Xbox Live starts banning modded 360s

It has been long rumored that Microsoft would start banning 360s, and people were certain it would start after the spring update. Modders best efforts have proven insufficient in stopping detection. Days before the spring update, the hacking community released new firmwares to preemptively protect them and keep their modded status hidden. Microsoft apparently has a few tricks up their sleeves, because even people with the latest firmwares have gotten the lifetime ban. There have been reports that even those that haven’t played backups on live have gotten banned, which indicates they are detecting the modified firmware, and not the backup disc. Hackers have been fairly confident that the firmware itself was undetectable, and it would be the discs themselves that would be targeted.

The morale of the story is, if you like Xbox Live, don’t mod your console. The banhammer shows no pity, and no matter how justified you think you are, no one will hear your pleas. There have been numerous reports of people with new and unmodded consoles getting banned. There is no word on what the recourse of action will be for this customers. I read one early report that someone was asked to send their console in for MS to verifiy it wasn’t modified. There is no word how many thousands of consoles have been banned from live, but I can’t imagine it would be feasible for them to do this for everyone.

The message is very clear, and made louder by waiting for the Halo 3 Beta to start. I can’t imagine the regret many must be feeling. As for me, I knew there was good reason I have two 360s