Banned Xboxes flood eBay

Microsoft's recent actions against Xbox Live users with modded consoles has led to an unexpected surge in second-hand sales of the Xbox 360.

Online sites such as Craigslist and eBay show dozens of listings for consoles variously described as "banned", "not modded" or "100% working offline". The average cost for a banned standalone console has settled at around GBP 50 (compared to a retail price of GBP 160 for a new Xbox 360 Arcade).

Earlier in the month Microsoft began a large scale attempt to ban modded consoles, many of which could be used to play pirated software, from Xbox Live. The bans remove the console's ability to go online but leave it still able to function offline.

Although Microsoft categorised the number of bans as a "small percentage" of the 20 million strong Xbox Live community, unconfirmed reports have placed the numbers as high as 600,000 or even 1 million users.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...xes-flood-ebay