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[Xbox-Scene]

A Post from Stepto Regarding Console Suspensions Posted by XanTium | September 24 21:41 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From majornelson.com: Hi everyone, Stephen Toulouse here, "Stepto" on Xbox LIVE and the weekly Major Nelson Radio podcast.  Most of you know me as the head of the Policy and Enforcement team for Xbox LIVE. As I have noted many times on the podcast, the enforcement team exists to help protect the LIVE experience. One of the ways we do that is to prevent consoles from accessing the service that are involved in bad behavior such as cheating, fraud, running unauthorized software on the service, or playing illegitimate copies of games (to name a few). For the vast majority of our actions, our team reviews a lot of data, examines the behavior, and then we take action.  In some cases, very rarely, we use software features on the Xbox itself to help us take action. Recently, it was brought to our attention that a number of customers had concerns about the validity of a recent ban of their individual consoles, which they feel had been triggered inaccurately. In this case, the bans were related specifically to modded consoles. I take these claims very seriously, and after an initial investigation we have confirmed that a handful of banned consoles did in-fact appear to not have been modified or tampered with. We’re still conducting our review but the cause appears to be a software issue, not an error on the part of the enforcement team’s normal actions.  It’s very specific and occurred between August 29 and September 9, affecting a very small percentage of users. One of the most serious actions my team can take is to prevent a console from accessing Xbox LIVE.  We make every effort to be conservative when taking that action. If there is any doubt that this step was taken incorrectly, we want to address it while at the same time protecting the service for our customers. Therefore, while we are still conducting a thorough investigation, the enforcement team is taking the step of reversing the bans for the tiny set of impacted consoles in that time period. Again, while it’s an extremely small percentage of impacted consoles, the good news is that we know exactly which ones. If you believe you are affected, simply try to reconnect your console to Xbox LIVE.  If it cannot still connect, that console was not a part of this issue. Within a few business days, we will issue the primary account holder on the impacted console a credit for three months of Xbox LIVE Gold and 1600 Microsoft points.  Since we know exactly who is affected, those customers do not need to take any action.  Everything will be applied automatically. No keys or tokens to redeem, no other action to be taken. I’d like to take a moment to personally apologize for the inconvenience this has almost certainly caused to the affected customers. You have my assurance that we are investigating how this error occurred and have since discontinued use of the software that was used. The Xbox LIVE community is the best out there and we regret the inconvenience this may have caused for our loyal members. If you listen to our podcast (and I know many hundreds of thousands of you do!) you know I give out my email address in every episode.  I read all the email there, and it’s [email protected].  Please feel free to give me your feedback. If you feel you have been affected by this situation, be sure to use www.xbox.com/support/contact so we can get you to the appropriate people to help. As always, you guys are the reason I come into work every day.  Thank you so much for making Xbox LIVE an amazing community and I look forward to hearing from you.

[tomgreen99200]

I wonder what the issue was that caused the false positive and how MS can identify it. Long article with none of the good stuff.

[Grim187]

QUOTE

the tiny set of impacted consoles

so, 10,000?

CODE

[email protected]

[joliverio]

Great, seems M$ is losing control on detecting users "involved in bad behavior"  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[X4life3]

It seems like C4E may have been right about being able to be flagged from a scratched disk.

[danthaman673]

I would hazard a guess it might have been to do with either the 'non-JTAG' BS/pirated content floating about whereby some ppl thought it was a great idea to post a bunch of content with their (or a) accompanying profile on P2P calling it 'non-JTAG' (at least I think that's how it works as I steer clear of that type of thing) often bought with dodgy/manufactured point-codes. Surprise surprise they got banned (eventually) I'm not entirely sure how it affects the rest of the 'live community' but it definately wouldn't be the first time they banned a bunch of innocents inadvertently during one of their 'ban-waves'

It could also be timings etc.. Scratched disc wouldn't account for them 'knowing' who was incorrectly banned etc..   If anyone has more info on this pls let us know as this is very interesting... BTW Where the hell are these podcasts? Link anyone?  This is news to me ;-)

EDIT: It's just MJ's podcast, I read that wrong 'doh'  ...  I guess on one hand it would be cool to listen to stepto's podcast, it would suck if he had enough material to keep-alive a monthly podcast though.... I had no-idea he did guest-spots.. Guess I might have to start listening to MJ's

This post has been edited by danthaman673: Sep 25 2011, 08:44 AM

[tjdonogh]

QUOTE(X4life3 @ Sep 25 2011, 04:38 PM)

It seems like C4E may have been right about being able to be flagged from a scratched disk.

