Xbox Live - The Christmas Zombie

SEWilco writes "Xbox Live is not working, as mentioned 36 hours ago in an Xbox team blog. Even if you can get logged in, multiplayer matchmaking doesn't find enough players for games. For a while Zune Marketplace was also affected. At present Zune status claims 'Up and running' while Xbox Live status continues to say 'Users may experience intermittent issues logging onto Xbox Live. Our engineers are continuing to investigate and are working to resolve this issue. We apologize for any inconvenience.' This has been been going on for days." My assumption is that this is the result of lots of new XBLA users logging in with Christmas 360s.

Comments

Sony's service, however, is unaffected

[Anonymous Coward]

Quoted from a spokesperson, Heis Afake:

"We were worried, but while the three new users of our online service did add some strain, we managed to keep it up and running."

Re:Sony's service, however, is unaffected

[elrous0]

If an online service crashes in the woods, and no one is playing it to notice, does it really crash?

Re:Sony's service, however, is unaffected

[G Fab]

Agreed. The PS3 could be marketed as a value, but it's marketed in too abstract a fashion. They try to tell you about all the things it can do, but fall on their face trying too look super cool.

That said, my 360 is on more often because it's got better games. I still like the PS3 more, band I have spent less on PS3 when you factor everything in.

The PS3 is very cool and full of neat little surprised you can play with. Themes, Ubuntu, remote play, streaming, it's all done very smoothly and I bet you're having a blast. I know few people who regret that PS3, and I hope you have fun with it. But I still think the 360 is the better system to purchase just because it's got better content. You pay more for the 360, a lot more probably, but it's got better games.

I don't know if that will be true after gt5, MGS4, and FF13 come out. But right now the 360 is better, and the market will always be close enough that every great third party game will probably be ported. Looking at the way Konami is talking, saying they must sell 1 million MGS4 discs on day one, sounds like they are inventing an excuse to port MGS4 in a year or so to the 360. IF MGS4 ports, then I really think that's an omen that all third party games will be ported in both directions. It's just too damn expensive to make these games (how long has the 300 person MGS4 team been working on this game? 3 years?).

Enjoy your slick system, man. A PS3 is a kick-ass christmas. I encourage you to get a PSP if you lack one, and definitely get the Eye. It's the little tech things that make this system cool, even in the absence of games I expected to be out by now.

Predates Christmas

[HTH NE1]

My assumption is that this is the result of lots of new XBLA users logging in with Christmas 360s. Not an assumption of mine. On the Firehose before Christmas weekend there were submissions reporting of problems. Though that could have been from people celebrating Christmas early, it seemed far too early still for that.

Re:Predates Christmas

[gorbachev]

XBL seems to be straining. There have been more issues with the service in 2007 than all previous years combined (maybe the beta testing period excluded).

What's troubling is that the mean time between failure seems to be decreasing sharply, and Microsoft seems to be unable to prevent them from happening at all. And fixing is taking longer and longer.

Re:Predates Christmas

[MBCook]

Ditto. I got a 360 in mid December or so. XBox Live has been flakey since the day I got it. Sometimes you couldn't log in, sometimes you couldn't get to the marketplace. Just problems and more problems. I was worried that I would be missing something not paying for Live Gold, now I'm glad I didn't. The Christmas set only made things worse.

My last experience with XBL was in '04-'05 after Halo 2 came out. That was the last time I used the service and it worked fantastically then. This kind of thing didn't happen then.

I can't say all this surprises me too much. I've ran into more than a few questionable design choices on the 360.

I hope they get things working better. All they did was reassure me in my decision not to pay them for their "service".

Re:Predates Christmas

[Xzzy]

Even most of 2007 was pretty rock solid. Things only started going wonky around the time of the fall update. I've been an XBL subscriber since the start and this is the only significant outage they've had that I can remember (note: my brain likes to purge old data points). Yeah, it sucks. But it's not the end of the world. There's plenty of other ways for me to waste my free time so its not like it's my sole source of entertainment.

