Watch out early users of pirated GTA IV

It was only a matter of time. I know that Major Nelson was aware of the leaked GTA IV in game videos from last week and now it appears that he and the MS team are looking heavily into users who are playing pirated versions of the game.

Here is a link from Kotaku:

http://kotaku.com/383534/microsoft-looking-into-early-gta-iv-players

It's a dodgy road. I would imagine there are some websites/stores out there in the middle of nowhere who accidentally sent the game out early, some of the people who have it may or may not even know it's early.

As long as those people (and me, if i receive mine a day or two early) are NOT affected by any bans/etc, then thats fine. Ban all the pirates/downloaders all you want so long as there is a way to distinguish them, and not ban innocent people.

This is stupid. In order to play any pirated game on your 360 you have to mod it and any mod to the 360 changes is signature which microsoft can detect. All microsoft can really do is ban that xbox and gamertag from xbox live for using a modded 360, microsoft can not prove that anyone is playing a pirated game though. I say this is stupid because microsoft should ALREADY be banning people like crazy because they've modded their xbox, not just because gta4 is being pirated.AfterBurner

They don't ban them right when they detect a modded console and never have. The past two times it's just been a surprise to all modders on the same day. MS just did a sweep and banned all the ones they detected

This is stupid. In order to play any pirated game on your 360 you have to mod it and any mod to the 360 changes is signature which microsoft can detect. All microsoft can really do is ban that xbox and gamertag from xbox live for using a modded 360, microsoft can not prove that anyone is playing a pirated game though. I say this is stupid because microsoft should ALREADY be banning people like crazy because they've modded their xbox, not just because gta4 is being pirated.AfterBurner

There are multipla ways to mod your Xbox to enable playback of burned discs that are completely undetectable through XBL. Why do you think MS is having such a hard time banning these people?

Cheaters etc get banned fairly quickly because evidence of that is plain as day to anyone looking at that persons gamerscore and seeing 4 million. Or seeing ALL achievements gained at the same time and date, or seeing them cheating at multiplayer etc.

But simply detecting a modded Xbox depends on the mod. I'm not gonna go into specifics as that topic will get me banned, but there are many ways to enable playback of illegal media on the 360 while still being able to sign into XBL undetected.

If there was a way to detect those people instantly, then yeah they should be auto-bahned the moment they sign on.

[QUOTE="AfterBurner"]This is stupid. In order to play any pirated game on your 360 you have to mod it and any mod to the 360 changes is signature which microsoft can detect. All microsoft can really do is ban that xbox and gamertag from xbox live for using a modded 360, microsoft can not prove that anyone is playing a pirated game though. I say this is stupid because microsoft should ALREADY be banning people like crazy because they've modded their xbox, not just because gta4 is being pirated.Scarface_tm431

They don't ban them right when they detect a modded console and never have. The past two times it's just been a surprise to all modders on the same day. MS just did a sweep and banned all the ones they detected

Actually they had not detected them. They simply put some code into the update to disable the console if it was modded. As a lot of modded consoles use a switch mechanism with some sort of chip. You switch it off before signing into XBL then continue to play as normal, some of those methods are undetectable over XBL.

But the update code would then notice the xbox had been modded when they switch the chip on again, and boom. Fried. That's how it was done, it wasnt a mass sweep through a big list of detected modders.

Maybe im wrong though, as i only remember one instance when a lot of modders suddenly had their Xboxes break, that was one of the spring updates i think. Dont remember a second instance. Either way people have to understand that sometimes MS just can't detect it, and have no power to prevent it.

If they could, i would be right there with you guys screaming "Ban them right now!"

as you can see ... several people have played the game already:

http://www.mygamercard.net/leaderboard.php?g=475

click their names and their gamercards show up with gtaiv.

as you can see ... several people have played the game already:

http://www.mygamercard.net/leaderboard.php?g=475

click their names and their gamercards show up with gtaiv.

thecobraholder

Exactly! That's what MS noticed too according to Kotaku. Silly silly pirates - at least if they couldn't have waited they should have used an offline profile until the game launched.

Oh well MS will have their way with them. Chances are there will be ample punishment of some sort - most likely banning them from XBL.

Justice!!i-like-pie

Make your sig number 6 ;)

Ban all the early players of GTAIV or any game that isn't out, they clearly pirated it, and software pirates shouldn't be allowed to play on the same servers as legit customers.Andrew_Xavier

You don't have to pirate to play games early

Ban all the early players of GTAIV or any game that isn't out, they clearly pirated it, and software pirates shouldn't be allowed to play on the same servers as legit customers.Andrew_Xavier

It's not that simple an option. As pirating is not always the case.

After all, to be able to rip and upload a game, someone must first have a legitimate copy of the game (unless the leak came from within one of the associated companies who had access to the development, in the case of Manhunt 2 uncensored)

There are multiple ways this can happen, press/review copies, employees stealing from work/warehouses. In which case yes, ban them.

But there will always be a few legitimate customers who happened to get the game early. I remember Boiling Point on PC, i pre-ordered that game and got it something crazy like 9 days early in the post. While nobody would care about such a low profile game as Boiling Point, i can see similar things happening just as easily from some backwater trader somewhere on the internet who accidentally sent the game out too early.

