On Friday, lots of people on the Internet started following the Twitter account of "Moonlightswami", who got his pre-ordered Xbox One console shipped to him two weeks early thanks to a mistake from retailer Target. "Moonlightswam" started posting up his impressions of the console on his Twitter account, and even uploaded an unboxing video of his Xbox One on YouTube.
Then Microsoft stepped in, as it took down his YouTube video on copyright violation claims, and then banned his new Xbox One console from connecting to the Internet. Needless to say, these actions were not appreciated by many people, least of all Moonlightswami, whose real name is André Weingarten, a college student in New York.
However, it appears that Microsoft has decided to make nice with Weingarten. According to a Kotaku story, he spoke with Xbox Live's director of programming Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb on Saturday and was assured that the Xbox One ban was temporary, and that it will be rescinded a few days before the November 22nd launch of the console. In addition, his YouTube unboxing video has been unbanned. Finally, he will be going to Microsoft's Xbox One launch event on the company's dime.
In his own post on Major Nelson, Hryb states that because "... we are still putting the finishing touches on our games, UI and online services, as well as confidential partner and media agreements, these consoles units will be restricted from connecting to Xbox Live until closer to our launch date." In related news, Target sent Kotaku a statement admitting that a "small number" of Xbox One consoles were shipped ahead of the launch date. The same report claims, via an unnamed source, that about 150 or so units were sent out of Target's warehouses by mistake.
In the meantime, Weingarten says he currently has an Xbox One console that's only partially operational. He can put in a disc copy of "Call of Duty Ghosts" and play the game in offline mode but that's pretty much it.
However, one other person who claims to have received an Xbox One early, again via Target, has uploaded his own videos on YouTube showing the unboxing of the console, its setup screens and more. The YouTube user, "scotth0531" apparently got his own Xbox One banned by Microsoft after the videos went live this weekend and in one clip, he even shows the number of an eBay listing to sell the console, but apparently that auction has not gone live.
Source: Kotaku | Image via André Weingarten
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