Law firm AbingtonIP has revealed that it"s currently "investigating" what it calls the "convenient" Xbox Live bannings over modded consoles.
The firm believes that it"s no coincidence that Microsoft banned "tens of thousands" of users after receiving its money for Gold memberships, post release of Halo 3: ODST and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Therefore, the law firm is considering a suit in order to get the membership fees refunded to subscribers along with a "refund for the prorated sums".
"To me, this certainly sounds a lot like a cash grab directed at a company with deep pockets, but perhaps there are more facts than they are letting on," said Joystiq legal columnist Mark Methenitis. "If, in fact, Microsoft is inducing people to buy a service only to terminate them, then there"s certainly a deceptive business practice concern.
"But this seems far more cut and dry than that."
Methenitis also stated that a user "savvy enough to have a modded console" should be savvy enough not to connect it to Xbox Live without "serious risk."
Microsoft recently banned as many as one million players from Xbox Live for altering or modifying their Xbox 360 consoles in order to play pirated versions of Xbox video games.