downtime
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Xfinity’s parental controls offer more precise scheduling for internet use
Comcast and its Xfinity brand have put a lot of attention behind the company's xFi internet management services in recent years, offering parents a pretty comprehensive set of tools to manage how much time family members spend online. One of those tools is scheduling a "bedtime mode" which takes a family member's devices offline. While handy, it's a pretty limited feature, letting you pick an offline time for weeknights and a different one for weekends. Today, though, xFi's scheduling features are getting a big upgrade: users can add up to 30 individual "downtime" sessions into each user's profile, giving parents far more granular controls over when their kids (or themselves) can access the internet.
Slack is down, now get to work (Update: It's back)
Slack has been down since 9:30AM Eastern. At the time of this post, it's been over 90 minutes since the service went offline, leaving millions of professionals scrambling for ways to communicate with their colleagues. But instead of freaking out, I'll just make a simple suggestion: Get to work. You remember, the stuff we used to do before spending all day swapping GIFs and memes on Slack. Catch up on your emails. Get started on that report you've been putting off. Take this reprieve from Slack pings as an excuse to focus, because multitasking is a lie.
H1Z1 suffers overnight downtime, whispers of server wipes [Updated]
It's not an easy time to be playing H1Z1 right now, especially since you sort of can't. The game's servers went down last night for a quick fix, according to Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley; they've been down since, with players getting increasingly vocal and anxious about what comes next. No further updates have come from the company after Smedley's assurance that there are issues to be fixed that cannot be solved simply by rolling back to the previous patch. Once players can get back in to the game, there may very well be a server wipe greeting them (a possibility suggested by the technical director), although perks like tickets, crates, and cosmetic recipes will not be lost in the event of a server wipe. SOE has promised to give plenty of notice before taking such drastic measures. Players are divided on whether this is a good thing or not, although widespread reports of item duping sit at the root of the issue. There's still no ETA on when the servers will be back online or what will be fixed when they come back up, but players could be looking at a very different environment. [Update: Servers appear to be up again now. SOE has said that the promised European servers are still incoming: "getting MORE servers, still calculating what we can fit."]
ArcheAge servers are back up; Trion is sorting out in-game timers
If you're following the ongoing saga of ArcheAge problems, you probably know that the game had all of the servers shut down over a holiday weekend, which could theoretically solve the game's exploit issues in the same way that setting fire to your house solves any problems you have with your wallpaper. The server issues were stated to be a result of emergency maintenance, with community representatives denying that it was connected to servers overheating, DDoS attacks, or exploits. The good news is that out of the game's 21 servers, 16 were up and running last night, with the last five brought online early this morning. Players are promised compensation, which will be revealed later today. Unfortunately for players who had taxes due, the timers for all services continued to roll while the servers were down, so crops, housing plots, and the like were all still affected by time during the lengthy maintenance cycle. Trion says it is "definitely aware this is an issue for players with taxes due and is talking with XLGAMES about the best way to resolve it while the servers are offline." A server rollback is not in the cards. But at least the servers are back online. We'll have more updates on the compensation for players when it is announced.
Some of ArcheAge's servers are back online this morning
Trion's FireCait addressed the latest ArcheAge downtime crisis on the official forums just before 5 a.m. this morning: Hi all! Here's the latest update for everyone. You can log into the following EU servers: Shatigon, Kyprosa, Eanna, Dahuta, Aier, Orchidna & Melisara. We continue to work on Nui, Janudar and Nebe. In North American, you can log into Aranzeb, Naima, Kyrios, Ollo, Tahyang, Salphira, Enla, Ezi and Lucius. Inoch and Calleil continue to be offline as we work to resolve the issues on those servers. Please note that the servers that are being worked on will show up on the server selection, and vanish from the server selection screen, as they are being worked on. Their visibility is not an indication of their status until we indicate that they are fully online. We expect to have another update for you in the mid-late morning (Pacific time). Thank you all for your patience. The servers were down Sunday and Monday for what Trion called "unscheduled maintenance." The studio told Massively yesterday that players will be compensated for the extended multi-day outage, though exactly how hasn't yet been announced. Queues are reportedly still keeping many players from logging into the live servers on Tuesday. Oh yeah, and that rumor about the servers catching on fire and being in a state of desperate salvage? It's not true. "This did not happen," Trion's Scapes declared to forumgoers. Ocho likewise dismissed the idea that exploits are responsible for the downtime.
Final Fantasy XIV 24-hour patch downtime and cash shop controversy [Updated]
If you've got any lingering business in Final Fantasy XIV you want to get finished before patch 2.4 launches on Tuesday, you'd better get it taken care of on Sunday. Yes, Sunday. Because of the new wards being added, database maintenance will also be undertaken while the patch is being applied, and it comes down to a 24-hour maintenance downtime from 3:00 a.m. EDT on October 27th until 3:00 a.m. EDT on October 28th. The maintenance might take a bit longer to complete, but players will want to be finished up and logged off before it starts. [Edit: Square-Enix has announced that the maintenance will be extended by one hour until 4:00 a.m. EDT on October 28th.] Patch 2.4 also introduces to the game the cash shop, which has already provoked extensive player discussion, including requests to keep past seasonal items out of the shop. Opinion on the matter is split, and there has been no official word yet from Square-Enix, although it is possible that there will be more concerns addressed during the London Fanfest this weekend.
