Friday 20-Nov-2009 4:00 PM Xbox Live manager hints much smaller figure, but lawsuit is launched against MS
Get ready to pull your jaw back off the floor. It seems the recent dramatic headlines of ‘One-Million Xbox Live Users Banned’ may have been over-dramatic, according to Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten. In an interview for Venturebeat, the Microsoft man said that the numbers of gamers banned for using modded consoles was nowhere near a million.
Whitten said: “We didn’t release the number [of one-million banned modders]. I cannot explain to you why people would think it was a million people. It wasn’t a million people. Check the veracity of that claim. It was one news source.”
So there you have it, it seems there’s been a bit of Sunday Paper-esque tabloid-ery, that consequently ripped through the industry like wildfire. As Whitten implies, the actual figure of people banned would seem to be a lot smaller than those original reports. Meanwhile, in further developments, the Boutique law firm Abington IP has launched a lawsuit against Microsoft, accusing the giant of delaying the Xbox Live bans until AFTER the release of AAA titles such as Halo 3: ODST and Modern Warfare 2.
It believes it wanted to secure maximum new Live subscriptions before punishing owners of modded machines. It’s asking banned Xbox Live subscribers who didn’t get refunded, to lend their names to the cause.
The site reads: ”If you are an Xbox Live subscriber, had your modified Xbox console banned from Xbox Live, were not refunded a prorated sum for the time left on your subscription or have experienced other problems as a result of being banned, and would like to participate in a class action against Microsoft, please submit your information below.”
Which on both sides, makes for very interesting reading, especially as the lawsuit seems to be encouraging ’suspected game pirates’ to counter-punish Microsoft for its own questionable dealings. Doesn’t it? Thoughts please!
