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Microsoft Restores Accidentally Banned Consoles
If your console banned from Xbox Live between August 29 and September 9, you may have been unjustly punished thanks to a software error on Microsoft's end. Don't worry – the publisher wants to make it up to you.
According to an article on Joystiq, Microsoft is making amends with wrongly banned users by provided three free months of Xbox Live service along with 1600 MS Points ($20). What do you need to do to claim your prize? Nothing.
"We know exactly who was impacted," says Xbox Live director of policy and enforcement Stephen Toulouse. "This is a tiny fraction of the overall user base. This is not some widespread problem. If your console was suspended between the dates, the quickest way to find out if you were impacted by the software issue is to simply reconnect your console. If you can log in, you were impacted by the issue and we've unsuspended the console."
So, what went wrong? Microsoft isn't saying exactly why the consoles were banned, except that a piece of software mistakenly identified some machines as being tampered with. In addition to not using that software anymore, Toulouse also admits needs to "revisit" how it handles communicating with users whose consoles have been banned.
Did this mistake affect you or anyone you know? Share you thoughts in the comments.
(Source: Joystiq)
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