I do find it amusing how loudly a lot of people are complaining. The same people who have spent the past couple years praising the xbox for how much better than the PS3 it is are now pulling out the pitchforks, promising to go get a PS3 if the XBL problems don't get fixed.

Loyalty is a funny thing. ;)

Re:Predates Christmas

[MoonFog]

I got Orange Box and Call of Duty 4 for xmas, and COD has really been struggling at times. Playing Team Fortress 2 otoh, has worked very well all the time.

Re:Predates Christmas

[Cheapy]

It must be you then! GET HIM!

I started to see problems after the 22nd. Before then, everything worked really well. I thought for a while that it was my wireless connection, but I guess not.

This is the only time I've seen XBL have issues, so I wouldn't judge it just by now. It's usually great. They just did an update a few weeks ago, so that might've done this.

Re:Predates Christmas

[Dan Ost]

Consumer loyalty is easily earned and easily spent.
That's why companies re-brand themselves so often.

Re:Predates Christmas

[cplusplus]

Funny, as a Gold user and 360 owner for a couple years now, I've never really seen any problems until recently (and slight ones at that). I doubt it will last much longer. I've been nothing but impressed with Xbox Live so far, and would be hard pressed to give up my membership.

Re:Predates Christmas

[xero314]

On the Firehose before Christmas weekend... Can someone explain how this is news that hits the main page when other articles in the firehose that are bright ass red and ready to go get completely passed over. I mean the articles about Activision and their proprietary controllers was far more news worthy than XBox Live not being able to handle increased capacity. Seriously is Activision paying the editors here to keep their bad press of the main page or is the anti-Microsoft sentiment just that high.

Xbox Live is a major selling point for me

[UbuntuDupe]

I'm sort of at a crossroads between getting at 360 or a PS3. The main thing driving me to get the 360 is Xbox Live, and it's kind of surprising that they can't handle a surge of new purchases. (Are they not expecting people to buy?) Without Xbox Live, the PS3 looks superior, with a free Blu-Ray drive and Wi-fi attached.

Re:Xbox Live is a major selling point for me

[__aawdrj2992]

While we are both speculating, I think it is related to the load on the Windows Live, .NET, ect. servers. Windows Live messenger was acting flaky for a friend the same time I was having XBOX Live login problems. Zune Marketplace is also an extension of these services.

Re:Xbox Live is a major selling point for me

[oahazmatt]

Actually, I've noticed it is not XBL that I've been having problems connecting to, but the Messenger, as you've noted was having trouble. I can get signed in, play online games, etc, but Messenger will not load.

Re:Xbox Live is a major selling point for me

[Blakey Rat]

It's not people buying new Xboxes. After all, when Halo 2 and Halo 3 came out, Xbox Live had no trouble handling the additional load from people who don't normally play on Live. I think it's related to their last software update, or perhaps some shenanigans from some game title out there now.

That said, this isn't a total outage. I logged on to Live just yesterday, sent some Viva Pinata items to a friend (yes, make fun of me, I played Viva Pinata!) and everything worked fine. If I hadn't seen this article, I'd never know there was an issue. I do realize, though, that playing Viva Pinata and sending an item is a lot different than playing Halo 3.

Re:Xbox Live is a major selling point for me

[antek9]

I'm still curious as to why Xbox Live would normally have you sold, especially considering that PSN gets better with every update (as opposed to, well, XBL, as it seems). You can of course sit and wait how this plays out, maybe the introduction of Home (only, when?) tips you over, or Little Big Planet or whatever.

And there is one thing you forgot: You can install Ubuntu on a PS3, legally. Come on, it's time for another chance, don't you think? ;)

Who cares?

[Slashdot Suxxors]

Who cares what the problem is? Just fix the damn service already. I pay Microsoft for XBL. It had better damn work. Me not being able to host a private match with some of my buddies for days on end is fucking ridiculous.

Editor strike still going on?

[frovingslosh]

...... Even if you can get logged in, multiplayer matchmaking doesn't find enough players for games. ........ My assumption is that this is the result of lots of new XBLA users logging in with Christmas 360s.

So your theory is that because of a lot of new players, Microsoft can't find enough players for games? Would you care to rethink that theory?

