Warning to Modded Xbox Owners

ondafly

It appears M$ have caught up to us.

According to the numerous threads on xbox-scene.com , its possible Halo 2 game and/or M$ themselves, are now scanning xboxes, and checking for harddrives that are larger than standard. Thus resulting in a ban from xbox live.

The halo 2 game has an update for live on the DVD, and possibly checks your HD size.

Updates from Xbox live seem to be doing something similiar.

tribble

Is this even legal?

i mean you own the machine, you own the game, it's all legit...

Prior Of Taize

I would say that by signing on for x-box live that you acknowledge them scanning your x-box in the first place...

I know it may not be in 10 foot neon lettering but its got to be in the small print somewhere...

ondafly

its annoying to say the least, might have to go buy a virgin xbox. Threads are saying on the xbox-scene.com forums, you don't loose your gamertag, it can be used on other xboxes.

You pay for the game
You pay for the xbox
You pay for xbox live service

and still get banned

ShiverinEskimo

Their script on it is that a modded xbox could provide the ability to cheat or have an advantage over other gamers.
The true story? They want to keep modding to a minimum because they lose cash for every modded xbox.

conor-mr2

theres a few theories floating around already. Potentially those of us who have modded xboxes and larger HDDs AND havent gone on XBL yet may be ok because as soon as you go on it is suggesting that they marry your serial numbers-ie EEPROM and HDD numbers so if in the future theres a mismatch you'll get banned.

YMMV though as this isnt conclusive yet

segadreamcast

ShiverinEskimo wrote:

The true story? They want to keep modding to a minimum because they lose cash for every modded xbox.

Oh no - 'evil' MS in a recuperating losses horror story...

Ciaran500

Whats wrong with MS trying to recouperate losses?

lphchild

Yup, looks like the rumours/reports are true.

I signed in today 24 hours after playing Halo 2 on Live to be told I had a modified xbox and to feck off. Chip was deactivated so only way they could have got me was on the hard drive which was upgraded.

Cé la vie.. Not a great loss as I value the ability to use the xbox as a wireless media centre more than the Live functionality. never recovered from getting my ass kicked around by annoying yanks!!

If I find I'm pining for Live... I'm gonna try and get my hands on my bro's 'virgin' xbox, upgrade the hard drive and then go to Live for the first time and see if that makes a difference, and give him the banned Xbox. Will report back if it works..


lph

Balfa

Just clear this up for me... it's always been the case that an xbox with an active modchip can't go on Live, but many modchips can be deactivated so you can play your Live games online?

And this new halo2 thing only stops you going online if you have a different sized hard drive?

ondafly

Balfa wrote:

Just clear this up for me... it's always been the case that an xbox with an active modchip can't go on Live, but many modchips can be deactivated so you can play your Live games online?

And this new halo2 thing only stops you going online if you have a different sized hard drive?

Correct

Went online today with halo 2, will know tomorrow I guess, if I'm banned. I'll just buy a virgin xbox if needs be, and as another poster stated, the banned box will continue as the media console (and a great one at that, it is)

Roller Toaster

tribble wrote:

Is this even legal?

i mean you own the machine, you own the game, it's all legit...

ondafly wrote:

its annoying to say the least, might have to go buy a virgin xbox. Threads are saying on the xbox-scene.com forums, you don't loose your gamertag, it can be used on other xboxes.

You pay for the game
You pay for the xbox
You pay for xbox live service

and still get banned

Modding your xbox is against the terms of service so of course it's legal for microsoft to try and prevent modded xboxs going on live. I don't see anything wrong personally with them banning people either. Microsoft may be a massive company but that doesn't excuse the piracy that results from modded xboxs (I'm not saying you pirate games or anything).

Len_007

Signed up for live over the weekend. Guess I'll know if my joy will be short lived when I get home today

IrishMike

Just in case anyone here isnt aware you can still play online using xbconnect instead of
xbox live. Not the same thing, granted but still an option.

conor-mr2

or xlink kai which is getting better integration in the newest XBMC releases.

kaisersose77

I posted this in the xbox modding section the other day:

For ppl who use xlink kai (never got it 2 work myself), they have gotten the kai engine to work on the linksys wrt54g router, meaning no need 2 have ur pc on at the same time. The router itself can be got for around 65-70 euros on german sites( just search it in www.idealo.de, £50 on www.amazon.co.uk ). I think i'll definitely be purchasing one of these. Heres a thread about it:

http://www.teamxlink.co.uk/forum/vi...663b79ba7dd9136

And half way down the news page

http://www.teamxlink.co.uk


But id stick to buying it off a UK site to be sure, I posted this in broadband section,

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=201375

Rew

Roller Toaster wrote:

Modding your xbox is against the terms of service so of course it's legal for microsoft to try and prevent modded xboxs going on live. I don't see anything wrong personally with them banning people either. Microsoft may be a massive company but that doesn't excuse the piracy that results from modded xboxs (I'm not saying you pirate games or anything).

You cannt play a pirate copy of any game on X-Box live as far as I know (in the same way you cannt play pirated PC games online).

Having a modded X-Box does not make you a pirate or a cheater so banning them all is ridiculals. They could do Punk Buster style anti-cheating but they dont because they want an excuese to ban modded X-Boxes...

Halo 2 sales wenrt even dented by the leak. What everyone seems to forget is that nearly every game in every format gets pirated yet the companies still turn a profit people still buy games and the world dosn't end....

Scruff

i posted a thread about this too:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=200617
its got some links to other discussion boards where they are talking about it in more depth