While this is highly unlikely, you cant simply say "Ban them all" and expect there not to be a few innocent customers in there somewhere.

Part of the problem with banning everyone playing GTA right now is that is some cases (Australia for example) online orders/stores let out the game early, there were articles about this this morning. I totally agree with banning pirates, but if someone prebought the game, and the place they bought it from screwed up and sent it early, well good for the player. I know if I got it today I would be playing it today (perhaps not online, but definately the story.) It's not like the people who have done nothing wrong should be punished for this.

But the pirates, well it would be sweet if MS could just literally smoke their machine.

Part of the problem with banning everyone playing GTA right now is that is some cases (Australia for example) online orders/stores let out the game early, there were articles about this this morning. I totally agree with banning pirates, but if someone prebought the game, and the place they bought it from screwed up and sent it early, well good for the player. I know if I got it today I would be playing it today (perhaps not online, but definately the story.) It's not like the people who have done nothing wrong should be punished for this.

But the pirates, well it would be sweet if MS could just literally smoke their machine.

silentlord833

I agree - legal copy players - even if aqcuired early should not be punished. Unfortunately the easy fix for this in the future which I could easily see MS supporting is product keys for the game just like with other software. I'm not talking about the call in activation that Windows implements - but the old school key code. You would have to enter it in before you play the game the first time to give you access and when you connect to XBL it would verify that it's legite against a database. This in theory could work as long as they only made you enter it the first time and it stored the activation authorization on your hard drive or memory card. Anyway that's just a thought.

As for the actual pirates - I hope MS can legitimately figure out which ones are early players and which ones are actual pirates and bring the hammer down on the pirates.

what if most hte people playing it are magazines or websites that got it early?

I am sure though that alot of people have been playing the hacked version of the game, as ive seen it all over the net already.

Its a shame people cant just wait.

what if most hte people playing it are magazines or websites that got it early?

I am sure though that alot of people have been playing the hacked version of the game, as ive seen it all over the net already.

Its a shame people cant just wait.

kozzy1234

A lot of them (read: all of them) are supposed to use non publicly veiwable gamertags on non xbl connected machines. A lot of press have dev consoles and are supposed to play without gamertags that are connected to xbl.

[QUOTE="kozzy1234"]

what if most hte people playing it are magazines or websites that got it early?

I am sure though that alot of people have been playing the hacked version of the game, as ive seen it all over the net already.

Its a shame people cant just wait.

diablobasher

A lot of them (read: all of them) are supposed to use non publicly veiwable gamertags on non xbl connected machines. A lot of press have dev consoles and are supposed to play without gamertags that are connected to xbl.

Thanks for the info :)

I'm already 10+hrs into the game and I don't mind if they ban me from Live. pikachu01

hahahaha, that was reallly smart to announce it to everyone. You might even get booted off of gamespot aswell

dang...i saw some of those vids..they were pretty tight...DATA U NEED TO GET THIS GAME ON THE 29th!!! lol u really do man!!! get it mannnpygmahia5

LOL - between your avid reccomendations and the more gameplay I've seen - I will definitely be getting the game - I'm a convert. LOL

However it may not be on release day - payday is a week later for me. :)

If they can tell the difference between a pirated game and people who just broke the street date and bought it from a store that didn't know better, I'm all for punishing the piratesFood_Nipple

EXACTLY! I am sure the reason they are researching it and having a slow go at it is that it may not be all that easy to tell the difference - however being that it is MS that is involved I do believe that with a little effort, if anyone could ever tell the difference it would be them. :)

[QUOTE="pygmahia5"]dang...i saw some of those vids..they were pretty tight...DATA U NEED TO GET THIS GAME ON THE 29th!!! lol u really do man!!! get it mannnDataDream

LOL - between your avid reccomendations and the more gameplay I've seen - I will definitely be getting the game - I'm a convert. LOL

However it may not be on release day - payday is a week later for me. :)

haha thats good!! is ok to be a conformist to get this game lol. yea i understand but regardless, u needa get this!!

what if most hte people playing it are magazines or websites that got it early?

I am sure though that alot of people have been playing the hacked version of the game, as ive seen it all over the net already.

Its a shame people cant just wait.

kozzy1234

what does it matter to you what other people do?

are you upset that you arent playing it early? lol

[QUOTE="kozzy1234"]

what if most hte people playing it are magazines or websites that got it early?

I am sure though that alot of people have been playing the hacked version of the game, as ive seen it all over the net already.

Its a shame people cant just wait.

gslaughs

what does it matter to you what other people do?

are you upset that you arent playing it early? lol

It's the principal of the whole thing. You go to work and make 100 bucks, then give me a dollar each time. Wouldn't be to happy would ya?

i dont think microsoft has the power to discern between pirated copies and copies bought in a store, do they? if they cant, the dont really have the right to ban anyone, unless the first time they played GTA IV was like last year hahachaoscougar1

i dont think microsoft has the power to discern between pirated copies and copies bought in a store, do they? if they cant, the dont really have the right to ban anyone, unless the first time they played GTA IV was like last year hahachaoscougar1