Banned Xbox Owners File Class Action Lawsuit
Last week we told you that Microsoft has banned hundreds of thousands of Xbox 360 owners who were using modded consoles, from Xbox Live.
Well it looks like the banned Xbox users are going to take Microsoft to court over the banning in a class action lawsuit.
As has been reported widely in the media, tens of thousands of Xbox owners have had their modified Xbox consoles banned from Microsoft’s online gaming service Xbox Live.
Although modification of Xbox consoles is *arguably* against the terms of use for Xbox/Xbox Live, Microsoft “conveniently” timed the Xbox console ban to coincide with the release of the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 game and less than two months after the release of the very popular Halo 3: ODST game.
This “convenient” timing may have resulted in more Xbox Live subscription revenues for Microsoft than it would have generated had these Xbox console bans taken place at some time before the release of Halo 3: ODST and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
A law firm called Abington Law is filing a class action lawsuit against Microsoft on behalf of banned Xbox owners, and they allege that Microsoft has waited until Halo 3: ODST and Call of Dty Modern Warfare 2 were released, which are two massively popular games, before they banned Xbox 360 owners.
It will be interesting to see how it turns out, but I suspect Microsoft may win this one.
via TFTS
November 20th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
They “cheat” with their console (DVD firmware upgrade to use DVD copies) and they are the ones who are filing a class action lawsuit now ??? Crazy guys !
buy a PS3, at least system firmware is hardened (no software crashes and no copies).
November 21st, 2009 at 6:42 pm
I love lawsuits like this that tie up the legal system just as much as the ones where burglars sue homeowners for being bitten by their guard dogs. Seriously… they broke the rules, they should deal with it.
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:52 am
[...] News by Roland Hutchinson Last week we told you that a law firm had decided to file a class action lawsuit against Microsoft for banning Xbox 360 owners from Xbox live who were using modded [...]
November 30th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
the whole deal with modding is so that you can backup your games, lets face it who wants to pay 60.00 for a game. then go trade it in for 25.00 The whole system is a friggin rip off….. maybe they should start giving a reasonable price for trade in on games and no one would pirate … oh yeah i forgot the game companies making million’s upon millions of dollars and the consumer getting the shaft … yeah. that ’s the real picture… the only reason m$ bans consoles is so you either have to buy a new one or you have to buy their games, they are scared they will miss out on a couple dollars… I hope everyone mod’s their consoles and xbox live goes out of business when they have no consoles on line… that would be great, maybe they would take a step back and look what they are doing to the community….ever think maybe some of the modder’s are just dirt poor and can’t afford to pay 60.00 for games… yeah, but m$ doesn’t care… i’m sure mr. Gates doesn’t have to decide between gas in the car or food on the table.
December 10th, 2009 at 1:40 am
These idiots and lawyers are doing this class action lawsuit for the wrong reasons.
You won’t win this case if you say MS did it due to timing because they think banned users are going to run out there and buy new xbox’s just to play certain games.
1. MS holds the right to ban consoles for several reasons. The problem is that they won’t give out the specific reason to the user who’s console has been banned. Here is where the issue lays. Once your account has been banned, you are entitled to receive a credit for the remaining portion of your live account. However the only way to qualify for this if it lays under a particular reason. However since MS doesn’t give out what the reason was that the console was banned, the consumer is not given the opportunity to claim the refund. In other words, MS HAS to give you a refund for the membership not used if you console was banned for a particular reason, but you won’t be given any reason as to why YOUR console was banned thus MS keeps the remaining money that the LIVE customer was entitled too.
December 22nd, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Unlucky guy i dont really need to worry about this because i was clever enough to read up about it before i modded my consle if these modders actually cared about there live play they would of atleast gave microsoft a challange by stealth patching all there games and also changing there dvd drives to hiatchi as these are alot harder to detect so really people dont be stupid as its your fault you got banned i know i will one day and when that day comes it wont really bother me because i am breaking the rules and its against the law to pirate so get over it. hiatchi 59dj will never be brought down !!!
January 24th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
for one thing unless they do something additionally only the console gets baned not the live account
they just cannot access live with the baned console
they just need to recover the account on another console
January 26th, 2010 at 9:08 am
Well, they should focus on the fact that banning console makes profiles corrupted reportedly and users can’t use their purchased downloaded contents. I think they can win on this more than the timing. the timing is not matter unless they prove fault . I just see it unfair , they you buy a used console, then it is banned because previous owner modded, but then you can’t play your purchased dlc, and profiles corrupted? wtf. this is unacceptable. banning from live is fine, making the device obsolete is not, forfeiting purchased software is not.