Since Microsoft knew you were tired of having your holiday break marred by the annoyingly frequent news of
Xbox Live outages, they've decided to redefine the verbage, newspeak style. Apparently the term "Status: Up and running" has now been expanded to include a laundry list of "intermittent issue" caveats some users might be experiencing, including but not limited to trouble with: "Tournaments, Storage Downloads, Gamer Tile, Statistics through Arbitration, Match Making, and Messaging." If you're hoping to play Halo 3 or Call of Duty 4 online (you rebel, you) you're most likely even more out of luck. There are also far-reaching problems that trace back to Windows Live IDs, so there's a decent chance that your Zune account is on the fritz at the moment as well. But don't worry, it's all up and running.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted Dec 29th 2007 7:17PM
Word, my girlfriend has been at home trying to play Halo 3, and she said the wait time is like 12 minutes just to get a match. But... tis the season...
yeah earlier today me and friends were having trouble on COD4 over XBL. they said its been acting up for the last couple of dayz. it took 5-10 mins to get into a game but once you get into room and get rolling it was smooth sailing. oh well i hope some ppl learn from this and realize how good we have most of the time in our lives.
Its been sporadic for me since Christmas, and I've have had problems tonight as well. Hope they fix this soon, my subscription is almost up and I may just let it expire until they fix these issues. No point paying for something I can't use.
Go and give your girlfriend something else to keep her occupied then. You have 12 mins to kill after all...
Chick: "Damn XBL is down"
Dude: "Well, I'm sure we can't find something to do while we wait..."
Chick: "No, Dave."
Dude: "Please?"
Chick: "We'll play local co-op"
Dude: "I hate you Halo. I hate you."
Today was fine, but yesterday I had a lot of trouble getting matches in the evening. I waited 15mins for one match, and gave up and changed playlist. Ranked was easier to get a match than Social. But they still took 8-12 mins each.
Pac-man left one dot.
I heard from the support that it should be fine by tomorrow afternoon, let's all hope.
I finally buy my own xbox and I can't even recover my account to it. Earlier I was able to get to the point where it would at least attempt to download my account to my box but now I put my gamertag in and it says "it doesn't exist."
Some sort of compensation does seem in order.
I was told the same thing several days ago by support. They told me they are "adding new servers". I think its just a canned response since I'm sure a horde of people are calling.
Connectivity is an "issue." Subscriptions are an "issue." The war, abortion, environment, etc. are "issues." An issue is a general topic that can be discussed and debated.
Not being able to connect? That's called a "problem" or an "error." Server is dead or the database is jammed? Those are "problems." People don't experience "issues," they talk about them. They do experience "problems." Too bad MS can't bring themselves to admit that.
Don't fall into this trap. You're not having issues. You're having problems.
uZ alz hatttes Microsoft!!! u Wuldnt bee doingn this to aPple!!!
wtf are you saying?!
we're not mario, so please use english
Why do they make it so hard to read? How about a solid background and a non-bold typeface at least.
I was just about to say that. That background is fine when it says Up and Running or w/e (I can't even REMEMBER what it says when it's all good.. it's been so long) but with so much text it's really hard to read. As if xbox users aren't ALREADY pissed off, lets help by making our poor excuses hard to read.
They don't want us to be able to read it :]
Im on Call of Duty 4 right now and my connection is F*cked Up!.
Whoops! I guess that's what hapens when one tries to leave a comment from a PC using Internet Exploder...
I have not been able to recover my gamer tag since Thursday night. I can even play my off line saved game files.
If I use my upstairs 360 (the one that has the purchased content under my girlfriend's ID) with my profile being on a memory card... the downloaded games crash HARD. The first time it happened I thought my machine was going out (since the machine locks) or that my account was fried... of course checking on the website it showed no record of my account (since they were having issues!)
The whole idea about accounts and locking content to accounts is stupid as crap to me. Esp. with two 360s in the house. I don't want to balance points, save games and characters like a full time sysadmin! I just want to turn on my machine and play a game!
