Uh oh, hope you weren't modded.
Are you not a very serious gamer? Not much of an online player? Just a player not looking to pay a whole lot for their Xbox 360? Well if you fit one of the above, you may have just hit the jackpot.
Recently, Microsoft decided to ban up to 1 million players and their xbox’s from Xbox Live for altering, or modding, their Xbox 360’s to play illegal pirated version of games. Many of the owners of these Xboxs owned them only for online play, so now that they have lost that, they are putting their Xboxs on craigslist, cheap.
While a new Xbox 360, arcade version, the lowest of the lowest when it comes to Xbox’s, sells for around $200 with the bare minimum included, you may find a modded Xbox with multiple games on it on Craigslist for as low of a price as $100. Granted, the Xbox 360 Arcade may be able to play online while the modded system can’t, but other then that, there are very few differences in the two. Also, with the modded system, you will have to get used to the fact that you are playing pirated games, something that may not sit well with some people.
Searching New York’s Craigslist for “modded Xbox” results in about 87 listings. A search of “modded xbox” on the Bay Area’s Craigslist comes up with around 35 listings that were posted in the last three days. Many of these systems including games, movies, and other perks you may not find elsewhere.
One listing, labeled “banned/modded” Xbox 360, included 20 gigabyte hard drive, 20 High Definition movies, and 13 games including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Madden 2010, NBA 2K10, and others. It also reads, “Everything works perfectly, the 360 was treated better than I treat most people.” This seller didn’t aim to trick people though, they included details such as “since the console is banned, you will not be able to connect to the Xbox Live service. Therefore, this posting is for those of you who don’t care if you can play online or not.”
The bans will not stop many gamers though, including Kevin, a 29 year old from Manhattan.”I logged in, tried to play a game online, and it said I had been banned from the service for violating the terms of service,” Kevin, who wouldn’t give his last name, said. “I cursed, put my controller down, cursed Microsoft, and then bought another Xbox.” The Xbox he bought was from Craigslist, from a seller not as honest as the previous listing I had written about. Kevin bought a system listed as unmodified, but when he attempted to log onto Xbox Live, he realized this was a lie, as this system had been banned too.
On a positive note, it seems to only be the modded systems that have been banned, as most banned user’s gamertags are still intact.
Microsfot released a statement to CNET News, suggesting that players who buy used Xboxes should beware that the company doesn’t necessarily stand behind the consoles.
“If you purchase a modified console second-hand, the warranty is not transferable and the purchaser assumes the risk for any previous modifications,” the Microsoft statement said. “If you purchase a console that has been previously banned, you will not be able to connect to (Xbox) Live.”
“Well, the holidays are around the corner,” Kevin said. “They know what they’re doing when it comes to making money.”
Are you interested in creating and playing backups or pirated versions of games on your Xbox 360 games? Check out the best program, Game Copy Wizard, I use it, and it rocks. Quite simple.
