Microsoft has reportedly unleashed a second wave of bans, bringing the total count of banned Xbox 360s to around 1 million -- about five percent of some 20 million Live-connected consoles. There is also some uncertainty now as to whether or not the bans are permanent. It is safe to assume that they are, as Microsoft specifically targeted consoles as opposed to Gamertags. However, there is no guarantee Microsoft won't go even further and nail Gamertags associated with those banned consoles as well.

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i personally think its unfair to ban the system just ban the online account and make them pay for a new one because now used systems may never be able to play online which is not fair to the end user.

I think a better way to approach this would be to make the users of modded consoles pay for the right to have their consoles unlocked, instead of making them buy a new console. I could see banning the console as a second offense nature, not so much for the first. However, if people know they can get away with it once with minor reprieve, they may never get caught while modding, and I can see Microsoft is trying to discourage people from even trying. Overall, I see this step as severe, but not necessarily uncalled for.

I guess it wont take that much time until someone figures out how to change... I don't know, the XBox MAC adress, or that something that is making it unique, and whoever does that will earn a loooot of money selling the method.

@R3claimer: Then people wouldn't have to buy a new one, and where is the proffit there? =P

I'm glad Microsoft is doing well banning hackers and modders.. Although, I too, have cheated before on Counter Strike 1.6, just for laughs, and got banned on Steam. I'm glad I did too, because now I know better than not to do that sh*t.
I just hope those people getting banned knew what they were getting into, because an Xbox is a lot to lose. I just lost a semi-worthless Steam account.

Microsoft would be better off doing that for several reasons.
#1. People are less likely to buy a new console than they would be to just unlock the console, a fee that would be (hypothetically), substantially less than the price of a new system.
#2. Microsoft, whether they deserve it or not, are probably going to get some damaging feedback from those affected by the bans.
#3. The consoles aren't going to just disappear, as stated in the article, unsuspecting people are going to buy these consoles online without knowing the true status of the online capabilities, (not everyone reads tech news, many people won't be aware of the bans taking place.) What you have then is a bunch of pissed off customers wondering why they can't connect to the internet. Microsoft then has about 3 options. 1. they can ignore the customers and claim "buyers beware". 2. They can offer to replace the banned xbox's with other unrestricted refurbished xbox's. 3. They will have an alternate method to unlock the consoles. (And if the third occurs, then you can bet your a** somebody will find a way to unlock their console.)

Like I said though, Each course of action has its own problems, and their solution is convenience for themselves. Not exactly consumer friendly, but then, the consumers modding their consoles weren't being friendly either ;)

As a side note, I'm skeptical that Microsoft will make much profit from new Xbox's being purchased. The reason I say this is because Hard Drives aren't the banned part of the console, consumers are free the cheaper 360 versions that don't turn much profit. Heck, consumers will probably look to buy used consoles priced even more cheaply (provided tha6t they can confirm an unbanned status)

K, I'm done. xD

As a legitimate xbox 360 owner, I think this is pretty hilarious. Using modded xboxes on xbox live? Seriously? How was anyone expecting that to be a permanent thing? I never chipped mine because I knew it would affect if it would play games online and all the best games on the xbox are online games imo. I rarely play a single player only game.

So people get them chipped, download the newest games instead of buying them (its not like they arent cheap pre-owned but you have to wait for the price to drop) and play them online using xbox live.

And Microsoft then bans them all. The day modern warfare 2 comes out. That is pure class. As someone who has bought every Xbox 360 game he has wanted to play and has felt good putting some money back into the industry I think its priceless that they chose this week to carry out the bans.

Yes its a shame they didnt ban the accounts as well but they didn't want to drive the players away so they left them with their illegally gained achievements and years spent on live. Personally I would reduce them all to zero achievement points and delete the accounts but there must be a legal issue with any dlc thats been downloaded on the account that means they cant do that but banning the console if it has been illegally messed around with is alright by me. I dont want to play against people with hacked versions of games and hacked consoles etc. One of the best things about online console play is that everyone has the same joypad and everyone has the same visual settings etc. Its a fair playing field. Fairer now. Anyone saying they are considering getting a ps3 because of their console getting locked out completely missed the point and should probably do exactly. Better that way.

Yet another great reason to own a PS3. If Microsoft would put out a quality product to begin with, and quit charging for online play, they wouldn't have the rrod or modders. Piss on Microsoft.

VERY LAME i got banned for being rude,and acused of cheating. i dont cheat and everyone swears and tounts eachother. piss on micro soft and xbox. i spent alot of $ on xbox and i have to be controlled by them?

That's a good one r3claimer, having negative feedback from xbox modders hahaha!