Yesterday my friend and I played Halo 3 with some connection issues at first but between 6pm and 3am everything seemed fine. During that time my brother was playing Call of Duty 4 online for several hours as well. Today I have had the dreaded "Restarting Search" in Halo 3 ranked team slayer playlists intermittently. It currently says the population is 25,204 for this particular match which is quite low. I did see the message posted here yesterday but it wasn't nearly as long! I hope the issues are worked out shortly but I have been playing without any troubles maybe...70% of the time over the past 2 days.
Yeah this is a bit silly now. I'm a big XBox 360 fan(boy) :P but I do think we're all entitled to some compensation. 1000 free MS points, anyone?
I agree. Im paying 50 dollars a year, just to not be able to play. Either a month of live free or at least 1000 ms points
Can MS do anything right? What is so hard about I sold X Xbox so now I need Y servers.
Their calculators can't divide by zero, they can't do the math.
This is SERIOUSLY getting stupid. They're a multi-billion dollar company and they can't fix something like this? If it were a free service then okay, I could understand it...but we're paying customers so like others I feel we deserve some kind of compensation...I would like a free arcade game of our choosing, so that would be what 800 points?
800 points is $10. A week of live 95 cents.
I doubt they will give us anything, unless it is some extra xbox live time.
@Peter, it's not about that though, it's about keeping their customers satisfied. Plus it's not like those points actually cost them $10.
@Cereal, I would be surprised if they didn't do something, adding a week to everyones subscription would be the obvious thing.
Well maybe it is because so many people are still trying to play.
I called support and first got an overseas call bank. Called back and got an nice guy who confirmed that there are major troubles a-brewing, but it should be fixed in the next 24. It doesn't take brains to predict that people would want to play over winter holidays. Seems to this Xbox fanboy that Live is cutting $ome corners. Very disappointed.
Not necessarily. This holiday season may have exceeded even their best expectations. I know it was bad the week Halo 3 was released but they did resolve it relatively quickly.
I agree with people saying they should have planned better, hopefully this opens their eyes to what needs to be done for next year.
I'd be interested to see what their figures are on concurrent connections this week compared to last year and the weeks leading to this. I doubt they'll ever share that though.
Compensation wise, maybe a free month? I don't know, the way their payment plan is structured most people are probably upset because they JUST spent 50 bucks (or whatever it is), where I spent that back in July for renewal, so for me it isn't as much of a "I just wasted money!" issue. Enough complaints though and odds are they will compensate someway. I'd rather get free points or whatever, maybe get a free song or two for GH or an arcade game. *shrug*
I was able to go on XBOX live to get my ass owned in Halo 3 on the 28th. I didnt have any issues when i logged in since i went on at about 12:30pm and ended at 2:00pm. i didnt find anything to be out of the ordinary. I just got my 360, so when i found out that my connection was crap today, I freaked out that my 360 was faulty. I was going to return it. But i realize that this is something Microsoft has to deal with. Jesus Christ, I got my 360 three days ago. I at least want to enjoy my first free month of gold.
I love how Xbox live is the only online gaming platform you need to pay for, and the time of year its going to be busiest, it crashes, brilliant...
Do they even add the number of days its been down to the subscription length of those affected?
Just stop whining for a couple of cents. If you get need such a small amount that badly, maybe you shouldn't have a 360.
Peter, I don't think it's about the small amount of money it's worth but rather the usage we have missed out on. Yes, we can fill our spare time with other endeavours, however we have an Xbox because we enjoy using it. If your gym closed down for a week because of an issue they should have been able to fix in a few hours, wouldn't you be a bit annoyed?
RK has understood what I was saying much better than you have PeterF. Xbox live is providing you with a service, and considering the amount of trouble they've been having over the past few days I think those paying for the service have a right to be pissed off. Its the christmas vacation, I'm pretty sure a lot of people have bought new subscriptions as christmas gifts.
