Nope, you're both partially right. It was pretty widely publicised that a lot of people who played that pre-launch ODST felt the banhammer. Fact is, nobody except MS really knows what constitutes each of these ban waves - it's all just speculation.
Had those people waited for a verified copy of the game to be released and verified it using abgx then they wouldnt of been banned.. Its not as simple as stating that anyone who plays a game prior to release gets banned... Ive purchased a many games prior to release from places like big w by some store clerk who didnt bother checking the release date.. brought it home and played it with out any banning.
Yet if you read the comments of any pre-release game you will find that the files on the disc havent been verified.. it may have the wrong stealth patch.. the wrong wave.. the wrong pfi.. dmi... all things which microsoft are able to check to see if legitimate.
Piracy is never as easy as obtaining and using.. there is always precautions to take to ensure quality... alot of people fall short but either not caring enough to double check or being too noob to know what they are doing.
And these precautions arnt just for pirating games *which is naughty* but also for creating your own backups.. A bad rip could fuck up the dmi/pfi/wave and you can be caught for making a shit rip of your game or not stealthing it.
Whilst id love to believe that microsoft would simply ban based on people who play games early.. really its just not practical.. things get leaked.. games get sold early.. its a fact that they would have to take into account before slamming down a ban hammer.
