Microsoft’s Well-Timed Bans

I’m sure everyone has heard about the massive Xbox Live banning that happened this week.  It’s kind of hard to miss the news that over 600,000 modded 360s have been kicked from the service.  I understand that some people mod the console for purposes other than pirating, but those completely honest homebrewers are few and far between.  Not to mention, they should know better than to connect to Xbox Live.

The timing of the action is quite circumspect though.  By banning 600,000 system now, Microsoft has created a console vacuum in the busiest of shopping seasons.  There’s no reason the ban hammer didn’t come down in the summer, or in January, or in more frequent, but less encompassing strikes.  It’s more of a sales generating action than one to “clean up” Xbox Live. Many gamers will be angered at Microsoft, and possibly switch to PlayStation 3 for their fix, but they likely weren’t contributing to Microsoft’s bottomline anyway.  So no skin off Microsoft’s nose there.  Essentially, the company has just manufactured the perfect holiday gift for hundreds of thousands of gamers.  The move is sure to raise console sales for the quarter, perhaps capturing #1 sales for November/December, and raise the software attach rate.  And give Microsoft the ability to gloat about a higher install base.

In the market for a new system and never play online?  There’s a few thousand people who are willing to help you out for as little as $100.

Let’s not forget that Microsoft also saves face with publishers.  The company can now claim that it is doing everything in its power to prevent hackers, pirates and other social deviants from trimming their profits.