Re:Editor strike still going on?

[halcyon1234]

Fry: No one drove in New York. There was too much traffic.

Re:This Is One Of The Reasons...

[Xzzy]

At least with a computer, there are LAN gaming options (although some game platforms may have LAN gaming capabilities, they don't seem to be as flexible or easy to set up, or even as well thought-out).

Every xbox game I have ever played that supported any kind of multiplayer also supported LAN based play. In fact early on, before XBL was running, it was all the games supported. Was one of the most painless things you could experience as well. Wire up all the xboxes to a hub, and every xbox that turned on would start talking to each other. Wouldn't even need a dhcp server working. Someone fires up a game and makes a server, everyone else can instantly drop in.

There may be a lot of good arguments to favor PC gaming over console gaming.. but the LAN situation ain't one of them.

Re:Doesn't Stop Enough

[JensenDied]

I have to agree, I've taken to just unplugging my cable from my 360, playing any game that updates stats online (Forza Motorsport 2, I'm looking at you) seems to want to hang out after submitting until you become disconnected, since this process is blocking, and occurs before saving this one act can take well over the length of time it takes to: a) sit through loading screens b) race and finish c) watch the ai race and finish the course(several times) d) finish a temple on zelda e) come back and disconnect live then play next race

Re:Let's be fair...

[DaveCBio]

Blah, blah, blah, the same old tired rant from an ignorant PC gamer. I game on pretty well every platform out there on a regular basis and there is NOTHING that comes close to the slickness and universal integration of Live. It was good on the Xbox, but it's seriously fantastic on the 360. Show me anything on the PC that allows universal friends, voice chat, messaging, score comparison, achievements, etc. on the PC without having to cobble together a bunch of different applications that all your friends need to grab as well. It's truly plug and play online gaming.

Re:Up and running at 1:54 EST on 12-31-2007

[SleptThroughClass]

When you wait for two hours before getting 3 people in a game which requires 8 people, and the matchmaking times out after a few minutes... it's down.

Classic Microsoft support

[Doug52392]

Did anyone see the Xbox Live status at xbox.com/support? It says "Status: Users may experience intermittent issues with login, account recovery, matchmaking, and statistics. We are aware of the issue and are actively working towards a resolution. We apologize for any inconvenience.". Reminds me of a classic Microsoft joke: A helicopter was flying around above Seattle yesterday when an electrical malfunction disabled all of the aircraft's electronic navigation and communication equipment. Due to the clouds and haze the pilot could not determine his position or course to steer to the airport. The pilot saw a tall building, flew toward it, circled, drew a handwritten sign and held it in the helicopter's window. The sign said "WHERE AM I ?" in large letters. People in the tall building quickly responded to the aircraft, drew a large sign and held it in a building window. Their sign said, "YOU ARE IN A HELICOPTER." The pilot smiled, waved, looked at his map and determine the course to steer to SEATAC (Seattle/Tacoma) airport and landed safely. After they were on the ground, the co-pilot asked the pilot how the "YOU ARE IN A HELICOPTER" sign helped determine their position. The pilot responded, "I knew that had to be the MICROSOFT building because they gave me a technically correct but completely useless answer."

Re:Let's be fair...

[Surlyboi]

I love the "ignorant PC gamer" tag.

That said, try playing online with more than 12 people at a time on an XBox. Or... choosing which server you want to play on.

XBox live has a lot going for it, but to claim it's better than a computer on every level is specious at best.

Re:this isn't the first time

[The Analog Kid]

Imagine if WoW didn't work for a week? Why would that be unacceptable and LIVE not working for a week be considered OK?

That has actually indeed happened, well I don't think constantly for one week, but anyone who has played on Kel'Thuzad from the beginning can tell you, how they actually had to get up and go do something else besides playing WoW for a few days.

Live has been a little flaky for a few days, disconnecting once or twice and one COD4 matches not starting and some little lag other than that it's been fine.

Re:this isn't the first time

[Liquidrage]

"Imagine if WoW didn't work for a week"

WoW is down all the time. XBL has much better uptime then WoW.