Microsoft disconnected 600 thousand gamers from the Xbox Live service who violated the user agreement

Microsoft is again disconnecting violating gamers from the Xbox Live service, Infox.ru reports with reference to the British broadcasting corporation BBC .

The accounts of more than 600 thousand users have been blocked. Microsoft says it has disabled a small portion of its more than 20 million service accounts. The accounts of gamers who modified the firmware of their consoles have been disabled. After such an operation, the console allows you to run both games and programs not officially distributed by Microsoft, as well as pirated versions of games.

As a result of the blocking, users on the blacklist lost the ability to connect to the Xbox Live service and install games on the console’s hard drive. All other functions remained intact.

The online publication In Entertainment reports that the blocked users live in the USA, Canada and European countries.

The so-called “waves of bans” among console users take place around the world several times a year, as Anna Sashko, editor of the official Russian community of users of the Xbox 360 Xbox Russia console, told the publication, and the current wave (autumn) is quite expected, there was a similar wave of bans in last year and the years before last.

Shutdowns do not occur as a violation is detected by any player, but rather in waves, when there are many such players (thousands). As a rule, a wave of bans can last a week or two.

Russian players, despite the official absence of Xbox Live in Russia, still use the service, simply choosing the country in which it is officially provided when registering. So among the blocked users there are probably a considerable number of Russian citizens. Moreover, the problem of flashing consoles, according to Anna Sashko, is “more than relevant” for the Russian Federation.

A licensed game in Russia costs more than in the West - about 2 thousand rubles, which is one of the reasons for piracy. In Russia, according to Xbox Russia's own data, about 200 thousand consoles from Microsoft have been sold. According to Anna Sashko, this is 49% of all game consoles sold in the Russian Federation.