Punch a Duck: Microsoft Goes On Banning Spree

Microsoft must have felt a ripple in the sales of games since they decided to ban almost around a million gamers from XBox Live. Most of the bans are due to breaking the Microsoft Terms Of Use through modding or pirating of games. Microsoft has said that the bans can be for a day, week, or permanently depending on the severity. Who knows how they will actually decide what the severity is going to be.

The Director of Programming told CNN.com that they were banned not only for modding, but for cheating too. I know that there has been a few times that during my online games of Halo 3 that there were some cheaters that all of a sudden disappear and I am shot in the back. This almost feels like sweet revenge! Larry Hryb has said,

"The Xbox Live team monitors players for not just cheating, but also for things like threats, racism, profanity, and just being an all around poor sport and ruining the game for others."

Then Microsoft also put out a direct statement,

"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."

But, I know one thing. There were probably a lot of sad gamers out there today especially with the new Call of Duty game that was just released. Now there are a million people that won't be able to play now.