As the only paid gaming service, you should get what you pay for, a working service, and the amount of time you have lost due to server problems added on to the end of your subscription. If you've paid for 6 months Xbox live, and its broken for 2 weeks, you haven't had the 6 months you paid for, you should get reimbursed for the time lost.
PeterF, you need to realize that this is prime time for A LOT of folks to play their new games that they got during X-mas on XBox Live due to Winter Break/Vacation from work. Any other time of the year most people are busy and don't have as many opportunities to veg out in front of their TVs playing games.
Well PeterF, since you want to take that route...
I can't play XBL Arcade titles I have purchased and own. All 50 of them.
I have the money, and I PAID the money. And since I PAID for an Elite system and moved my content from my old Premium to it, now I can't play stuff I own.
Because they are screwing up...AGAIN.
So save the 'stop being a whiner' talk. Some of us are being barred from content we purchased and in that case we have a right to be upset about it.
Oddly enough I've resorted to playing COD4 online on my roommate's PS3 since its not working on my XBL. Created my own login and account and everything.
What's also odd is that during the Halo 3 launch when a massive flux of people were online, MS didn't have these problems. The service was running smooth as silk.
What's sad is that there are going to be a ton of people that have purchased the 360 this holiday season, and these people won't upgrade the Silver account due to so many problems with this service in this isolated period of time.
My bro's 360 has had no Xbox Live issues.
I turn on my XBOX, it connects to XBOX Live, tells me which friends are online and then...tells me to sign into XBOX Live. I tried that about 20 times (must've been fun seeing me sign on that many times in about 5 minutes for those friends), gave up and checked the news.
Bah!
This is the exact same issue I am having. :(
I'm pretty ticked about the whole thing. I don't get a lot of time to veg out in front of the xbox and play all my new christmas games save just for a week or so arond the new year.
I haven't been able to even play my single-player games offline for the last few days. y'all can tell me to get a life or whatever, and that's fine. but for a guy who loves his videogame time, this is pretty lame.
however, I have filled the void by logging onto the xboxlive.com forums and laughing at the posts from all the people who are making death threats and saying they want to "blow up microsoft". at least I'm not that desperate.
(...yet)
So more like its up and running in an electric wheelchair.
At least those give a smooth ride =P
Missing a wheel.
Call. This. Number.
Xbox Live Customer Service 1-800-469-9269
Why? They can't pull up your customer information right now.
Sarcasm.
Their customer service is currently equally stellar. :o
This is ridiculous, Call of Duty 4 is the only game I play on Xbox Live. I figure Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3 make for an extremely large percentage of players on Live, it seems a bit ridiculous to call it "up and running" when the two biggest games don't function properly. I know it's only been a couple days and it's hardly the end of the world, but the fact is that I pay for a service and therefore I expect it to work. I would appreciate some sort of compensation. My brother can't even play at all since he can't recover his account, so this isn't something they should just blow off.
Oh well, back to UT3.
The ps3 is looking better and better.
no kidding,
im not a ps3 fanboy,
nor a 360 fanboy,
but i would get a ps3 after hearin of some of the problems the 360 has/had,
especially the RRoD,
who cares that the 360 marketplace looks like a Godess compared to the PS3 Network,
at least its workin right :/
I more pissed off that most of our gear that came with rock band doesn't work or just sucks.
I don't care what they do as long as its up very soon...put in some overte and get it fixed ms
The situation actualy seems to have gotten worse. Alot of people have limited time off, this is not a good time to disappoint them.
Calling CS isn't going to do anything. Unless you throw a big fit, it will just be another incident for the archives. Compensation would be nice. And we do pay for the service. Still, keep in mind that Live is the single best online gaming community because we pay for it. Every service has down time. It is a large assumption to say it could be fixed in a few hours. Basically, all I have to say is this... s*** happens.
What's causing the problems, anyway?
a combination of halo 3 and a lot of people with spare time...
If that's the case then they are such a worthless ignorant. It's holiday season by the way and they did not anticipate that?
