1 Million Xbox Live Players Banned

Microsoft this week booted as many as 1 million players from its Xbox Live gaming service due to the company's belief that they modified their consoles to play games illegally downloaded from file sharing sites.

"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," Microsoft said in a statement.

The move comes amid this week's release of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2", the mostly highly anticipated Xbox 360 game of the year.

So-called warez copies of the game reportedly showed up on pirate sites prior to its release - a development that may have prompted Microsoft to take action, possibly in concert with or at the behest of Infinity Ward, the games publisher.

"The health of the video game business depends on customers paying for the genuine products and services they receive from manufacturers, retailers, and the third parties that support them," Microsoft said.

:story: Full story: InformationWeek

It makes sense.
It also makes sense if the pricing structure allowed players outside US to have better access to games since 60$ in most of the world is actually a lot of money.