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Xbox Live For Original Xbox Games Shutting Down

Posted by Soulskill on from the this-is-where-the-sidewalk-ends dept.

itwbennett writes "Giving no explanation beyond that it 'will provide the greatest benefit to the Xbox LIVE community,' Microsoft's General Manager for Xbox Live, Mark Whitten, announced that as of April 15th, Microsoft will be shutting down its Xbox Live service for the original Xbox and its games. 'Cold comfort for those of you who still enjoy playing Xbox titles like Halo 2 with your friends,' writes blogger Peter Smith. But Smith notes that Whitten's announcement does hint at some form of restitution for those affected, encouraging users to check their LIVE messages for more details and opportunities."

26 of 307 comments (clear)

  1. Well... by Jorl17 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We can't sit around and hope that everything will be maintained for ever...
    Sometimes it has to go down as deprecated, no matter when, no matter how, no matter why. Microsoft can and Microsoft shall, that's the price for being at their hands. The reward? To get to use their products.

    --
    Have you heard about SoylentNews?
    1. Re:Well... by jgagnon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It would make far more sense if they had stopped selling XBox games first.

      --
      Remember to maintain your supply of /facepalm oil to prevent chafing.
    2. Re:Well... by blahplusplus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "We can't sit around and hope that everything will be maintained for ever..."

      You wouldn't have this problem on PC, anyone with a server or internet connection can host their own.

    3. Re:Well... by sopssa · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's time to move to newer better games, I mean. Wonder where that fun came from.

    4. Re:Well... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The issue, of course, is less with exactly when a given product is deprecated, and more with how many products are designed such that deprecation is effectively terminal.

      It is hard to make a case for forcing a company to continue to offer a particular good or service(unless they contractually obligated themselves and are violating that contract); but the fact that product design is moving in the direction of deprecation = death is extremely disturbing.

      Historically, with PC games, the creator may or may not have offered a matchmaking service or servers at all, but there was nothing stopping 3rd parties from doing so. Increasingly, through a combination of DRM activation and closer tying of matchmaking services and multiplayer servers to the core game, it is becoming difficult for 3rd parties to step up(and, if they do, they often place themselves in the line of fire with respect to some DMCA or equivalent legal hassle). On the hardware side, it is a matter of driver specs and parts. If driver specs aren't available, deprecation is death more or less as soon as the next major OS comes out. If service guides/tools/parts are tightly restricted, deprecation is death as soon as the parts dry up.

      The fact that products get deprecated is fine. The fact that the severity of deprecation is markedly increasing, and promises only to increase further, is very, very troubling.

    5. Re:Well... by Dan667 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      They could have released a server so people could set up their own if they wanted to continue to use it. This is why vendor lock-in on consoles sucks in the first place.

    6. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      If hardly anyone's using it, how much does it cost them to keep the system on?
      If a substantial number of people are using it.... why should they discontinue support for it?

    7. Re:Well... by poetmatt · · Score: 2, Insightful

      really?
      You think this would happen if it was on a PC and for things that allowed dedicated servers?

      I'll give you a clue: it wouldn't.

      Welcome to what happens when non-technical console users get shoved into the world of pc gaming/become more techie as a result of MS's poor business choices. I hope people realize this applies to apple and any company/services that uses DRM (such as windows live gaming or whatever it's called) as well.

    8. Re:Well... by AndrewNeo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Nothing's stopping you from playing single player Xbox 1 games. If anything now nobody has an excuse not to mod their original Xbox!

    9. Re:Well... by blahplusplus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes he is really, when an MMO shuts down it takes down ONLY the mmo and anyone who gets into MMO's knows this before hand since a game can only maintain the servers for as long as there is paying customers, stand alone games are nothing like this. Hence his fallacious comparison.

    10. Re:Well... by jgagnon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Except that the XBox games being sold still tout their multi-player capabilities. Now if they reduce the XBox game prices to reflect the loss of capabilities and relabel them to suit, this would be less of an issue (but still wholly relevant to those who purchased XBox games recently for their multi-player capabilities).

      And, for the record, I don't own or use the XBox or XBox 360.

      --
      Remember to maintain your supply of /facepalm oil to prevent chafing.
    11. Re:Well... by RobDude · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Game companies can't have it both ways (they can try, but eventually customers will wise up).

      With 'private' servers they host (and only they can host) and even various DRM techniques; they've produced games that require the servers to be up and running for games to continue to work.