Not a 360 hater (been re-beating Crackdown the past few hours, go figure)... but this does make a fairly compelling case for the dedicated servers approach used by the PS3 and PC platforms. At least then when there's an issue it's game specific.
If this keeps up I might start buying even more multiplat games on PS3. As it is I only ended up on the PS side with Call of Duty 4 because I could get it $15 cheaper at BB two weeks back... but if it's achievements vs. uptime I may be going PS3 more often.
And to top all this off, the Wenkinz site was down... you don't know pain until you have a 5yr old unable to access her Webkinz account!
MajorNelson.com is down now too! Go figure.
Time to turn off the 360 this is a waste of hours in its MTBF good night!
They seem to be doing some work in the database. I finally received a call from them today telling me that I should finally be able to access my previously downloaded content with my silver accounts. The wife's been locked out of all of her XBLA games since I got my RRoD replacement 3 months ago but now it seems like we're locked out everything for the time being. Judging by the problems acknowledged by MS, it seems they've corrupted their database(s).
Microsoft Home Server strikes again!
I only had a problem for about 5 minutes Christmas day. Otherwise I've been fine. But there are so many single player campaigns to beat right now that Live wasn't too big a deal to me. I'd feel almost like I was cheating if they gave me free time. Almost.
I don't enjoy getting negative exp in Halo3 when LIVE decides to crap out on me without any intervention from me. 3rd time it's happened too.
Can't you see that servers take money....and technical service persons take money. Bill G will just wait until xmas break is over and his troubles will go away. He has your money and you have nothing. Unless you start a class action law suit against him, non of this conversation matters. Do any of you have the time to start a law suit against Bill G??? He's hoping that you don't.....it's a calcualted risk. Try reading a book until break is over.....or maybe make a snow man if you dare. And remember...try not to get shot.....it's a tough world out there.
This has been going on for way too long. Since a few days before christmas. I can barely play a game. I have resorted to just watching prison break. Please get Live back up Microsoft. I need some HALO 3 to keep me sane. Also some microsoft points would be nice!
Video games "up and running"? No, I'm pretty sure that you're "down and sitting". After all, this isn't a Wii, it's just the only thing we could find in stock.
I just got a f'in RROD today. I don't know if it was cause of this crap or just my Xbox frying after all those ausomo rampages on COD4. Fetch my xbox right now Microsoft.
It's getting worse...
I just got an xbox yesterday, and the first time I try xbox live, it doesnt work!!!!11!!!!! BULL SHIT!!!!! maybe i'll return it and get a ps3!!
As upset as I am, I wouldn't recommend it. Despite this outage, it's generally been bulletproof and it's a great service that's very well integrated in the system. I'd wait till you've tried it to go to the PS3. Who cares if the online play is free if the games suck?
as a PS3 owner who spends quite a bit of time in the dorm playing as a 'guest' on friends' XBL accounts, XBL is way better than how the PS3 handles things. The ability to have multiple people playing on one Xbox alone makes it better, plus accomplishments... If you want an online store for games and so on, then the PS3 is fine, but the PS3 still has a way to go before what it offers is up to the standard of XBL. Of course, there's always firmware upgrades, so I'll just keep hoping.
they changed it for ya!
Status:
Users may experience issues logging into Xbox Live. We are aware of the issue and are currently working to resolve it. We apologize for any inconvenience.
10:53 PM Atlantic Time (GMT -04:00) December 29, 2007
Yep, intermittent problems since yesterday.
Tonight the Halo team were supposedly hosting an all-nighter event...its already fucked up.
Now we BETTER get some compensation. At first it was ok but this is ridiculous!
I love Xbox Live and all. Definitely don't mind paying for it to get something good. Especially when comparing it to the PlayStation network.
One problem is, if we have to pay, the frickin thing should work!!
I guess all the smart people at MS are on vacation for the holiday. The scabs can't figure out what has been going on for the last week. Maybe things will finally be fixed Wednesday when everyone gets back to work.
It's been really annoying. Even the Xbox Live parts of the Dashboard are taking forever to load. Hopefully it gets fixed very soon.
