Halo fan banned from Xbox Live until 10,000AD

Halo 3 fan gets hold of test build and later finds himself banned from Xbox Live for 7,992 years.

A Halo fan has been reportedly banned from Microsoft’s Xbox Live service until the end of the year 9,999 AD after he got his hands on a test build of the game.

The fan, who describes himself as an achievement whore and has a GamerScore of over 61,000, goes by the name “Scar”. He told GameSpot that he was given the Halo 3 Epsilon test build by a friend and used a glitch, known as the two-controller exploit, to get the game into his account.

“I downloaded it from Marketplace and played it for maybe six hours or so all alone,” he said.

After this period, it kicked him off Xbox Live every time he tried to play the test build and it wasn’t until the following morning that he found he had been banned.

Apparently, Scar isn’t the only one to have got hold of the game and been banned from Xbox Live – he says he knows of at least 10 others who have downloaded the game and been banned for the same period of time.

He has said that he will not appeal the ban, as other games that got hold of the Halo 3 Epsilon build have called support to appeal against the ban without any luck.

Reps from both Microsoft and Bungie haven’t officially commented on the 7,992-year bans, but sources have reportedly said the bans looked legit.

Do you think this is an unfortunate event or did the rogue gamer get what he deserved? Discuss in the forums.
Quote MilkMan5 10th September 2007, 13:19
LOL – this is funny.

What happens if they just register under a different name?

If I were M$ / Bungie Studios, I would be more concerned about how this happened, rather than banning people.
Quote Jack_Pepsi 10th September 2007, 13:22
Why is it available on the Marketplace if they don't want people to play it? Seems rather stupid to me.
Quote Andy Mc 10th September 2007, 13:22
What an idiot.

What did he expect to happen? M$ to reward his ingenuity at getting hold of something that he should not have?
Quote wuyanxu 10th September 2007, 13:25
at least 10 others?

god, i won't even remotely excited if i can hack to get Crysis test build. why are those people so desperate?
Quote ElThomsono 10th September 2007, 13:26
kYvZnTFpip0

Gotta admit, 10,000 AD was a nice touch
Quote naokaji 10th September 2007, 14:22
if you have something you shoudnt have you definitly deserve to get banned till the year 10000 if your dumb enough to show it off....

honestly... every little kid knows you usually hide what you shoudnt have.
Quote chrisb2e9 10th September 2007, 14:26
hahahaha, what a great way to start my day.
10,000 ad! Its like when people goto jail for a number of years that they cant possibly survive. Why not just say "for life"?
Quote dire_wolf 10th September 2007, 14:27
So he left his xbox connected to his net connection while he was running the test build? Lol

What would be more interesting to find out is where they found out about the controller exploit
Quote Bluephoenix 10th September 2007, 14:29
that vid just makes my day ;)
Quote Spacecowboy92 10th September 2007, 15:31
Quote:
Originally Posted by chrisb2e9
hahahaha, what a great way to start my day.
10,000 ad! Its like when people goto jail for a number of years that they cant possibly survive. Why not just say "for life"?

Because in legal terms, Life means 15 years or there abouts.
Quote mmorgue 10th September 2007, 15:51
No sympathy here. Playing with something he shouldn't have had and used something called the "two-controller exploit" ?? Moron...
Quote E.E.L. Ambiense 10th September 2007, 15:51
What an idiot. This is like allowing pirated software to ping the makers' servers. Not that I know anything about that.

Eh, 8K years should go by in a breeze if he's immortal.
Quote Stuey 10th September 2007, 16:12
Quote:
Originally Posted by ElThomsono
kYvZnTFpip0

Gotta admit, 10,000 AD was a nice touch

LOL, funny stuff right there, had to turn the volume down a bit though.
Quote zoom314 10th September 2007, 17:22
Of course now this person needs to find "the Time Machine" and go to the Year 10,001AD, That'll fix that, Of course by then Humans May be PCs and PCs might be human, In which case He'd be obsolete. ;)
Quote Vergil_117 10th September 2007, 17:27
If he was a halo fan he wouldn't be trying to exploit the system to play it. A real fan would wait for its release.
Quote 8igdave 10th September 2007, 18:07
Hes blatantly some geek who thought he was soooooo cooool lol.
Quote Tyinsar 10th September 2007, 18:12
Well, at least it's not a permanent ban
Quote EQC 10th September 2007, 18:28
isn't XBox Live a paid service? How does banning work then, I wonder? Do you get your money back? Can you pay more money to open a new account with a new name? Is the only real affect that he loses his achievement points when he switches to a new name?

