It's believed that up to 600,000 gamers may have been cut off from Microsoft's Xbox Live online gaming service because they're running modded consoles that can play pirated games.

Microsoft has confirmed that "a small percentage" of Xbox's 20 million users had been banned. By our calculations, that'd be 3%, which seems quite a large number for a process that involves opening up the case of the console and - in many cases - soldering in a new chip.

Microsoft warned:"All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and that modifying their Xbox 360 console to play pirated discs violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live". That ban won't stop your console working, it just means that you won't be able to connect to the Web.

Are you running a modded Xbox 360? Drop us a comment - we won't tell anyone, promise - and let us know if you still have access. We'd be interested to hear whether this hits every modder, or just a selection.

Via: news.bbc.co.uk

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