I am sick of the shit with M$ and xbox live. Its freaking crap, I pay for online play that isn't even dedicated servers its all p2p and the backbone shit can't even stay working for a week with no issues. Why pay for this?
I would rather trade in my 360 and all my games and stuff for a PS3 at least if the online goes down I am not losing anything i.e my money.
What gets me is since I purchased an Elite and moved all my Arcade titles from my old system to it I can not play my XBL Arcade titles because I can't sign in.
Not only do they need to fix this issue with XBL, they need to figure out a way to fix Arcade titles so offline profiles can play content they paid money for.
While system outage might be something we have to admit just happens, I have a feeling this XBL Arcade issues are ripe for a class action lawsuit.
Not only the XBL issues, but all of these hardware issues and the completely inept xbox staff (customer service thru repair). I sent my 360 back a month ago (no video, no red lights) and got a replacement with a RRoD right outta the Fedex box. I went out and bought a new system with the hope that I can sell the replacement if they ever fix it correctly. It's such a shame that I prefer the xbox platform because that PS3 was looking really nice the other day. Having said that, someone with the time adn resources really needs to start a class action suit against MS for all of this s**t. Theres only one thing that makes companies like MS feel pain and thats losing money.
This is about as entertaining to watch as a wow outage.
Good News: PS Online is running great!
Bad news: No one plays PS online, and its multiplayer offerings are far behind the Xbox
FYI, I own a PS3, PS online account ("Psychopathy"), so you can go to hell before you accuse me of being some MS troll.
Why aren't your videogame specific sister sites reporting this issue? You've confirmed its a problem, yet Joystiq and Xbox360Fanboy haven't said word one about it. wtf?
I thought Live was more reliable than PS3's online?
Who would've wondered. It turned out to be just like the console itself.
"I can't stress enough that Account Recovery should ONLY be used in emergencies."
A) Don't display it so damn prominently....
and/or
B) Label it as such....
and/or
c) Make it work (imagine!!!)
and/or
d) relax your ruthless DRM stranglehold so importing your gamertag isn't essential for enjoying content I previously purchased
AND....
e) Stop blaming your paying customers for your own company's inadequate, malfunctioning, deficient product.
Absurd for M$ not be prepared for the busiest travel season of the year, while people are off work, and account mobility could be figured as a given by a third grader!
Well, my free HD DVD's showed up finally. Been watching U2 and Daisy Duke instead of gaming. I do expect some sort of compensation since I am paying for this.
Anybody know an email address we can send to?
At one point tonight, it showed only 1500+ people on Social Slayer (Halo 3). That's crazy. My husband still can't recover his GT and has been playing under my 14 yr old daughter's. He's been trying to get his for 2 days now. It did improve at the night wore on, more people on Halo 3, but as of 2am (EST)...still no joy getting the gamer tag. I am going to bed and getting up at 5am to see if I can get it then.
This is so true. Xbox Live has been horrible this month. I've been waiting on Kotaku to post something similar to this but all the posted was a "tip" from someone in Canada saying service was down there. Thanks for doing the job Kotaku should have been on top of in the first place.
You know, it's M$ we're talking about. We know the way they handle windows. It's so typical of M$. They keep adding useless stuff without giving their best to fix issues. A quick example would be how slow the transfer rate in Vista, but yet where is the fix? Not even in the SP1.
This also applies to 360. RRoD hasn't been really fixed yet. They are trying to build a media center, so at least making the console as quiet as possible should be one of those main considerations. Sure the fans are less noisier than before, but man compare to my PS3 and Wii, 360 is like a lawn mower.
Having this issue during the holiday season isn't tolerable at all. But hey it's M$ they don't even care. Like it or not, people still use and buy their product. Sadly, I'm among them.
No COD4...No Halo...
guess its back to gettin faded and playing geometry wars!
Another embarrasment for the big M.
@JulianDel:
What do you mean? I use IE7 and comments work all the time?
Maybe you need to get a clue.