 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

Well I was one of these people that had been banned the only thing I did wrong was rent games that where scratched ran xval after the ban failed ap 25 But I am now unbanned very happy  been on all day today. Still waiting for my 3 months extra and the points promised wont be disappointed if they don't show up in my account.

Tim

[pif001]

QUOTE(tjdonogh @ Sep 25 2011, 10:23 AM)

Well I was one of these people that had been banned the only thing I did wrong was rent games that where scratched ran xval after the ban failed ap 25 But I am now unbanned very happy  been on all day today. Still waiting for my 3 months extra and the points promised wont be disappointed if they don't show up in my account.

Tim

So it was AP25 related issues...!

[tekdelorean]

My gamertag was banned recently for what I assume was the "non-jtag" exploit, but what stepto is talking about is console bans?Let's not confuse the two.

[tjdonogh]

QUOTE(pif001 @ Sep 25 2011, 08:18 PM)

So it was AP25 related issues...!

 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

I am not sure but xval indicates on the one machine that got banned that it failed the ap25 check but the other 2 machines in the house were all clear. My one that got banned was one I had problems with black ops that I rented from the local video store. When I checked the disc it looked like the console had been move when the disc was still in it. I did this myself with alan wake wrecked the disc was not happy with myself. Other than that time I have no problems  with any other discs that I can remember and I have this console since brand new. Little disappointed that there has been no contact from MS$ to let people know they have been unbanned, Luck I found the post last night otherwise I was going out to buy a new one today and would have wasted $450 for nothing. Will be intrested to see how long it will take MS$ to honour there promise of the 3 months live and points. I had not bothered to contact MS$ about the problem as from what I read it was a waste of time.

Tim

[brandogg]

Microsoft won't waste the time and effort to notify the people, which is pretty messed up because of a lot of them are probably kids that don't read sites like majornelson.com. Also keep in mind that a "very small percentage" could be anything. Even 1 million users would be a "very small percentage."

[360player]

My modded elite with 1.91 was banned from this as well as a friend of mines MW2 console that had never been opened up. I was pretty sure that mine was banned because I put in a copy of need for speed with the old ap25 sector so it came up as a dirty disc error. My friends MW2 box gave him a dirty disc error a couple times when he tried to play an original black ops disc.
 I got an email last night saying that they are crediting me with the 3 extra months of gold live and 1600 points so I told my friend and he tried his xbox again and now his is working again. I already got rid of my xbox because I thought it was banned for good so that kinda sucks.
 I'm now running an old sammy xbox that can't do ap25 checks just to make things easier for myself but I do miss the HDMI a little.

[alwaysonjohn]

3 months and 1600 points is a slap in the face for those users that bought a new console because the banning process is irreversible and they were told by Microsoft (1-800-4-my-xbox) that it is their fault and there is nothing they can do.  complete bs.  they owe these guys a heck lot more (maybe vouchers for the mw3 xbox with game so they can sell it and get money back).

[amanchin]

Did anyone get this email?  I got this yesterday.

"Greetings,

We have identified a software issue that may have impacted your Xbox 360 console and its ability to access Xbox LIVE. If you have received a console suspended message from August 29, 2011 to September 9, 2011, you may have been impacted by this issue. Please attempt to reconnect your console to Xbox LIVE and you should no longer receive the message.

We apologize for the inconvenience this has probably caused you, and we are applying a three month Xbox LIVE Gold credit automatically to your account over the next few business days. In addition, 1600 Microsoft Points will also be deposited into your Xbox LIVE Gold account. You need take no action as these items will be applied automatically.

The Xbox LIVE Enforcement team works to help make Xbox LIVE a safe and enjoyable experience for our customers. We very much regret this issue occurred and we hope to see you again on the service.

If you have any further questions or concerns please contact us at www.xbox.com/support/contact.

Thank you,
Xbox LIVE Enforcement Team"

[Mehtevas]

My son got banned on the first day they did it.. He's never booted an AP 2.5 game period. So it's not AP 2.5 related. But he did get unbanned.