The Microsoft chief of police Stephen Toulouse has said that his enforcement team is inspecting early play and applying permabans only to those with illegitimately obtained early copies of either game. Those who got their copy because a retailer broke street date are safe, Stepto says.
“Don’t worry folks, anyone who bought a copy early is ok. In general, if you got a receipt, play away. These are illegit copies we’re hitting,” Toulouse tweeted today.
Reader SK sent us that screengrab and basically admitted he visited a bootlegger with a Forza 3 copy. After getting his 360 modded, he played it for five days before getting banz0red.
“I called another friend who went in on Wednesday to pick up a copy and get his box done too, and he also received a ban for the same reason,” says SK. However, SK says the permaban is account only, not console specific. “I made a new XBL account and was back up and running (minus playing F3, of course) within an hour.”
brad
Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 1:00 PMso, i see the ban hammer boys are going soft… what happened to banning the entire console? i had to buy a whole new bloody console! needless to say, the new one didnt get modded ;)
Ethan Iacobozzi
Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 2:00 PMThese people are stupid as hell. Why would you get your account banned in order to play the game a few days earlier than everybody else?
Thermal Ions
Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 3:04 PMHow dim do you have to be to play a pirated game online before it’s even released.
Although, sadly, it seems without serial codes for the games, getting banned is more of an inconvenience than anything for these pirates.
AndyN
Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 5:38 PMwhy don’t microsoft fine these people aswell because banning accounts or even consoles don’t deter pirates enough. They will ALWAYS create new accounts and or buy new console then get it re-modded again…
Fracture
Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 5:43 PMmicrosuckt
Greg
Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 6:12 PMand so they should be banned really if you download a game that has not been released yet and play it whilst connected your blaytent stupidity means you had it coming
Sabmac
Sunday, October 18, 2009 at 7:00 AMLOL, fail post is fail. The sentiment is correct, though. By playing an unreleased, pirated game on a modded console connected to the internet, ONLINE, these people have not only been banhammered but have released their immense stupidity onto the world.
k'Fox
Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 7:07 PMBig question of why on earth are the pirates flaring their wares and what game they are playing?
Don’t blame the ban hammer, blame the idiots for starting the mess by showing themselves online, stupidly…
Why not instead, ban the console and account instead of just the account? That should make more money and scare more people off from doing naughty things…
Ad
Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 7:29 PM“why don’t microsoft fine these people aswell”
Well AndyN, it could be because Microsoft isn’t a government body and therefore has no power to levy fines. Banning accounts/consoles is the only thing the actually CAN do.