      That game you legal purchased and own....you can only expect it to work as advertised, so long as the company continues to keep their end up and running.

      It's easy for people to dismiss concerns of 'Ummm - what if the shut down the servers' and simply say, 'Come'on Microsoft isn't going anywhere!'. But, even in the short time that online gameplay can be expected - we've seen TONS of games lose functionality.

      Apparently, every Xbox game that was playable on Xbox Live is now crippleware.

      Maybe you only play games for 6 months and move on...but some people don't. They enjoy replaying their games. I'll play through FF1 every 2-4 years and that came out in 1987. It's still fun, at least for me. Sure, only a select few games get that level of replay value; but it's *your* game. Or, it should be.

      This is all just another step towards having to 'rent' your games in order to play them. And sitting back and idling dismissing it as 'no big deal' just invites the problem to continue.

    12. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      We can't sit around and hope that everything will be maintained for ever [...] Microsoft can and Microsoft shall, that's the price for being at their hands. The reward? To get to use their products.

      This is just a reaction test to gauge the audience for a much larger community. I'm talking about Windows XP users who must ACTIVATE their install legally when going through yearly spring cleaning or disaster recovery reinstalls. We all complained when Vista came out, and still cling to it, but unlike with those Windows NT, Windows 98 and Windows 2000 boxes that we still see out there in countless small businesses and homes, MS can finally refuse activation and force the client to purchase a new version. My problem is not the fact that old OS's become insecure and a liability to their owners and businesses, but the fact that you'll leave lots of computers in reduced / unusable mode even if they were meant to sit around as a dedicated internal file server or whatever

      Those users *purchased* XP at $200+ dollars --didn't hacked it. That allone will give them a feeling of entitlement to perpetual service, because the home user or small business user does not understand licensing and activation / deactivation, especially when a "no reactivation" date was never published so they could account for it. OEM laptops and PC's, and legal business use volume keys and their PC's don't actually need a web connection or phonecall to reactivate based solely on their serial number. Their IT departments will take care of reinstalls and upgrades to Vista / Windows 7 / Windows 8 for them.

      I can imagine the XP users phoning the MS # as usual to get the reactivation key, only to be told that they need to go out and pay for a new version. I can see angry forum posts and blogs saying how their online activation brings them to an upgrade page, and that even if they wanted to pay for a new windows version, the upgrade advisor finds their hardware too old, since it was designed without even Vista specs in mind. MS just wants to see how 25 million users react to having the plug pulled, and do some math to see how they adjust their plans for a the silent Windows XP death and beginning of a control model they've been craving for a whole decade.

  2. Life expectancy by chilvence · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From the article, Halo 2 has a 5 year run on the internet. Wow, thats a LONG time!

    Doom is still being played online.. that's about 17 years and still going?

    So from this we can see, if you happen to be attached to a particular game, then in future you get to be dispersed by the company for loitering.

    How many people here play chess?

    1. Re:Life expectancy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Spending more money at each step of the way, just like a good little consumer!

      There's no reason that I shouldn't be able to play a game that I paid for into infinity. I had a lot of fun on my bicycle last night. I'm going to ride it again tomorrow, regardless of whether Continental decides to stop making tires for it.

  3. In order to serve you better... by Inf0phreak · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... we have decided not to serve you at all.

    What do you say? That doesn't make any sense? Look! Shiny! New stuff for you to buy, Mr. Consumer!

    --
    ________
    Entranced by anime since late summer 2001 and loving it ^_^
  4. Dedicated servers by TyFoN · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And this is why you want player controlled dedicated servers for your
    favorite FPS or RTS game. A game studio will eventually shut down the central
    one because of the lack of $$. Oh and I am still waiting for a game studio to
    try the monthly fee route for their central server :p

  5. Re:Punish Them by Jorl17 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No, I mean: "You shouldn't buy this game or this service, because it does not give you control of it. You are dependent on the decisions made by the company who made the game/service. Is it fun or useful? Yes it is! However, you'll be funding them so that they can control more and in tougher ways. It's your choice. After all, I don't use their products, YOU do."

    Notice that I am not a "fascist pig" stating that they CANNOT.

    --
    Have you heard about SoylentNews?
  6. Makes sense to me. by ironicsky · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Listen... xBox v1 has been around for almost 10 years. They stopped selling the thing 4 years ago. Look at any Microsoft support life cycle.

