M$ a step ahead of Black Ops pirates....

With the release of Treyarch and Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops a mere 3 days away, millions of gamers the world over are rubbing their hands excitedly at the proposition of going online with the latest in this huge-selling franchise. But Microsoft too is rubbing its hands at the prospect of another record-breaking November for consoles sold, especially if last year is anything to go by.
You see it was about this time 12 months ago that Microsoft enforced a huge wave of Xbox 360 bans rendering the consoles of thousands of pirates essentially off-line only. And it was surely no coincidence that this happened merely days before the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
According to NPD figures, almost 900k Xbox 360s were sold in the US in November alone, with no doubt a large proportion of those sales being attributed to repeat buyers in desperate need of a Call of Duty fix.
The chances of Microsoft repeating this trick are looking extremely likely, particularly in light of the recent dashboard update that supposedly adds realtime DVD monitoring, a function aimed at detecting flashed firmwares. And this constant battle between Microsoft and the pirates is a real game of cat and mouse with Microsoft ultimately the winner as it wisely chooses to only bans consoles as opposed to completely alienating gamers by banning gamertags.
You only need look to YouTube or Justin.tv to see hundreds of videos of Black Ops' multiplayer games being played on live as we speak, with the pirates blatantly disregarding all consequences and doing whatever is required to get a head-start on those of us that have to wait until the official release date. So brace yourselves pirates your time will shortly be up. For now at least.
Have you ever been banned? Wrongfully or rightfully? We'd love to hear your stories.

Do they really not ban gamertags?

It's all money mate, If you ban the tag they are less likely to pick up a new console...

I dont blame them tbh, and being a clean cut gamer I have nothing to fear

Games for the most part now are soooo cheap (especially compared to years past) - I'm not too sure why anyone would pirate.....

it makes perfect financial sense to crash the console, it's free to set up a gt, hit the bastards where it hurts, their mums purses!

Got in from work this evening and my son couldnt wait tell me how cool nazi zombie mode is. Apparently he went to his friends after school and had a go. went nuts at him mainly cause he is to young to play but apparenty his friend has already had the game for a week. There not online though so no chance of a ban unfortunatly