Xbox Live Users Banned By Microsoft

With so many illegal downloading sites out there, it can be difficult to resist the temptation to download those couple songs or watch that pirated movie or maybe even download that new game that you don’t feel like paying over $50 for. Well, you may want to reconsider things if this has become a habit of yours.

Giving into the temptation to download pirated games may have just cost over 1 million Xbox Live users the ability to continue to utilize the service. It has been said that Microsoft has banned over 1 million service users due to the fact that they altered their Xbox consoles to be able to play pirated versions of games.

Just this week, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was released. Pirated versions of the game had popped up before the game was even released, and it is believed that the developers at Activision might have encouraged Microsoft to initiate the ban.

Although the gamers who have had a ban placed on their Xbox Live service will not be able to play any online games, they still have full capabilities to play any kind of game offline. Microsoft has still not been clear as to whether this ban is permanent or if users will be able to return to Xbox Live later on down the road. They did release a statement saying that their "commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the more than 20 million members of the Xbox Live community remains a top priority. All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and modifying their Xbox 360 console violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live. We can assure you that if an Xbox Live member follows the Xbox Live terms of use, purchased a retail copy of Modern Warfare 2 and played the game on an unmodified Xbox 360, no action will be taken."

On the Xbox support page, there is now a list of circumstances from the Xbox Live Director of Programming that detail what could cause a user to be banned from Xbox Live.

This new ban set down by Microsoft is not something to be taken lightly. Users could be banned for days, weeks, months, or maybe permanently. This means they won’t be able to go online at all. So before doing something that you think could be considered questionable, you might want to consult the Xbox Live Terms of Use instead of waking up to find yourself banned from Xbox Live forever.