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Xbox Live running normally after spotty holiday service

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

January 2, 2008, 12:14 PM

While Microsoft is not specifically citing any cause, reported issues with the Xbox 360's online Xbox Live service seem to have been resolved as of Wednesday morning.

In all, the problems lasted 12 days, frustrating those who may have unwrapped a new Xbox over the holidays, or even longtime users eager to play the latest game that was found under their Christmas tree this year.

A status message on Xbox's support page reported that Xbox Live was "up and running," without the caveats that had appeared in the week and a half prior.

According to reports and Microsoft itself, users of the Xbox Live service experienced a multitude of problems. Some found that they were having issues "matchmaking" to play games over the service, while others found their statistics were not updating.

In the worst case scenarios, a number of users could not even perform account recovery functions or sign into Xbox Live at all.

"While the service was never completely offline, problems like this are not acceptable," Xbox Live programming director Larry Nelson wrote to his Web log before the new year. "The entire Live team has been working day and night to ensure that you can have a great Live experience."

Sources told AOL blog Joystiq that Microsoft may be planning to compensate Xbox Live Gold users who had problems over the holiday. However, no details as to what the compensation was or when it would appear were available.

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By ET12X

edited Jan 3, 2008 - 9:50 AM

I think Xbox lives problem was that everyone (internationally) was getting Xboxes for Xmas. The long lag time was due to everyone getting online in Europe, Mexico, and everywhere else were Xbox live servers are not as updated so the damm foreigners lagged everyone down. If you look at the online map now you will see that all of Europe, Mexico, and most of Canada (were it is not in the sticks) are all lit up and I believe that this is why Xbox Live was Xbox Blow$ over the holidays. Xbox should definitely give Gold members some live points for 30 minute long wait times to join a game. Oh ya and PS3 sucks too. Xbox still rules even if its laggy, one word HALO

Score: 0

By Steve Austin

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 6:44 PM

Notice how this was never stickied.

Can you imagine if Playstation Network was down for 2 weeks, over the holiday season, Betanews would have that ****er stickied for a whole month.

Sad ****ers.

Score: 0

By pridewalker

posted Jan 3, 2008 - 2:44 PM

FFS, what's it going to take to shut your whining up for 5 secs.?

You and your cronies complain that there's a pro-MS bias on this site; but when they put up a story about problems occuring with Live for almost 2 weeks, you still find a way to b**** about anti-Sony sentiment here!

Score: 0

By pitdingo2

posted Jan 3, 2008 - 11:43 AM

very true

Score: 0

By SGD

posted Jan 3, 2008 - 3:47 PM

You have a Wii what do care!

Score: 0

By bobthegoat2001

posted Jan 4, 2008 - 12:35 AM

Because he's DaveBG.

Score: 0

By bobthegoat2001

posted Jan 3, 2008 - 3:24 AM

Playstation Network? What's that?

Score: 0

By Tenoq

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 11:57 PM

No, it wouldn't even be news. No-one actually uses the Playstation Network. I'm pretty sure you'd be the only one who noticed it was down.

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

edited Jan 2, 2008 - 8:49 PM

Oh boy, Joey logged out and back in with Steve.

If PSN was down for a month, five people would have been upset.

Steve / Joey / DaveBG / Benjamin among others are all the same pathetic lying POS in case anyone here is new.

I've proved it already, especially with "thier" uploads to imageshack all from the same Sony Cybershot.

Score: 0

By spring45

edited Jan 2, 2008 - 6:27 PM

The system is still screwed up, Xbox's own support page says, as of right now at 6.30pm EST 01/02 that "Users may experience intermittent issues with account recovery, matchmaking, and statistics. We are aware of the issue and are actively working towards a resolution. We apologize for any inconvenience."
I haven't been able to get on all day, either.

Score: 0

By itsfuzz

edited Jan 2, 2008 - 5:18 PM

It's Larry Hyrb, not Larry Nelson.

People shouldn't expect much of in the way of compensation though. Downtime = $1.64 for the end user.

Score: 0

By skags442

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 5:14 PM

wow... well ive been on live for almost 5 years now, and this is the first time it relly cause me a major problem. ya sure they will have issues npw and then, but latly it has been have alotof trouble. but they fixed it it seems, everything was fine this morning.

$50 a year, its worth it... you know that they are doing somthing right, i mean look at all the high expectations from eveyone here. they wouldnt be complaning if it was a regular issue.

over all my live experiance hase been one of the most fullfilling cusomer experiance with microsoft. and have had much much worse experiances with other major electronics and services

Score: 0

By mjm01010101

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 4:18 PM

This is the bright and shiny computing experience Bill Gates raves about every year? Pay for a service and witness it fail.

Terrible.

Score: 0

By VeteranReturns

edited Jan 2, 2008 - 2:47 PM

We suffered the same problems in the UK. What really grates me is that these problems are becoming more frequent with every new title released... COD4, say no more.

Score: 0

By Nathanm

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 1:49 PM

They didn't fix jack. They just waited until people went back to work.

Score: 0

By dlab21

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 2:27 PM

problems with high traffic do tend to fix themselves. Im still interested to hear what amends they attempt to make for my service being interupted.

Score: 0

By Joey Deacon

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 1:26 PM

So your $50 360 subscription buys you:

Unreliable service.
Laggy peer-peer service
Adverts plastered on every blade
A service full of Childish Xbots

Score: 0

By pridewalker

edited Jan 2, 2008 - 7:05 PM

How would you know what Xbox Live offers, when you don't own a 360?

Sony's service is laggy, too. Personally, I've dealt with more connection issues and load times on the PS3 than the 360.

Every single video download on the PS store is an advertisement. How long until the PSN video store goes live?

