Are you one of the 1 million gamers that was recently banned from XBOX Live? Too bad, says the BBC. You’ll need to buy a new system.

From the BBC:

Microsoft said barring gamers was part of an ongoing drive to curb piracy.
But a statement from them suggests this latest wave was timed to prevent people from playing pirated versions of the widely-anticipated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
“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,” the firm said.
Microsoft said that it had banned a “small percentage” of the 20 million Xbox Live users worldwide.

We’ve heard from at least one reader who says he did not mod his console and got banned anyway. Microsoft says this is impossible:

“We do not reveal specifics, but can say that all consoles have been verified to have violated the terms of use,” the firm said in a statement.
It said that gamers who had been barred were using their modified consoles to “play illegally pirated games”.
“We believe that even one modified console on the system is one too many”.

Do you believe the system for detecting modded boxes is perfect? Or are some innocent people getting banned?

Xbox console ban is ‘permanent’ [BBC] (Thanks, chiieddy!)
(Photo:Hanspecans)