Microsoft to Receive Sales Boost due to Console Bans.

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So the holiday season is upon us. Halloween has come and gone, Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and Christmas will be here before you know it. In the middle of everybody indulging in pumpkin pie Microsoft decided to ban a couple of people from playing their Xbox 360 on LIVE. Ok, it was more than a couple; reports estimate that anywhere from 600,000 up to 1 million Xboxes have been banned.

The first thing to note is that these are not Gamertag bans, they are strictly console bans which allows for the pirate to purchase a new Xbox, retrieve their gamertag, move their HDD over and continue on like nothing ever happened. Of course, they have to purchase a new Xbox for this plan to work.

We have already seen a flood of banned consoles hit Craigslist and with all of these pirates getting rid of their banned systems, they will need to purchase a new unit to replace the old. My guess would be that most of these people will just pick up the standard Arcade SKU as it is only $200 since they can use the HDD that they already have. Of course, a pirate may decide to go with one of the other units if they choose to upgrade to one of those fancy larger hard drives so that they can utilize installing their pirated games.

Of course, tracking any of these numbers is nearly impossible save for maybe a poll on xbox-scene to gain some small idea of what the pirates are buying. Microsoft has also cleverly banned the systems just in time for the holiday system. Not only does this tell current owners that Microsoft is serious business and discourages from new people modding, it also masks the sales boosts in with the rest of the Holiday sales.

Had Microsoft banned 1M units in August, it would be much easier to relate an increase in sales to the system bans. Since this is during the holiday season, however, all of the sales resulting from system bans will just mix right in with the expected increase over the holiday season. Imagine of Microsoft was a character in an RPG. He has a strength of 33 and is about to level up but just equipped a new pair of boot that has a +1 to strength modifying. You don’t notice that +1 a whole lot, but it does make a difference.

[background image courtesy Major Nelson]

[UPDATE]
I just want to add a bit here to responds to some of the comments I have been seeing. I am not saying that this is some sort of conspiracy. Microsoft’s main goal is to get rid of the consoles that are able to play pirated games, and they have just chosen the best time of year to possibly ban those systems. They are also smart to not ban the Gamertags in these instances so the pirates can purchase a new system and not mod it if they wish which leads to future revenue as well.

I have also seen some people say that pirates don’t play on LIVE as well, this is not true. A lot of people who mod their 360 play on Xbox LIVE all the time, this is why the ban matters. The systems still work offline, but this ban matters because it has disabled those systems abilities to play online. I also realize that some of the people that have been banned will go and buy a PS3 instead, which I don’t understand.

http://golgotron.com/2009/11/microsoft-to-receive-sales-boost-due-to-console-bans/

they will though

lol naughty ms

lol honestly i think this is why they ban people... cause they know like atleast 75% of thoes who get banned will go buy a new console boosting up the sales

DuDZZ wrote:

lol honestly i think this is why they ban people... cause they know like atleast 75% of thoes who get banned will go buy a new console boosting up the sales

I don't think so. They banned them becuase they want to stop piracy. If you can't use Live then you won't mod your system and if you don't mod your system then your have to buy games at retail. New console sales are just gravy.

They ban them cause they are technically CHEATING devs out of money and/or game players out of a level playing field. If the people with banned consoles want to buy new consoles, then so be it, cause in that case, it makes Microsoft more money.

343_Guilty_Spark wrote:

DuDZZ wrote:

lol honestly i think this is why they ban people... cause they know like atleast 75% of thoes who get banned will go buy a new console boosting up the sales

I don't think so. They banned them becuase they want to stop piracy. If you can't use Live then you won't mod your system and if you don't mod your system then your have to buy games at retail. New console sales are just gravy.

its easy as hell to re-mod it tho... as there is no actual chip modders use... so they buy a console boost the 360 console sales and start getting free games (again lol)



eather way M$ benifits from console bans

DuDZZ wrote:

343_Guilty_Spark wrote:

DuDZZ wrote:

lol honestly i think this is why they ban people... cause they know like atleast 75% of thoes who get banned will go buy a new console boosting up the sales

I don't think so. They banned them becuase they want to stop piracy. If you can't use Live then you won't mod your system and if you don't mod your system then your have to buy games at retail. New console sales are just gravy.

its easy as hell to re-mod it tho... as there is no actual chip modders use... so they buy a console boost the 360 console sales and start getting free games (again lol)



eather way M$ benifits from console bans

It is very easy to buy a new console and mod it again but it would be a very dumb move as chances are extremely high of being re banned.