SOE gives free game time for yesterday's login issues
If you were one of the players affected by Sony Online Entertainment's network-wide downtime yesterday, we have some good news. The company has announced on various social media outlets that it will be giving away two days of free access time to all accounts. This includes those on Landmark's beta access accounts as well. "We deeply regret the recent service interruption that is currently impacting all SOE games," DCUO Community Manager Mepps said in a forum post. "As a thank you for your patience, we will add two days of membership time to all members' accounts." According to EQ2wire.com, this downtime was caused by the SonyOnline.net domain name expiring, which SOE president John Smedley addressed in a tweet: "Sorry for the DNS problems folks. Won't happen again. Notices sent to wrong email. Doh."
SOE explains PlanetSide 2 patch scheduling
Have you ever wondered why MMO studios patch their games when and how they do? Well, wonder no more, at least in PlanetSide 2's case. SOE producer David Carey recently took to Reddit to explain why the MMOFPS' server downtime typically starts during European prime time. PS2 is a worldwide game, Carey says, and so bringing the EU shards down independently isn't feasible. "We can't have multiple client or server versions out in the wild at the same time," he explains. "Another reason is that we update once a week or more on average," Carey continues. "We need people to run the patches, so we really can't just say 'hey you guys are working overnight tonight and maybe two other nights this week, we'll let you know.' I mean, they have families and that's just not fair. So that rules out some time slots like 2:00 a.m. local other than for emergencies."
Elder Scrolls Online downtime prepares for launch day [Updated: The game is back, and we are go for launch]
Early access to Elder Scrolls Online is ending, and as such the team has taken both of the megaservers offline in preparation for launch day tomorrow. The downtime for the game, store, and account services is estimated at a few hours. Once ZeniMax plugs everything back in, players will see a few big changes in the game's store. The updated store will offer subscription billing, upgrades to the Digital Imperial Edition, and the Palomino horse mount. In-game mail will also be restored. [Thanks to Space Cobra for the tip!] [Update: The game is back up and ZeniMax has officially declared it a launch!]
Elder Scrolls Online struggles with downtime and disables guild functionality
Smooth, polished, and... offline? Elder Scrolls Online's NA megaserver was down for the better part of today for "inventory-related issues," although these have been addressed and the game is back up and running after over 12 hours of work. The devs pushed out a small patch when the server came back up that fixed various issues, including broken quests that blocked player progression. It also appears that guilds have been neutered for the time being: "All guild functionality has been temporarily disabled. We will notify you when it has been turned back on. When guild functionality is returned, all guild-related tools and functions will be as they were before we turned them off." One bright spot for the day is that the Elder Scrolls Online soundtrack is now available on iTunes. [Update: ZeniMax just announced downtime for the EU megaserver.]
World of Warcraft down for maintenance Thursday, Feb. 20
Moments ago, the @BlizzardCS (Blizzard Customer Support) Twitter account announced downtime for all Blizzard games scheduled for Thursday, February 20, from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. Pacific. MAINTENANCE SCHEDULE 2/20/14: #Warcraft, #D3, #SC2, #Hearthstone - All games: 5am - 11am PST. - BlizzardCS (@BlizzardCS) February 20, 2014 Thursday downtime is unusual, but may be intended to address the unanticipated issues caused by the release of patch 5.4.7.
Grand Theft Auto Online down for maintenance tonight
The Grand Theft Auto Online multiplayer component of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 5 will be taken offline for maintenance tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, and will not be available until tomorrow. A patch issued earlier this week for GTA Online targeted cash cheats and player progression exploits, framing the forthcoming maintenance as a likely byproduct. Rockstar reports that the maintenance period shouldn't last more than 24 hours, and the mode is expected to resume normal operation on Thursday, January 16.
North American, European eShops to close temporarily again [update]
Following the eShop's struggles with serving its global holiday traffic that resulted in a delay for the Western launch of Pokemon Bank, Nintendo's North American and European eShops will temporarily close again today. North American users are urged to wrap up any pressing purchases through the digital storefront before 4 p.m. EST. Nintendo of Europe's tweet states the European eShop will be closed from 10 p.m. CET to 10 a.m., which almost sounds like enough time for it to ... sleep. Oh no it's developing human-like needs Nintendo will have "more updates soon" concerning the NA eShop's status, presumably involving when users can expect it to reopen its imaginary doors. Update 2: Both the Wii U and 3DS NA eShops appear to be stable and fully accessible. A post on Nintendo's Facebook page explained that the outages were caused by an "influx" of new Nintendo Network accounts being created. Transfers of existing 3DS account information to new Nintendo Network accounts also contributed to the downtime. Update: Nintendo's Online Service Status page lists the planned network outage from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. specifically for the 3DS eShop. This is reflected in attempts to access the 3DS eShop itself, which result in an error explaining the temporary downtime. However, we're also currently experiencing problems connecting to the North American Wii U eShop. Several attempts to connect have all resulted in the initial eShop loading screen fading into a white screen that goes nowhere, though the home menu can still be accessed from this state.