100 'childish xbots' are still more tolerable than a single Sony fanboi, who's only opinions are based on his beloved's propaganda machine...

Score: 0

By SGD

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 9:16 PM

Nice.

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 8:50 PM

Well said pridewalker.

Score: 0

By SGD

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 2:57 PM

You are such a jack as$. Funny how Warhack as you called it has had its share of online issues for starters. I have seen more childish antics on the Pscrap online then I have ever seen on live. You sure have a nack for blowing things way out of proportion. Loser.

Wow a little add on page that has no effect on the overall performance. Like there are no advertisements in $ony's crap.

If you knew anything the service is not peer to peer. Like I said what a jack as$

Score: 0

By pitdingo2

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 3:09 PM

Sure, the service is not, but the games are; you host the game on your M$ XBox. I believe the Sony online service works the same way.

Score: 0

By bobthegoat2001

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 7:44 PM

But what kind of online does the Wii have?

Score: 0

By pitdingo2

posted Jan 3, 2008 - 11:42 AM

What does the Wii have to do with my post?

How many sales does the XBox 360 have? how many outside of America? Let me give you a hint:

http://www.vgchartz.com/

Score: 0

By SGD

posted Jan 4, 2008 - 9:45 AM

Go ahead and change the subject again you sad piece of well you know.

Score: 0

By bobthegoat2001

posted Jan 4, 2008 - 12:37 AM

What does 360 sales have to do with my post? See I can play that game too.

Score: 0

By SGD

posted Jan 3, 2008 - 3:48 PM

He picked up on the fact that you are a troll.

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 8:57 PM

The Wii is not designed to work like XBOX live or PSN excatly. It depends on a freinds list if I'm not mistaken.

The only online I use with it is the weather, news and web browser as it has Wi-Fi built in, which I didnt know because I never read a single word of the manual.

The Wii is a great family gaming machine, not a serious gamers console, unless you are pitdingo, who seems to have the mental capacity of Jeffy from The Ringer. I just sent him a copy of Wii Special Olympics, you can wave the nunchuck in any direction and win.

Score: 0

By SGD

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 7:43 PM

You are so creative with the M$ Xbox statement are you 12? SO I suppose that $ony doing it the same way makes them better. How about the service on the Wii, oh doesn't have anything mainly just a site to buy old games. Make an online function for their profit only and no enjoyment. Troll.

Score: 0

By NULLedge

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 2:11 PM

You have a great point. A week of spotty service over a holiday when everyone is playing their new games on their 360s (now those are consoles you can actually enjoy playing games on, not just shiny plastic boxes that cure cancer and have 3D worlds where you can play with dolls "coming soon") is surely enough to bail from an otherwise fun, affordable service. or not.

also, this was a great reminder for me to get my free hd dvd movies bundled with my HDA3. bbl.

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

edited Jan 2, 2008 - 2:10 PM

Don't forget it nets MS over a billion a year in revenue Joey / Dave. Too bad you talk out your a** and are a huge joke or people might actually believe you.

Maybe you can give us some insight as to what it's like to be a pathological liar with absolutely no life.

http://www.cnet.com/5270...0-2.html?userID=1150478

This is the same cnet that shows the 360 average review at 8.5 and the PS3 at 7.4

Score: 0

By Joey Deacon

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 2:56 PM

Sorry, you are plain wrong. I am not DaveBG.

If I were able to prove this, I would, but you will still not be convinced...

Score: 0

By bobthegoat2001

posted Jan 3, 2008 - 3:22 AM

"but you will still not be convinced..."

Because it's already been proved that you are DaveBG by using the same Sony Cybershot when you posted your pictures on imageshack. There's no need for convincing, it's a fact.

Score: 0

By SGD

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 2:58 PM

You are right, Dave may be a little smarter than you and that is real scary since he doesn't know anything either.

Score: 0

By Adrian79

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 1:11 PM

ps3 network, so far i have had wayyyy less issues than xbox live!

only thing that bothers me is I already gave bill $50 for a year of service to play my ONE pc game "shadowrun".

I'll stick with the better free service on my ps3.

goodluck guys!

Score: 0

By Niro

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 2:12 PM

I would hope they don't have issues if they have 1% as many users as xbox live...

Score: 0

By drumcat

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 1:46 PM

That's because it's empty...

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 1:56 PM

drumcat,

I think they have five members now, so I wouldn't call it "empty".

Score: 0

By NULLedge

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 2:12 PM

just wait until they get their SIMS doll house set up, then it will be filled with hotties...

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

edited Jan 2, 2008 - 1:52 PM

My comment was deleted because certain people couldn't answer a single question correctly on the MENSA IQ test or distinguish sarsacm from a serious comment.

Score: 0

By dlab21

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 1:34 PM

Thats why no one is asking you. Microsoft has been apologizing for the problem and yet your opinon is that its a conspiracy, smart.

Score: 0

By Hollywood__

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 1:44 PM

dlab,

You need to get a sarcasm detector because I was kidding. Dave / Joey, you know the one who DOESNT own a 360 is complaining the most.

Score: 0

By dlab21

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 2:45 PM

i guess your form of wit simply goes over my head. Another timeless quip i seem to have misjudged.

Score: 0

By NULLedge

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 2:14 PM

by the time mine dies, if it dies, i'll probably have gotten more use out of it than all the ps3s combined, minus the ones folding at home

Score: 0

By jsmpsn03

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 1:26 PM

It wasn't a conspiracy. I had a number of issues with live. To the person that stated that he would stick with the ps3 since its free, I would say go ahead, but xbox live still beats out ps3 when it is only working halfway. Also, why would you pay 50 dollars a year for the crappy game shadowrun. That is totally stupid.

Score: 0

By DJInsomniac

posted Jan 2, 2008 - 1:00 PM

True story.

Score: 0

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