Xbox Players Were Unable To Play Digital Games This Weekend During Big Server Outage

Over the weekend, the Xbox Network struggled with some server issues that made some digital games completely unplayable, even offline, and people spoke up to voice their frustrations.

Messages posted on the Xbox Support account on Twitter suggest the outages began on May 6, when users began reporting they were unable to launch games on Xbox consoles and via the cloud. Service resumed normally and then had issues again, the Xbox Support account said. All issues were seemingly resolved as of May 8, but the outage left fans with questions and concerns about Microsoft's policies about needing to connect to the internet to play non-live games.

Cloud games, of course, only work when network services are up and running. But many people weighed in on social media to say downloaded games--the only type that are possible on a disc-free Xbox Series S--should be playable offline, without a need to check in to the network.

Parris Lilly, who has worked for Xbox in the past, said he hopes Microsoft can be more transparent in the future about its digital rights management (DRM) policy and offer new solutions to avoid these types of headaches for players in the future. Windows Central reporter Jez Corden said on Twitter that some publishers ask for online check-ins even for offline games as form of DRM.

Microsoft thanked fans for their patience during the outages. As usual, too, the outages did not affect everyone, but this was a notable event that Microsoft worked through the weekend to fix.

Xbox said in a subsequent tweet that it has now seen "significant improvements" for this issue, and that "full mitigation" of the problem will come with the launch of a new update this week.

Xbox is flying high right now. During the past three months, Xbox made more money during a non-holiday quarter than ever before in the company's history, dating back to 2001.