U.S. realm downtime for patch 5.4 Tuesday
Tomorrow -- that's Tuesday, September 10th -- U.S. realms will be going offline for maintenance at midnight, Pacific time and are scheduled to come back up by 10 in the morning. This downtime is, of course, for the launch of patch 5.4: so by tomorrow afternoon the Siege of Orgrimmar should be upon us. We think the schedule is on the optimistic side for a patch roll-out, but here at WoW Insider, we'll keep our fingers crossed for servers popping back online quickly so we can all get back to gaming. Not sure what all the fuss is about? Blizzard posted a roundup of patch 5.4 info to catch you up on all the news, but if you need to go more basic than that you can also check our rookie writeup on what WoW patches are.
Square Enix apologizes for Final Fantasy 14 headaches with week of free play
Square Enix will make amends to Final Fantasy loyalists who experienced difficulty logging in to its relaunched PC and PS3 MMO Final Fantasy 14 Online: A Realm Reborn with a free week of playtime, GameSpot reports. In an announcement on Final Fantasy 14's community website The Lodestone, Square Enix explained that player demand for A Realm Reborn "significantly exceeded our initial estimates," pushing server load beyond maximum capacity. Login and character creation restrictions were introduced afterward, leaving many players unable to log in for days after the game's launch. The free week of play will begin after a ten-hour maintenance period beginning at 5 PM (PDT) on September 3. During the downtime, Square Enix notes that it will increase the number of available worlds and concurrent server logins, while reducing stress on the Duty Finder servers. "Because login and character creation restrictions have hindered our ability to provide quality service, all Final Fantasy 14 service accounts will receive an additional seven days of free play time," Square Enix said. "Furthermore, users who have yet to enter their registration codes will receive an additional seven-day trial should they register before 11:59 p.m. (PDT) on September 9, 2013."
Apple Developer Center outage fixed 'Remote Code Execution' issue
The Apple Developer Center downtime that brought the dev corner of Apple's online services down for over a week was apparently centered around what the company is calling a "remote code execution issue," MacRumors reports. The company posted the information on the Apple Web Server Notifications page, crediting 7dscan.com and knownsec.com for shedding light on the problem. Interestingly, Ibrahim Balic -- the man who claimed he may have been responsible for the downtime -- has also received a "thank you" from Cupertino, but not for the issue that caused the outage. According to Apple, Balic helped reveal "an information disclosure issue" which was then addressed on July 22nd, four days after the Developer Center hit the dirt.
EVE and DUST DDoS attack not a threat to customers
This weekend's downtime in both EVE Online and DUST 514 -- the results of a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack -- is now over and both CCP games are back online, according to a statement from the studio's COO, Jón Hörðdal Jónasson. CCP assures its customers that "at no time was customer data compromised or accessible in any way." Compensation to all EVE and DUST players will be announced soon.
PSA: Nintendo online maintenance today ahead of Wii U system update
Nintendo is performing online maintenance for all its systems today as it prepares the Wii U's spring system update. The update, which will introduce the Virtual Console proper (among other things), may be fully launched by tomorrow according to a Facebook tease by Nintendo of America.The extended maintenance is scheduled between 1PM PT today (4PM ET, 9PM UK) and 7PM PT (10PM ET, 3AM UK). The eShop and shopping channels for the Wii U, 3DS, Wii, and DS will be affected, so expect them to go down during those hours.
Some users experience FaceTime, iMessage outages for the second time in one week
Apple's FaceTime and iMessage services experienced some downtime Friday morning, the second such outage this week. Today's outage only lasted from 10:45 AM to 12:07 PM, but the outage on Tuesday lasted for five hours and affected the same programs. Other Apple services were not affected, and the App store remained open. The status of Apple's online services can be tracked via the company's System Status page. Normally, short outages aren't considered news, but when it's the second such disruption in the span of a week it's worth mentioning.
Anarchy Online set to finally merge servers
How do you get together after 12 years of separation? That's a question the Anarchy Online community is going to have to answer tomorrow as the game undergoes a server merge, bringing together two communities that have been apart for more than a decade. PvP will be chaotic, the state of community relations will be chaotic, cats and dogs will be living next to one another... you get the idea, general mass hysteria. Both servers will be brought offline at 5:00 a.m. EST on February 26th. The maintenance required to merge the two servers is expected to run for 24 hours, with the usual caveat that it may run longer depending on any issues encountered during the process. Afterwards, players will be able to log in to the new combined server and start welcoming their new neighbors... or start shooting them in their faces for property rights. As we said, general mass hysteria. [Thanks to David for the tip!]
