Microsoft: "It wasn't a million" bans
Reports of modders' demise exaggerated.
Microsoft's Marc Whitten, general manager of Xbox Live, has denied the recent reports that Microsoft banned one million modded 360s from the online service.
"We didn’t release the number. I cannot explain to you why people would think it was a million people. It wasn’t a million people," Whitten told VentureBeat. "Check the veracity of that claim. It was one news source."
That source was InformationWeek, which said two weeks ago that Microsoft banned "as many as one million" consoles that had been modified to play pirate games from Live. The claim was widely repeated, including by the BBC.
Whitten also discusses the recent launch of Facebook and the boost to Xbox Live subscribers and concurrent players provided by Modern Warfare 2. "Modern Warfare 2 was phenomenal. Those guys at Infinity Ward are amazing. It pushed us into the record," he said.