Quote:According to an email sent to VMC community members, one tester sent a screenshot of the new Gears to another VMC contractor. This second fellow then leaked it online. On VMC’s side, the contractors violated the NDA in a pretty explicit way. They’ve been removed from their projects and the company’s legal department is looking things over. This is really what you have to expect when breaking an NDA, but the pair also violated the Xbox Live EULA. That’s why their personal consoles and accounts are on the chopping block.

Microsoft has permanently banned their Xbox One accounts, as well as any other accounts on their consoles. This is something Microsoft has been doing for years, so surprises there. However, the company has also blocked all of their Xbox One privileges, meaning their consoles are completely unusable (according to VMC). This is a “temporary” measure that will only last until such time as Microsoft decides to turn their consoles back on. That could mean a week, a month, or (technically) never.

Microsoft claims, however, that revoking privileges only disables all the online services and features. So if you go to the store and buy a game disk, you could probably play it. However, many games have zero-day patches that you probably wouldn’t be able to install on the blocked console. This is similar to actions Microsoft took way back in the day of mod chips that could be used to bypass game DRM. The company could ban an account, but also block the device itself from accessing Live services (because the hardware was modified, obviously).

These are only the guys who let a screenshot get out. If Microsoft finds the leakers of the above video, they’ll have to find something even more severe. VMC contractors aren’t provided with any company accounts or consoles to test games, so these are personal devices that were blocked. You can’t feel too sorry for these particular contractors, seeing as they violated an NDA and leaked confidential material. They’ll be lucky if a temporarily bricked console is the worst thing that happens. Still, it’s a little concerning that Microsoft has the ability to remotely deactivate an Xbox One in addition to your account.

(05-15-2015, 09:50 PM)gstanford Wrote: Who would purchase a console that can be bricked?  I can assure you this would never happen to a Sony console owner.

Just another way M$ shows just how much they love their own customers......

Anyone would think they didn't really want to be in the console market........

(05-15-2015, 11:24 PM)gstanford Wrote: Microsoft has been bricking consoles since the 360 launched.

Sony has never once bricked a customers console.