The Xbox Live Enforcement and Policy team has been extremely busy this past week. With thousands of consoles banned and more coming, the pirate scene has been turned upside down. A scene that has taken extreme precaution to fly under the radar, came crumbling down. There's a lot of industry whispers claiming that Forza 3 was leaked by Microsoft in part of a modder sting operation. Stephen Toulouse, head of Xbox Live Enforcement and Policy via twitter stated that they can tell if you have a purchased copy or a burnt copy. In effort to catch hungry pirates, Microsoft released a tainted version of Forza 3 to snatch the unsuspecting pirates. We tried to get in contact with a representative at Xbox to respond to the claims and haven't received a response as yet.
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November 7, 2009 at 4:34 AM
Yes they did… I can confirm Forza 3’s community mananger Che , had been giving out so called “green” copies (review discs)
As soon as microsoft started banning gamertags, he stated “To everyone who i have given a green copy, please come to me with your gamertag, so you won’t get banned in the next wave”
There you have it.. They have banned gamertags that we’re playing retail discs.. better yet they have banned accounts that did not even have modified Xbox 360’s… All because of a review copy… Many legit players we’re banned but could MS care? no they can enforce anything they want on their service
November 7, 2009 at 12:18 PM
Oh come off it mate. If you had a legit copy of Forza 3 and got banned, get unbanned will not be an issue. I got my review copy of Forza 3 early from my Microsoft contact and yet I was not banned. Same with my friend FNF 115. Why, because we did mod our systems. The pirated versions and legit versions are not the same. The leaked version was different, thats how they caught pirates. Microsoft is doing what all console makers want to go do, making piracy extremely difficult. I think it is a good move on their part. Nintendo’s 4.2 update nullified and even bricked Nintendo Wii consoles with the infamous “homebrew” channel on it. Are they evil as well? Sony released the their new PSP model with digital distribution game support only to prevent piracy. Are they evil. Perhaps, pirates wish the fate of the Dreamcast in America on all systems.
November 7, 2009 at 6:02 PM
Not sure if this is true or not but i know someone who got banned the other day that has never played forza, and the last game he played was halo 3 and fallout 3, so it’s either able to detet older games or detect something else with the firmware.
November 9, 2009 at 6:25 AM
Create a game that can be copied, release to the people who will copy it. Bust the people for copying it. Sting.