Microsoft, Capcom to ban SFxTK hackers on Xbox Live

By BJ David

Published March 20, 2012 3:27pm

Console and software giant Microsoft (MS) and game publisher Capcom have expressed their intent to impose lifetime bans on Xbox Live (XBL) players who have unlocked the 12 downloadable content (DLC) characters on the Street Fighter X Tekken (SFxTK) disc.

A user named Razum posted on the Capcom Unity blog forums that he was able to fight someone on XBL who used Blanka, one of the characters in the DLC roster. In the same thread, Capcom Senior Vice-President Christian Svensson responded that the hackers were “quite ballsy” for using hacked consoles on XBL. He also added that they are “working on bans for [X]boxes and accounts with MS for [hackers].”

According to the terms and conditions of XBL, players caught using hacked consoles and content on the service could face a lifetime ban.

Capcom was recently criticized for the 12-character DLC, which are confirmed by the developers themselves to have been on-disc upon purchase. The characters can only be unlocked once the player downloads a patch, the price and release of which has yet to be confirmed.

Capcom clarified that the much-criticized move was in answer to issues of file size and compatibility. “By including these 12 characters on the disc, the idea was to ensure easy compatibility between players who do and do not choose to download the characters when they arrive as DLC,” explained Capcom Unity community manager Brett Elston.

Elston further explained that the on-disc DLC characters would allow players who have not bought the DLC to be able to “see” the characters of their opponents who did purchase the content. If the DLC characters were not on-disc, it would lead to some graphic complications in matches between players with the DLC and those without it.

Fans were initially enraged by the controversial move, expressing their disappointment via comments on news reports and the Capcom Unity forum. Some users also cheered the hackers for what they did.

One forum poster commented, “While I'm not going to risk my own XBL account with this, I support those users sticking it to Capcom,” commending the hackers who unlocked the DLC characters. “As a community we should facilitate this, and not support Capcom with these terrible practices,” he continued.

The comments on IGN.com were less sober: some explicit remarks were thrown about on how Capcom “screwed” gamers with such a move. The commenters justified that they already paid for the game, and therefore deserved to have access to everything that is in it. — TJD, GMA News

Tags: capcom, microsoft, sfxtk, microsoftxbox, xboxlive