Microsoft bans gaming review website for fraud

[James]

Gaming site claims wrongful Xbox LIVE account ban

So like the countless other suckers out there, review sites shell out the money each year to test games online. Gameplay Today “had” an account paid up for the next 2 years. MS now has that money and isn’t required to provide the service or logical explanation for the banning. So now we sit here with a clear understanding that all of those gamers who griped about XBL bans might have had some legitimate complaints. If MS can’t even keep tabs on its own code distribution process and bans members of the media that use their codes; who’s to say they are just banning innocent gamers daily?

[Lycanthrope]

That's... comforting.

[Tank]

the less i say about this the better

[Azimuth]

I'm very sceptical about this. For one thing, the article tells a lie - despite claiming "multiple sites" were banned yesterday, this is, in fact, the only one. Unless everybody else is keeping quiet about it, mind you, but that does seem pretty fucking unlikely.

Microsoft has banned millions of XBL accounts over the years. If there were a glitch in the process, this would have happened before. And yet, I've never once read an article on a gaming site claiming their account was banned.

I know I've used free codes many, many times, and played high profile games up to two weeks ahead of launch, and my account hasn't been banned. Maybe I'll be eating my words one day, but for the moment, I'm not convinced about this story.

[Blackhand]

Though extremely unlikely, mistakes do happen. At the end of the day, in every process people are/were involved so there is also room for things to go wrong, even if it is one in a million.

[Cicero]

Well I'm not banned yet so game on!

...but is a little disconcerting

[souluser7]

Microsoft seems...a bit mad with power? I definitely would not like to be banned for something like this if I didn't do it :|

[wheunis]

<snip> I'm not convinced about this story.

Pretty much all of that yeah.
I don't buy it at all.

Smells to me like some employee(s) may have helped themselves to some "extras" on the work's account...