As a result of a recent decision taken by Microsoft, the services of as many as one million players of Xbox Live will be discontinued because they have either played pirated games downloaded from file-sharing sites or have modified their Xbox 360 gaming consoles.

The Xbox Live gaming service - which boasts over 20 million players around the globe - not only allows gamers to play one another other online, but also enables them to purchase and download games.

According to Microsoft's September last year 'Terms of Use' agreement for Xbox Live and Windows games, players have to use "only authorized software and hardware to access the Service."

The agreement further says that upon detecting an unauthorized modification of Xbox 360, the company can void the warranty of the consoles, and also ban gamers from Xbox Live.

The recently-announced ban on nearly one million Xbox Live users comes prior to this week's release of the eagerly-awaited Xbox 360 game, "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," as notably high sales figures have been estimated for both the game itself as well as its illegal, pirated copies.

In a statement, Microsoft said: "We can assure you that if an Xbox Live member follows the Xbox Live terms of use, purchased a retail copy of 'Modern Warfare 2' and played the game on an unmodified Xbox 360, no action will be taken."