If you’ve been banned from Xbox Live recently for seemingly no reason, you are not alone. Stephen Toulouse, head of Xbox Live’s Policy and Enforcement team, announced via Major Nelson's blog that a “handful” of Live users were banned inaccurately for modded consoles. “After an initial investigation we have confirmed that a handful of banned consoles did in-fact appear to not have been modified or tampered with,” Toulouse wrote, noting that the bans occurred between August 29 and September 9.
The good news, Toulouse mentioned, is
that the enforcement team is currently in the process of reversing the bans.
Further, affected users will receive 1600 Microsoft points (a $20 value) and three
months of Xbox Live Gold. Toulouse assured users that they need to take no
action, as the reversing process will happen automatically. The team knows
exactly which individual consoles were affected, and if your console still
won’t connect, chances are it wasn’t one of the affected consoles.
If you still
believe that you were banned unintentionally, Toulouse advised users to visit http://www.xbox.com/support/contact for help. The number of affected users wasn’t
disclosed. As far as the reason for the banning mistake, Toulouse said, “We’re still conducting our review but the
cause appears to be a software issue, not an error on the part of the
enforcement team’s normal actions.”