In it’s lifetime the xbox 360 has had its fair share of problems.  From disk drive errors to the red ring of death the Xbox 360 certainly hasn’t been the poster child of a quality product.  More recently, Microsoft has begun banning modified consoles.  This ban removes the Xbox 360 Live feature functionality.  With that said, when buying a 2nd hand Xbox 360 be it from Gamestop, Ebay, Craigslist or any other source there is yet another landmine to look out for.

Doing a bit of investigation (googling) it seems that the most popular way for these pirates to keep on pirating is by passing their banned consoles on to unsuspecting buyers.  For the most part those that have the technological savvy to modify the xbox 360 console to play pirated games, also have the technical savvy to fix the red ring of death, at least for a short enough time to sell it as working.  It has gained alot of publicity on the blogs and video game news sites as of recently but piracy has been on the xbox and xbox 360 for quite some time.  With all of the RROD’s that have occurred (* nearly 50% of all xboxes), it is not unfathomable to think that somewhere someone is playing an xbox that has been modified without there knowledge.  When purchasing an Xbox 360 2nd hand there is absolutely no way to tell whether the product has or hasn’t been modified.  It will play your games as it would normally, and without actually opening the xbox and reading the disk drive you cannot tell whether the drive has been “flashed” or not.  Now I am writing this because Major Nelson put out a statement regarding the recent bannings on his blog.  He states ” the health of the video game business depends on customers paying for genuine products and services they receive from manufacturers, retailers, and third parties that support them.”  I agree wholeheartedly with this statement.  However, my personal experience in the matter boils down to a friend of mine who was recently console banned who just recently purchased her xbox 360 2nd hand.

With so many stories very similar to hers, it just doesn’t seem fair that the innocent are the ones being persecuted for the wrongs of the few.  See, she purchased her 360 from someone on Craigslist only a short period of time ago, and the bad part is she only saved $50 dollars or so.  The decision of Microsoft to not address security vulnerabilities of their own product shouldn’t be passed on to the customers like her.  If you do not follow video game news you will likely not know any of this even exists.  The large majority of players and new players for that matter are casual gamers with little to no concern for industry news or goings on.  I know for a fact that this holiday season she will be firing up a PS3 and not a Microsoft product  because of this.  Microsoft’s answer “it’s the consumers responsibility” when indeed it is not. Well that may sound good and all to you now.  People are not going to go out of there way to make  sure a console that you created, has not been modified if they have no way of doing so.  They will just move on to their second choice and what may seem like a better alternative with less hassle.

Craigslist is not the only place to purchase a bricked or banned console.  Gamestop, a major corporation has also reportedly been flooded with banned, and bricked consoles.  Reporting that about 15% of all Xbox 360’s that are traded in actually get refurbished. Even if they were refurbished there is no way to remove a console ban. Eventhough it is a bit safer to purchase from Gamestop with the ability to return an item, whats to say that a console you buy hasn’t been flagged for banning in the next wave from Microsoft 6 months down the line.  So the end result is that you should only buy new consoles….Well isn’t that convenient. Can I get a holiday sale increase Hallelujah.  Forget traditional means of advertising and promotion lets just ban consoles.  Though in many ways it’s wrong, it’s the only method of combating piracy?  It seems that there should be more levels of accountability other than to just ban consoles that have been modified.   But that would cost money, not increase it.

I mean this article may come off as pro piracy and I want to clear this up, I in no way shape or form condone that practice.  It just pisses me off, knowing someone in this situation, and hearing stories of others like her.  I love my 360, and compared with friends I have had little to no problems with my first generation xbox and I play a ton of games on it.  So, alot of the technical issues don’t really hit home the way that it would a person who has had to send in their box 3-4 times on warranty.  I have no reservations about recommending the Xbox 360 as a console, or Xbox Live as a service because I enjoy both very much. But the moral wrong of passing the blame of a problem that was created by you, is unjust.  So, in your Holiday shopping Buy New, there’s no alternative!…. Hey that could be Microsoft’s new ad campaign.