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23,000 XBLA Users Locked-Out for Using COD 4 Beta Exploit

A 'slap on the wrist' is all they get... this time

Sep 6, 2007 08:27 GMT  ·  By
Thinking of using a crowbar? Better sit still, you don't want a permanent ban, now do you?
   Thinking of using a crowbar? Better sit still, you don't want a permanent ban, now do you?

This hasn't yet been confirmed but is looks like Microsoft has locked-out 23,000 XBLA users (for a certain given time), on the count of taking advantage of an exploit in Call of Duty 4 beta, which has now been resolved. According to Kotaku.com, the exploit enabled gamers to sign in on different machines, using their beta tokens of course, in order to download the beta once more. More recently though, this exclusive memo coming from an "internal Microsoft source" has made its appearance on Xbox-Scene:

Speaking about the Call Of Duty 4 Beta, the source reveals:

There was an exploit (it's been resolved), in the Call of Duty 4 beta. The public beta had 100k valid participants who qualified and were provided special tokens which allowed them to download the COD4 beta from Marketplace. There was an exploit that enabled valid beta participants to sign in with their accounts on a different machine, use their beta token and download the beta. The beta was then fully functional for any LIVE profile on that 2nd machine (even after the beta participant's account was removed). Approximately 23k consoles were used to take advantage of this exploit to illegitimately access the COD4 beta.

The exploit has been fixed to prevent any additional users from illegitimately accessing the COD4 beta.

The current POR is to issue a 24-hour console lockout that will prevent these 23k users from using their consoles to sign in to LIVE. These users will also receive a message in the dash with an explanation as to why their console has been locked out for 24 hours for violating the LIVE TOU and a warning that more severe actions may be taken if they attempt a similar action in the future (console could be banned permanently, etc.). Again, this is not a permanent console ban - It's more of a "slap on the wrist" and a warning to these 23k users who used this exploit.

Well of course you can't permanently ban 23,000 users for making use of your own mistakes now can you, Microsoft? You can't expect the common sense to kick in every time there's the possibility of using an exploit either, so I guess that's that. A "slap on the wrist" it is then.