I can't imagine Microsoft would actually want to permanently banish *paying* customers of their XBox 360 and XBox Live system. If the ban really does stop a person from playing online, and they really liked doing that, then they'll probably sell their console (which'll effectively cost Microsoft a sale of a *new* console). Or is it the console itself that is banned from the service...hmmm. So buying a new one might be the cure?
Quote sam.g.taylor 10th September 2007, 18:40
This is more of a publicity stunt than anything else - seeing as how we haven't received any word from MS or Bungie, then maybe after the game comes out they'll let the offenders back in as a gesture of goodwill. These people actually haven't harmed MS or Bungie at all and the ludicrous ban period just draws more attention to Halo 3.

At least I would. Under strict contract conditions, of course.
Quote Woodstock 10th September 2007, 19:21
Quote:
Originally Posted by EQC
isn't XBox Live a paid service? How does banning work then, I wonder? Do you get your money back? Can you pay more money to open a new account with a new name? Is the only real affect that he loses his achievement points when he switches to a new name?

I can't imagine Microsoft would actually want to permanently banish *paying* customers of their XBox 360 and XBox Live system. If the ban really does stop a person from playing online, and they really liked doing that, then they'll probably sell their console (which'll effectively cost Microsoft a sale of a *new* console). Or is it the console itself that is banned from the service...hmmm. So buying a new one might be the cure?

having never used live on the 360 i cant be sure, i know they used to ban the orginal xbox console (different cirrcumstance only ever read the theory), and if you read the ToS it will probably have something along the lines (PROBABLY) you must adhere to these rules, failure to do so will result in the locking/banning of your account
Quote Aankhen 10th September 2007, 20:04
It seems very unfair to ban the people using it rather than the ones who spread it in the first place.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyinsar
Well, at least it's not a permanent ban
*falls over laughing*
Quote righteous_slave 10th September 2007, 21:01
Does anyone notice the audacity of M$ to assume that they will still be around long enough to uphold that ban?
Quote themax 10th September 2007, 21:04
They deserved it. I wish Sony and Incognito had drop the ban hammer on the hundreds of people (and possible thousands but doubt it) that poured into the Warhawk beta uninvited. And then you got people trying to preach of the word of how uninvited guests to a beta is a good thing.
Quote DXR_13KE 10th September 2007, 22:07
he was asking for it.....
Quote The_Beast 10th September 2007, 22:19
haha sucks to be him
Quote Bungle 10th September 2007, 22:31
You cross the line, you take your chances. Bet he's whining something awful on the forums right now.
Quote DougEdey 10th September 2007, 22:34
Gotta love it when people say "Hey guys, I broke the rules and got to do something you can't!"

Then next minute:

"OMFG! I broke the rules and now I'm getting punished! How UNFAIR!"
Quote EQC 10th September 2007, 23:08
It would be clever if Halo 3 was supposed to take place in 10,000 AD...and these people were only really banned until the game made its official debut.
Quote fluxity 10th September 2007, 23:09
To the dude that said "it shouldn't be on the marketplace if they don't want people to download it", it's not on the marketplace, well, not to 99% of people. He recovered his friends tag and used the Download History to download it and then used the 2 controller glitch to attach it to HIS tag so he can go on it without signing on to his friends account first.

And to the person saying "as it's a paid service, will he get a refund". Of course not as he has broken the terms and conditions so they have the right to cut his subscription. Most likely because Bungie are close to Microsoft that he got banned from XBL rather than just Halo 3.

Thousands of brits have used the controller glitch to get the CoD4 early, Infinity ward just banned people from the beta rather than XBL. People did that with the Halo 3 beta also but i don't think Bungie cared about that.
Quote docodine 10th September 2007, 23:41
Quote:
Originally Posted by EQC
It would be clever if Halo 3 was supposed to take place in 10,000 AD...and these people were only really banned until the game made its official debut.

Well, according to the novels it's set around the year 2550, so that's not likely. Pretty funny what they did though.