To argue your points...

#1 They will, after all... how many games you actually play all the time online, 10? Maybe 3, at most, one FPS, a racing one, a strategic, MAYBE. I don't play more than 1 single player at a time. So that is not that expensive.

#2 It's just laughable.

#3 The console itself is cheap, or a lot cheaper than a while ago and still there are lots of discounts and sales. I would have 2, a modded console to test-drive the games to see if they are good and have nice online replayability, and a normal one to just play online. Since I'm not a huge fan of online gaming (Although some games are really adictive) I wouldn't mind to buy a cheap banned xbox (They WILL be real cheap in a little while). And, you don't have to be a hardcore gamer to own a console to just laugh a bit with more controls and a couple of friends.

Don't asume that everyone plays or think like you. About consumers... again, if you mod it you can't complain AT ALL, it was not meant to be played with "backups" (Yeah right, say copy it's NOT a backup).

yes microsoft is a big bully and aalways has been i tihnk banning the consoles is BS and they need to correct that fast before they have a huge riot on there hands.

I am one of the victims of this recent online ban and the big question still stands... what happends to the unsuspecting people that buy my modified console? =P I have no reason to believe that microsoft will find a legitimate way to unlock these banned consoles after unsuspecting people purchase them. My plan is to find a nice cheap used unmodified xbox without a hard drive and sell my modified console replacing consoles with my hard drive. the permanent ban was a very bad mistake on your part, there were many other potential solutions to this problem besides the PERMANENT ban... so i wish you good luck microsoft, you're going to need it.

im just waiting on someone going public about a console they purchased used from a reputable store that ends up being banned. MS will have a big problem explaining that one. " I bought my console used at gamestop yesterday, and now it is telling me that I cannot get on live. and before you go into the 30 day return policy, many of the banned consoles have been detected before and are just now being banned. Banning is Microsoft's right, the ycan withhold any part of their service they feel like, but there will be some situations where this is a problem.

Microsoft don't deserve my money..Hope they will burn for this !!!

It would actually benefit Microsoft more to suspend or ban the xbox live account. If the console is banned and you mostly play one player games then so what. And if you are a multiplayer then why not now just make the jump to the PS3 since they have reduced the cost of them and you pick up a blue ray player as well. That's what I plan to do. You can ell this decision was probably made by an IT techie and not someone in sales as the sales person would of banned the live account and would of made a person buy it again as well as impose a fee on top off the new account. I can't believe Bill Gates didn't think of that.

i was banned a week ago and to tell you the truth its about time microsoft it took you 3 years to catch me retard i have over 35 original games that i have bought and over 100 copied games so i think i have saved alot of money if you lowered the prices on games instead of being a bunch of gready c*nts i wouldnt of modded my system but anyway i have saved money i will be modding my other xbox360 and buying a ps3 ,one more thing hackers are not all cheaters when about 60% of none hackers on xbox live all have bought the rapid fire controller for the 360 for call of duty i say ban all those cheaters too its only fair microsoft

microsoft how much you gonna charge in lets say 3 years time for games just asking as the new call of duty modern warfare 2 is £55 the normal version £70 the limited edition and £120 the veteran edition with the stupid infra green crap glasses and you say us in hacking the system we are stealing i say everybody should do it as you are ripping us all off in games anyway xbox 360 system £300 of crap red lights every where crap your the one who ripped us off i have had 4 systems which 2 are no longer working because of the red lights you should just be happy we are actualy playing on live after the crap you sold us not banning us for modding the system screw you microsoft hope you burn in hell

I'm getting the biggest kick out of reading all these childish rants (particularly from the "Guests") about how MS has done them SO wrong by cutting them off from using Live for pirated games.

All I can is sucks to be you guys. Go buy the damn games next time and you won't have to worry about it, eh? :D

Holy crap , 1 million . Man MS is really serious about this .

I find the self-righteous "legitimate" 360 owners funny when they act like because they buy they're games, that somehow makes a crap game good...Besides, out of the over 100 copied games I have, there are only a few I play online anyway.......I bought a legitimate copy of MW2 and was just banned today....But guess what, I could care less.....For one thing, I've saved literally thousands of dollars in games alone, and I went right out and bought a like new condition used/refurb 360 arcade w/HDMI port for 130bucks, and guess what.......I was right back online playing MW2 in less than an hour, with my old gamertag.... What about my banned console you ask? It will now continue to serve duty playing all those games that I wouldn't buy anyway, and I can continue playing the newest games as they come out... And with that, I dont mind spending the coin on a game I really want to play multiplayer, as I will already know whether or not its worth it!!!!!