The Xbox forums are abuzz that an apparently large number of people were squashed by the banhammer today on Xbox Live. Microsoft has in the past banned the consoles of users who modify their consoles, play pirated games, cheat in online games, or rack up a large number of complaints. Before you get to feeling too badly for those people who had their consoles banned, see this post at Xbox Scene and realize that the banhammer only struck those who were running unauthorized software on their Xbox 360. Although the homebrew and pirating community on the Xbox 360 is relatively small because of the difficulty in modding an Xbox 360, there are still thousands of people who do it. I am aware the applications of custom firmware could be innocent and for homebrew, however, everyone knew the risk that was involved when they modded their console. All current custom firmware requires hardware tinkering, and there are no known software only exploits, so you really seem to have to be determined to mod your Xbox. Additionally, I would surmise that 99% of the people who did this did so to play free games.

The clincher to me is the reactions to users on Xbox Scene, including calling the Xbox manufacturer “Microsuck”. If they sucked so bad, why are you pirating their games, huh?

There are some people on the Xbox forums (most threads on the matter are disappearing) who claim they have done no wrong and Microsoft has no reason to ban them, and while its possible that some people may have become collateral damage, I imagine that “I am innocent!” would be the first thing I’d say if I got caught with my pants down, too.

Xbox Scene via Kotaku