Microsoft Permabans Forza 3 Pirates, Makes Warez Kiddies Cry

"You know, when you play a pre-release title on LIVE when I know you shouldn't have it, it's not hard for me to figure out. #forza3hammertime"

-Stephen Toulouse, via Twitter

MS is handing out account bans (not console bans) so those getting banned also loose all DLC/arcade purchases tied to said account.

Makes you wonder if MS suspected that the Forza leak would happen and prepared a special image, knowing it would get stolen. Now it's stupid easy for enforcement to track those with a warezed copy.

-hl718

 

Ha Ha!

This isn't the first time Microsoft has done this though, Halo 3 piraters also got banned a couple years back.

 

Fallout 3 piraters got banned too last year.

 

I got 2 calls last night from my friends at 1am practically :crying: to me that their accounts were banned..... but they had it coming to emm :shrug:

 

People simply don't learn...

I'll use Newton's third law on this:

"To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction".

What about Murphy's law:

"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."


So, well done MS.

 

Happened with ODST a few weeks ago too, didnt it? At least with the original Xbox you couldnt play on Live (bar the same firmware hack that could be done on the 360)

 

Nice arrogant statement, considering legitimate people who had a disc got banned as well, which angered them, and caused drama because 1800-4MY-XBOX wouldn't do crap. Took them a bit before being unbanned.

This is a stupid move anyways, no where in the ToS or CoC did it state playing games early is breaking any rules.. And now they just decide to throw permabans instead of warning people.

 

Ouch people are getting hit for legitimate copies? I thought they said there werent issues with that.

 

According to MS the only people getting bans are those who are playing warezed copies.

Legit buyers with final, retail discs are being left alone says the Live team.

Which makes me wonder if the "leaked" images were from non-final check discs. This is what happened with the Saints Row 2 leak if you recall. Just because an XEX is retail coded doesn't always mean it is final.

If that's the case it's stupid easy for Microsoft to know if a console is running the leaked code because it'll have a different checksum. There are a few other things that MS could be doing, but I'd say that this is the most likely.

-hl718

 

I'm sorry if you think that was an arrogant statement. I wasn't trying to be like that, but i do have my opinions.

I don't support piracy, although in some places it's the game companies fault. I don't judge people who use piracy, but if something goes wrong when they do it, it's their own fault. No one was forced to play it.

Remember that i live in Brazil, where original games and consoles are taxed 72% or more by the government. For example, an original new release for Xbox360 cost from 189 till 269 Reais (that's from 111 till 158 dollars). Most people that buy a Xbox360 around here, plays pirated games.

Still, on this generation of consoles, with pratically fulltime online connectivity, people should think twice before playing pirated games (specially knowing that Microsoft already banned people before).

If people got banned because a mistake, by playing before the official release, it's Microsot job to fix it (If they don't, sue them). Also, it's the game store fault, by not respecting Microsoft guidelines.

 

x

 

I agree fully, it is their fault. You pirate games, and don't support the company, and get caught, you deserve it.. But to say..

..to me is wrong, considering I know someone who got banned when he had a legitimate disc, which could have cost him all his DLC considering MS doesn't like to listen much, and already moved a legitimate guys topic, so he had to get in contact with a friend at Microsoft to get it reversed.

There's nothing for people to learn, when they're innocent, have been given something by Microsoft/Turn10, and then are hit by them, and no one wants to listen.

And it's not so much Retailers fault that other people who played early got banned for "illegitimate pre-release discs." Microsoft's amazing @Stepto should stop being so damn cocky about him banning people when he's hitting the wrong damn people.

Also arrogant was probably the wrong word to use for that sentence. I meant to express that your close minded to think that everyone that was hit had something to learn, but arrogant has a bad connotation. My apologies for that.

Also Druid II lol.

 

:nod: :lol:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR8SkOhKG9Y

Well, before i made that statement i didn't knew it happened with people with the legitimate disc.

In that case, i'm truly sorry :thumbsup: But you understood that my comment was directed to people with pirated copies. Anyway, any news about your friend's account? MS unbanned it? Did the store sold the game before it was meant to do?

 

Umm ok well banning a live account is one thing if your trying to use live with a dodgy game however i think this is out of order. Are they just stopping users who paid for this content from re-downloading it or have they made the content stop working on the console as well. Either way i think its a step too far and is not a good sign for digital content.

Imagine a record company deleting all your paid for mp3's if they found a dodgy on your itunes account.

 

It's fine. And now I know that you were unaware.

He is supposed to get unbanned..

And he didn't get it from a store. But it wasn't illegitimate.

There's a lot of people banned, if you go to http://xbox-scene.com you'll see lol.

 

On the one hand I can see why you'd think about banning people playing a game way before the street date. Forinstance Gears of War 2 had thousands of players on about a month before the street date! I imagine 0.0001% were legit discs and the rest were all pirates. I can see then why you'd ban accounts that played the game but only if you are certain that there are no legit people that you let have the game that early.

But if you don't know how to separate the two then don't do stupid shit. Although maybe they tell people that are allowed to have the game before the street date not to sign onto live with it before the release date or something.

Can't say I really care either way though.

 

Well it would suck to get account banned, but most people that have the game are pirates and get what they deserve. Hitting a few legit users is acceptable in my opinion to get the hundreds or thousands of pirates. For those that were legit it might take some time but they should be able to get unbanned. Personally I prefer the console bans, because with them you shouldn't have to worry about the red ring of death when you get a new console every year, haha.

 

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^^^According to the email I received from GAME this morning Forza3 has been sent, there's a postal strike due here in the U.K, so this will no doubt delay things, but even so, it's bound to arrive before the release date of the 23rd, the risk of a ban, for playing a game I bought and paid for, puts me off playing the game early though, such a shame.

 

It's less then a week away you should be fine once you receive that game. In most cases your should be fine to play the game now, since it's only 5 days away, the games are being shipped out to retailers and game stores, and rental places now so all should be well.

 

And it was only the NTSC users being banned anyway, heh.