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Friday, November 13, 2009

Games Microsoft Accidentally Makes Xbox 360 More Affordable

Posted by The Stranger Testing Department on Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 11:27 AM

If you're looking for a cheap Xbox 360 and don't care about online features, Microsoft's recent decision to ban about a million (that's 10⁶, not a figure of speech) users from Xbox Live for hacking their consoles has led to a glut on Craigslist and elsewhere. It shouldn't be too hard to pick up a warranty-free box loaded with games for considerably less than the $200 or so you'd pay for a new, game-free console. That also means there are jackasses out there trying to pass off their modded discards as the real thing, so caveat the shit out of your purchasing decisions.

Microsoft said it's all about piracy, and while that's certainly a factor, they couldn't be too upset to see mods that help gamers cheat go down as well. Unfortunately, some of the banned consoles were modded only to permit homebrewed or foreign games. It seems oafish to ban them along with the pirates and cheaters, but MS has never shied away from oafishness when it comes to exerting control over their market. When is Google going to bust out with an open-source gaming console?

The Stranger Testing Department is Rob Lightner and Paul Hughes.

Comments (18) RSS

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Don't these things turn blue and stop working on a regular basis? Are you sure you want one without a warranty?

Posted by Fnarf

on November 13, 2009 at 12:53 PM

This is actually good news for the 20 million XBox live users who do not cheat and do not illegally download games.

Posted by Mattini on November 13, 2009 at 12:53 PM

@1 It's red, the red ring of death. Spooky!

Posted by Mattini on November 13, 2009 at 12:55 PM

Foreign games, sure, but what idiot is modding their console for homebrew when there's already a dev kit available that works on any normal Xbox?

Posted by Ben on November 13, 2009 at 1:06 PM

MAybe I'll last a little longer when playing BF1943 against thos meth-addled tween jerks on-line.

Posted by The Amazing Jim

on November 13, 2009 at 1:08 PM

Keep in mind that Microsoft not only banned those users but their XBOXes as well. So if you buy an XBOX that has been banned (modded or not) you won't be able to play anything on XBOX Live. Ever.

Read: http://gizmodo.com/5403544/now-is-a-bad-…

Posted by obamatron on November 13, 2009 at 1:11 PM

obamatron: that was kind of the point of the post.

Posted by Beetlecat on November 13, 2009 at 1:36 PM

@6: They actually only banned the Xboxes. The users can still connect with new, un-modded Xboxes.

Posted by Ben on November 13, 2009 at 1:59 PM

Wait, so they'll pay me NOT to use xBox Live?

Cool!

Posted by Will in Seattle

on November 13, 2009 at 2:22 PM

@9: you also won't be able to download patches or updates for games.

Posted by doceb on November 13, 2009 at 3:30 PM

True, but I would have to say that the Slog has never shied away from Slogishness either.

Posted by crazycatguy on November 13, 2009 at 3:35 PM

XBox Live is actually a great service, one of the best Microsoft provides. I could see them expanding it far beyond a gaming and Xbox-centric service to encompass overall media and content delivery, as well as features such as address book and email integration with the web-based Live (ex-Hotmail). It's a bit out of left field for their core business even today, but if I were a smart MS CTO I would be quietly shuffling money over to Live to strengthen that network's core infrastructure.

Posted by laterite on November 13, 2009 at 3:42 PM

I should qualify that by saying it's one of MS's best *consumer-side* services. Not being a developer, I have no firsthand interaction with, say, the MSDN, but I imagine it's fairly robust as well.

Posted by laterite on November 13, 2009 at 3:45 PM

@10 - you call them patches and features. I call them ad pr0n.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on November 13, 2009 at 3:54 PM

@14: the games ship with ads in them already. You aren't avoiding anything.

Posted by doceb on November 13, 2009 at 3:59 PM

Just play games on your PC. The only one you need anyway to kill all your spare time is World of Warcraft.

Posted by I have always been... east coaster on November 13, 2009 at 4:40 PM

MS does have a way to completely fry your XBox 360 remotely, so if you do pick up one of these, there is a chance that you're buying a very large, expensive-looking paperweight. They do it very rarely, but if you're buying one that's been banned for being modded, the chances are of course much, much higher.

Posted by Knat on November 13, 2009 at 11:20 PM