Attention all cheaters; the Ban-Hammer has come for you!  Microsoft has finished its annual sweep of modded Xbox 360s, and according to the Guardian UK, has banned somewhere between 600,000 and 1 million users.  With 20 million users worldwide, that accounts for 3-5% of all Xbox Live users.  Serves 'em right, bunch of no good cheaters…

The ban, which prevents the console from accessing Xbox Live, is the main part of Microsoft’s strategy to prevent players from modding their consoles to play pirated, out-of-region, and homebrewed games. In a statement, Microsoft stated, "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."

I’m sure there are a ton of pissed off cheaters who will claim that they only modded their boxes to play backup copies of their games, but those people are liars.  I couldn’t be happier that MS is getting rid of these scofflaws.  Every time they cheat while I’m playing, they are essentially reducing the value of my game, and therefore stealing from me.  I don’t take too kindly to that, and thankly, neither does Microsoft.