Xbox 360 update prevents pirated Call of Duty games from running

Software updates are generally supposed to improve your gadget in some way, such as increased stability, fixing an irritating bug, or offering fancy new features. Sadly that is not always the case as some Xbox 360 owners out there have found out. Microsoft has issued a mandatory update for the console and it’s apparently for a single bugfix. Now many users out there have noticed that it prevents pirated versions of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Modern Warfare 2 from playing on the console.

Folks out there noticed that the update was taking a little too long to download and then discovered that backup copies of these games stopped working, leading to suspicions that Microsoft included a patch in the update for an anti-piracy feature. We’re definitely not advocating piracy here, but in case you were wondering what the update was supposed to do, it allows the console to automatically boot a pre-inserted game when you power it on, a feature that was accidentally disabled back in November.