    Windows 98
    - Released June 1998
    - Discontinued 2002
    - Extended support ended 2006
    ---Total shelf life - 8 years

    Windows ME
    - Released December 2000
    - Discontinued December 2003
    - Extended support ended 2006
    ---Total shelf life - 6 years

    Windows 2000
    - Released March 2000
    - Discontinued June 2005
    - Extended support ends this summer
    ---Total shelf life - 10 years

    Microsoft is right in line with their typical support life cycle for the xBox. Even though its a different product line, Microsoft is still Microsoft. They cannot support an aging product forever (even if by support I mean maintain a server for it)

  7. To move forward what choice did they have? by grapeape · · Score: 3, Insightful

    People have complained for years about the 100 tag limit on friends list and other seemingly stupid limitations put into place. The reasoning offered by MS then was that in order to maintain compatabilty with original xbox games the limitations in the original live service had to follow over to the 360.

    MS has decided after 5 years of the 360 to remove the legacy caps by removing support for a platform that hasnt been sold in 5 years. You cant really have it both ways...

  8. Re:Punish Them by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Or the non-hypothetical gamer who owns Halo 3 and an Xbox 360, but also enjoys playing Xbox 1 games online from time to time.

  9. Already a trend by revengebomber · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Let's talk about some old games. Take, for one, Halo 2. It's now going to be permanently offline, as a result of it being connected to Microsoft's services. Let's go back though. Take a look at Jedi Knight. Can you play that online anymore? Nope. Microsoft service. Dead. Any of those other MSN/"Zone" games? Dead. At least DirectPlay supported LAN in the same manner as online, so the games all still support that.

    But - Quake 2? Still kicking. Released the same year as JK, too, IIRC. Microsoft continues to do this; they entice game developers with easy online/multiplayer libraries and then kill the service to force people to upgrade. I fear for all the Games for Windows games; that's why I'll never buy a title that uses Games for Windows Live. 10 years down the road, all those games will be permanently offline too, as will (likely) all this trash like CoD42 which uses an even smaller and even more restricted network. Meanwhile, I'll still be playing Quake 3 (and hopefully RAGE, now that it's not being published by EA).

    DirectPlay. Live. When will developers learn?

    --
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  10. Thisis a GREAT thing.. by Lumpy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Because the demand for a "fake" Xboxlive server just became reality.

    Someone will hack one together in short order and post the code out there.

    I love it when Microsoft creates a need for someone to completely hack a service they were providing and decided to end.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  11. Re:Not again! by Undead+Waffle · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Its like when GEnie shut down the Air Warrior servers!

    (did I just date myself?)

    Seriously, though. Halo2 is fun, but its 2010. Play Halo3. All of the rest of us know its identical to Halo2 only with better graphics. You'll barely even notice the change if you're on an equally old TV.

    And it sure sounded to me like they aren't happy they're making the move and, unlike most companies that do it, are planning on interacting with the affected people *somehow*.

    I know people on Slashdot hate Microsoft for just about everything, but once you pull your head out of that hole, I don't see how this is worth grabbing the pitchforks for. If you aren't one of the people impacted, why do you care so much, and if you are *they said they're going to work with you about it*. So why are you bent out of shape *before they have*?

    So you're saying Halo 3 is exactly like Halo 2, but because Halo 2 was released so long ago they should just buy a new console and Halo 3 to continue playing the same game?

    And then you're saying people need to pull their head out of the hole and get over their hatred for Microsoft?

    ...

  12. Re:What did you expect? by VGPowerlord · · Score: 2, Insightful

    For them to support the original console for another decade? The console was released in '01!

    And more importantly, its replacement was released in '05!

    --
    GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
  13. Re:Take it a step further, now back a step by BigDogCH · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Do you grow your own food, or cede control of that to others?"

    Makes sense. It is annoying when I can't eat my food because they took down the server and now I can't activate it. It is even worse that I can't give my food to someone else or resell it; I should have purchased it on DVD or downloaded the installer. Perfect analogy.

    You can't keep track of your stuff, thus those who prefer having a local installer that doesn't need activation or an internet connection must leave society. Makes sense.

    I agree with Bengal. I buy a game and play it for years. I still have a PS2 which works great for LAN parties.......sadly only a few dozen games support LAN without going through an online server.

    Bengal and I are in the minority I believe, which means my days of buying video games are over. Almost everything I play is now FOSS.

    There are too many great open source projects out there to be willing to buy games.