(The banned kids) Haha, banned? Probably for like two we- 7992 YEARS? WHAT THE HELL? :(
Quote Breach 11th September 2007, 01:31
Quote:
Originally Posted by EQC
isn't XBox Live a paid service? How does banning work then, I wonder? Do you get your money back? Can you pay more money to open a new account with a new name? Is the only real affect that he loses his achievement points when he switches to a new name?

I can't imagine Microsoft would actually want to permanently banish *paying* customers of their XBox 360 and XBox Live system. If the ban really does stop a person from playing online, and they really liked doing that, then they'll probably sell their console (which'll effectively cost Microsoft a sale of a *new* console). Or is it the console itself that is banned from the service...hmmm. So buying a new one might be the cure?

That is why you have to read the fine print in the ULA...Im pretty sure exploiting XBox Live to load a beta release of the most anticipated XBox game ever is covered in there somewhere.
Quote Hazer 11th September 2007, 03:55
You dont wank-off in front of the PoPo;
You dont pull a gun in an airport;
You dont smoke weed outside the DEA building;
You dont play unreleased material on the MS sponsored network.

The ban probably tagged the consoles unique internal ID as well as apply to the user account. He will have to get another XBOX and user account at most.

I truly dont feel sorry for the idiot. He was smart enough to download it, and smart enough to use an exploit to run it.

"Hmm.....this really looks and smells illegal, but I think I'll play it on the most monitored paid subscription service on the internet anyway.............What, they banned me?????" -pulls thumb out of ass-

I dont support MS or XBOX in anyway, I just hate stupid people more.
Quote JaredC01 11th September 2007, 04:32
I can't speak on the Halo 3 matter, but modified 360's were banned by serial number of the console. Not sure about the user account though (but i can't imagine they could ban the user if they were playing on a friends xbox). This is a different matter though.
Quote Rebourne 11th September 2007, 05:07
Pshhhh... It's still worth it!
Quote naokaji 11th September 2007, 10:24
Quote:
Originally Posted by Breach
That is why you have to read the fine print in the ULA...Im pretty sure exploiting XBox Live to load a beta release of the most anticipated XBox game ever is covered in there somewhere.

wrong...

you dont have to read it...

every eula for online services says they can revoke your right to use it and that they can refuse any business with you without ever having to give a reason.
Quote pendragon 11th September 2007, 18:46
ha! as my friend said, "that guy got owned!". Good riddance.
Quote Aankhen 12th September 2007, 09:00
Quote:
Originally Posted by pendragon
ha! as my friend said, "that guy got owned!". Good riddance.
"Good riddance"? What in the world are you talking about?! Try and remember what happened: he isn't a suicide bomber, nor someone who's stealing credit card numbers, and he's not molesting little kids. All he did was play some unreleased code.

The amount of self-righteousness people are displaying over this is rather sickening. Get off your bloody high horses.
Quote DougEdey 12th September 2007, 09:01
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aankhen
"Good riddance"? What in the world are you talking about?! Try and remember what happened: he isn't a suicide bomber, nor someone who's stealing credit card numbers, and he's not molesting little kids. All he did was play some unreleased code.

The amount of self-righteousness people are displaying over this is rather sickening. Get off your bloody high horses.

He broke the rules, he got punished. What's the problem?
Quote Woodstock 12th September 2007, 09:09
Quote:
Originally Posted by DougEdey
He broke the rules, he got punished. What's the problem?

i thought none
Quote gjbstar3 15th July 2008, 07:34
That ****in guy talkin bout him not being a suicide bomber or a ****in Micheal Jackson, not deserving what he got and what not is a ****ing moron. Its not like he was sent to jail or some **** he was only banned from xbox live. Whoopty ****in' do. He deserved to get banned. I realise that this is nearly a year after the fact but some people really ****in piss me off.
Quote gjbstar3 15th July 2008, 07:35
stupid ****in stars
Quote The_Pope 15th July 2008, 07:39
Welcome to the bit-tech Forums mate - we don't allow that sort of language
Quote Cthippo 15th July 2008, 08:02
Yeah, talking like that will get you banned until 9999AD as well :p

on the OT, I'm siding with the guy who hacked it. It didn't cost MS anything, generated some hype for them, and they're being childish by banning him. Just my $.02
Quote korben 17th July 2008, 14:18
A bit like the Italian courts, sentencing people to 4000 years in jail. At least they have a chance for parole after 3/4 served ;)
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