

Reader Comments (70)

Microsoft didn't ban a single person, they're just trying to sound tough.

The systems that are able to play the leaked code are heavily modified 360s using the oldest dashboard. Through a exploit, you're allowed to run unsigned code, beit homebrew apps or this unsigned Halo Reach code.

Consequently, you can't use these online.

@jynxycat Uh...no...MW2 10th Prestige Lobbies. Tell me how those happen without jtag Xboxes allowed online? God, your world must be fantastic. Can I come live there?

@YimYimYimi Its not that hard. Edit the save file, inject it onto the a USB memory unit, launch game. No jtag needed.

Microsoft has made game hacking WAY easier when they added USB support for memory units, but even before that all you needed was a HDD transfer cable kit and you could achieve the same results.

@jynxycat They are banning people, but you're right about jtags not being able to go online... These kids must be playing the game offline and then taking their gamer profile to a legit Xbox and connecting to Xbox Live for whatever reason. The same thing happened back when Forza 3 came out and it got leaked about a month early.

Microsoft's system pays close attention to user's game histories. If the game is on their history, they are toast. Thats how they are perma-banning gamerscore hackers too. If some kid goes offline for an hour then comes back with 10,000 more points from a dozen random titles right away, some things gotta be up.

Most of these idiots probably just made a new gamertag and played to say that they had it first. They probably don't care if their fake account gets banned. I hate people sometimes.

@Chrono951 But it also says the consoles were banned, and I'm pretty such MS can track and ban individual consoles, not just live accounts.

@Chrono951

its a console ban, not a username ban.

@PedoJokerBear Actually, it is an account ban. Read the article. The users are recieving an e-mail stating the ban is a result of "Prerelease title play".

Stay in school kids.

But it also says the consoles were banned, and I'm pretty such MS can track and ban individual consoles, not just live accounts.

@The MAZZTer Apparently clicking "Reply" on a parent comment doesn't always do anything...

I'm surprised that there were that many people banned. From what I understand, JTagging is fairly difficult, and I would assume whoever successfully completes the process would have the common sense to keep the console offline.

@ArcaneAmoeba
how many were banned? the article didnt mention if anyone was banned yet.

Awesome. Good on Microsoft. Everytime this happens I can do nothing but smile as every single one of those people had it coming.

I thought that piracy was a PC exclusive title.

How stupid can these pirates get?

They should make those pirate hats available in game. I would wear the shit outta them

Now's a good time to find 360's going for cheap on ebay! Oh ya keep in mind the harddrives won't work, you can't log on live, and you probably won't have an HDMI port.

"your Xbox LIVE account privileges have been permanently suspended"
That doesn't make sense. D
efinition of suspended:

sus·pend (s-spnd)
v. sus·pend·ed, sus·pend·ing, sus·pends
v.tr.
1. To bar for a period from a privilege, office, or position, usually as a punishment: suspend a student from school.
2. To cause to stop for a period; interrupt: suspended the trial.
3.
a. To hold in abeyance; defer: suspend judgment. See Synonyms at defer1.
b. To render temporarily ineffective: suspend a jail sentence; suspend all parking regulations.

4. To hang so as to allow free movement: suspended the mobile from the ceiling.
5. To support or keep from falling without apparent attachment, as by buoyancy: suspend oneself in the water.
v.intr.
1. To cease for a period; delay.
2. To fail to make payments or meet obligations.

So basically suspension is temporary. The word should be banned or expelled or simmilar.
I know I'm being pedantic but correct language should be used at all times.

Not to be a devil's advocate nor to excuse the 'hackers' and their behavior (insert Antoine Dodson "You Are Dumb, You Are Really Dumb, For Real" gif), but how could Microsoft not know that people would be stupid enough to circumvent their measures to get Halo: Reach review copy....that is uploaded to Xbox Live?? That is pretty much asking for it right there.

I understand that if Microsoft mailed out copies, someone could steal that and upload that online too. They don't win either way.

Microsoft really has no choice but to ban people for illegally playing the game early, but they had to have known that people are stupid for trying and succeeding at getting the game. Yeah, and Stephen Toulouse is a douche, but what is Microsoft supposed to do? Don't allow any reviews until release day?

Previous 50 Comments

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Microsoft fires off salvo of Halo: Reach pirating permabans

Reader Comments (70)

Posted: Aug 25th 2010 12:22PM jynxycat said

Posted: Aug 25th 2010 12:38PM YimYimYimi said

Posted: Aug 25th 2010 12:50PM geeksunny said

Posted: Aug 25th 2010 12:57PM geeksunny said

Posted: Aug 25th 2010 12:24PM Chrono951 said

Posted: Aug 25th 2010 12:43PM The MAZZTer said

Posted: Aug 25th 2010 12:52PM PedoJokerBear said

Posted: Aug 25th 2010 1:02PM geeksunny said

Posted: Aug 25th 2010 12:37PM ColorblindMonk said

Posted: Aug 25th 2010 12:43PM The MAZZTer said

Posted: Aug 25th 2010 12:43PM The MAZZTer said

Posted: Aug 25th 2010 12:45PM ArcaneAmoeba said

Posted: Aug 25th 2010 7:10PM gevenstaines said

Posted: Aug 25th 2010 1:06PM sammo21 said

Posted: Aug 25th 2010 2:45PM DannibusX said

Posted: Aug 25th 2010 5:10PM LonnieDVD said

Posted: Aug 25th 2010 7:23PM xenophy said

Posted: Aug 25th 2010 7:27PM AntiClockClock said

Posted: Aug 25th 2010 8:24PM rartemass said

Posted: Aug 25th 2010 8:44PM andrewpoe said

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