Xbox Live suffers holiday hangover
Microsoft's online gaming service ends 2007 with more than a week of on-again, off-again outages.
'Twas the night before Christmas when Xbox Live director of programming Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb updated his blog with the first of numerous bulletins about holiday hang-ups for Microsoft's online gaming service. Xbox 360 owners found the service suffering frequent and varied problems, from issues with signing in to problems in recovering accounts.
On December 29, Hryb updated his blog and said that "record numbers of new members signing up for Xbox Live and record numbers of players online" had contributed to the issues.
"While the service was never completely offline, problems like this are not acceptable," Hryb wrote. "The entire Live team has been working day and night to ensure that you can have a great Live experience. While we're not done yet, I wanted to let you know that things are getting better each hour and that no one on the team is going anywhere until the job is done."
A number of users reported continuing issues with the service today, from lengthy delays in performing basic Xbox Live functions to persisting matchmaking troubles. The last word about the outages from Hryb came in a Twitter post on his blog yesterday with an acknowledgement that things were still not working properly, but "appeared to be getting better."
A follow-up Twitter post this morning didn't directly address the Xbox Live problems, but did imply "As you can imagine, today is a flurry of meetings/activity etc." A Microsoft representative did not return GameSpot's request for comment on the issue or what, if any, actions will be taken to compensate Xbox Live Gold subscribers for the pay service's downtime.
Content you might like…
Users who looked at this article also looked at these content items.
Hot Stories
Newsmakers
-
GameSpot's Best of 2009 - Dubious Honors Winners
Find out our Dubious Honors Winners in the Best of 2009 Awards! Full Story
- Posted Dec 22, 2009 11:56 am PT
-
GameSpot's Best of 2009 - Special Achievement Winners
Find out our special achievement winners in the Best of 2009 Awards! Full Story
- Posted Dec 21, 2009 11:59 am PT
Featured Stories
-
Xbox Avatars to 'encourage exercise'?
Microsoft patent details technology to make 360's avatars have same physical appearance as their real-world counterparts--and thereby promote physical fitness. Full Story
- Posted Dec 21, 2009 12:13 pm PT
- 812 Comments
-
'Ghost Recon Future Soldier' trademarked
Ubisoft USPTO filing reveals likely name of next installment in its tactical Tom Clancy shooter series, due out after Q1 2010. Full Story
- Posted Dec 21, 2009 1:06 pm PT
- 163 Comments
-
Take-Two sells distribution arm, cuts Q1 forecast by $120 million
Publisher cuts annual outlook to $910 million after Jack of All Games subsidiary is scooped up by IT systems distributor Synnex. Full Story
- Posted Dec 21, 2009 2:53 pm PT
- 26 Comments
-
Shippin' Out December 20-26: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
Square Enix's Crystal Bearers for the Wii leads a light release slate including the retail launch of Guitar Hero: Van Halen. Full Story
- Posted Dec 21, 2009 10:55 am PT
- 48 Comments
-
Final Fantasy XIII day-one sales hit 1 million in Japan
Square Enix's hotly anticipated JRPG busts platinum sales marker in 24 hours on PS3, franchise sales surpass 92 million. Full Story
- Posted Dec 18, 2009 10:53 am PT
- 748 Comments




546 Comments
Sign in / Sign up