Speaking on Jeff Randall Live, Xbox's chief executive for Europe Chris Lewis explained the thinking behind the policy.
"We are very committed to stamp out piracy. It's an issue not only for Xbox, it's an issue for the industry as a whole, it's an issue for Microsoft generally," he said.
"Clearly it's important for us to be able to stamp down on that to protect the 10 million people that are already on Xbox 360 in Europe for instance. So we take it very seriously."
In an interview with Sky's Anna Jones, Mr Lewis went on to defend the move.
"If it's clear someone is downloading pirated copies or have modified their Xbox in some way that will allow them to download games that they haven't purchased legitimately and yes we lock that account down and we're unapologetic about that," he said.
