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Xbox Live For Original Xbox Games Shutting Down
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."
As an avid gamer, I hate the way modern games are moving away from the old model of pay once, play forever, and moving toward licensing. It may not be called licensing by the producers, but that's exactly what it is. How many of us still enjoy a nostalgic game of Donkey Kong, or Super Mario Bros.? I'm sure there is still a group of gamers out there who enjoy a multiplayer game of Quake or Command and Conquer.
Ten years from now, a few friends would like to play a game of Halo 2, but they won't be able to. Just last year, I sank a good 30 hours into the original Sid Mier's(sp?) Colonization, like I have been doing since 1996. I don't know the details about Xbox Live, or Halo 2, but if the game requires a centralized Live server for multiplayer functionality, then it simply won't work. In effect, you are only licensing a portion of the game for a certain period of time. Sure, you can code your own server from scratch, like the Star Wars Galaxies fans have done, but that still eliminates 90% of the fans who will one day want to replay the game that they loved.