Yesterday, news broke that Microsoft had banned a massive amount of players from its Xbox Live service which is available on its popular Xbox 360 gaming console. According to reports, the banned players had one thing in common — they had modified their console’s hardware or firmware to carry out unauthorized activity such as installation of an alternate OS, playing out of zone media, or running pirated software.
Initially, the estimates pegged the number of banned users at 600,000. Now CNET is reporting that over 1 million players have been banned from the service. That’s a pretty incredible number as Xbox Live only has 20 million subscribers. That means that approximately 1 in 20 players has been banned, or roughly 5 percent of the service’s total population.
The ban coincided with the release of Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on Tuesday, and many are speculating that the rampant piracy of the game before its release triggered Activision to demand action from Microsoft. Pirated copies were widely floating around torrents sites over the weekend, and players with modified consoles may have taken it out for a spin ahead of release.
Banned machines are showing up on eBay and elsewhere, often without warning they are banned machines.
32,
aWW, I see you know Steam..
Its a nice thing, EXCEPT..
try to play a game WITHOUT STEAM.
Try HL2. HL2 ep 1, ep2..WITHOUT steam.
Its a very good idea and great for smaller companies to get their CREDIT. AND those small companies can make GOOD money, WITHOUT going thru the BIG COMPANIES.. But STEAM still gets money. THEY are becoming 1 of the BIG companies.
Go look at the PS3, and the 360..
STEAM and a few others, are fighting over the PC platform. and HOW to make a SOLE(SINGLE) distribution system.
See, IF someone can make a FULL FLEDGED, online distribution system, EVERYONE ELSE has to use them. THEN they can write their OWN check.
At 50 years old, I have SEEN whats happening.
reseller makes $10-20 PER $50 software sale.
$30 left
$10 goes to shipping and handling and distribution. CLOSED LOOP distribution. its hard getting to EACH of the places and ASK EACH of the stores to sell your product.
$20 left
$10 goes to adverts and PRINT adverts and ONLINE adverts and NEWS of the release.
$10 left
THAT is what the ORIGINAL company that MADE the game gets.
Look up ATARI. They are no longer a SOFTWARE maker..They BUY it from the makers, PAY THEM OFF. then OWN it and do all the rest.
Look at EA, they are doing the SAME THING as Atari.
The BIG business is in DISTRIBUTION.
IF another company can setup an ONLINE system, it will CUT COSTS by 66%, and increase profit by 200%. but for WHOM?
ONLY of the MAKER makes a DEAL with steam, will they make GOOD money.