Xbox Live outage knocks gamers offline, renders Netflix and other apps useless

Xbox Live is currently experiencing a significant service disruption, with many users reporting problems when trying to sign in to Microsoft's online gaming platform. The outage — which inconveniently comes during peak weekend gaming hours — has subsequently rendered a large part of the console's functionality useless for the time being.

[Nostradavis]

The service was hacked in March so this is not so hard to believe. Always-Online? No thank you.

[FACTUAL evidence]

I know we've heard a lot of this "always online" crap, but cmon guys; you really think that MS is going to do an always online thing to play games and what not? I think this false rumor is going overboard. MS is loving the attention it's bringing them though. It's going to be real funny to see that the always online thing won't be true. Can't wait for e3.

[Blackdeath_663]

"MS is loving the attention it's bringing them though. " why would they love negative attention? besides the HDMI in port and the tv services makes it more likely these rumours are true lets not forget the whole adam orth defending always-on is a sign that they may be considering it. anyways its better the rumour goes way overboard and people make a fuss so that ms doesn't do it rather than people be silent then make a fuss after it has already been done. every gamer hopes they are not true but seeing how xbox is turning into some sort of TV- BOX in direct competition with google and apple tv provides absolutely nothing to the core gamer nor does kinect which is also seeing a strong comeback. i'll be honest not promising from the MS camp at the moment

[WrAiTh Sp3cTr3]

Live was hacked? Must've happened when I was taking a nap. *shrugs*

[FlameHawk]

@ The_Science_Guy
I hope you do know that account is not actually Kaz Hirais....

[Parapraxis]

"MS is loving the attention it's bringing them "
The delusion is strong with this one.

Not the first person on N4G who is trying to spin recent speculation into a positive, and seeing them try is HI-LAR-I-OUS!
MS' silence is hurting them, bad press is bad press, period. #DEALWITHIT

[elmaton98]

Nothing is not hackable, lok at ps3, it wasnt supposed to be hack but it happened and the day will come when live will be hack and then ill tell you how funny it is (to those asshole that think everything is secure)
/s

[SHORYUKEN]

Xbox live should be for free.

Lol now Xbox fanboys are screwt.

[WUTCHUGUNNADO]

Blackdeath... any kind of attention is always better than no attention. Their letting the rumors swell for now and they'll most likely put it to rest when they actually announce what the console is really about.

[JimmyDanger]

MS are loving the attention of these rumors because they're mostly ALL BS.

All they have to for their announcement is confirm that used games won't be blocked and that no single player games are required to be "always online" - as current rumours (from vgleaks, the same place that leaked the documents that people spun this "always online required to play single player games" - which no one seems to note wasn't actually stated in the docs, but rather extrapolated/read between the lines/made up from) state. That the internet echo chamber blew up into some "confirmation".

Its funny how this site among others, is still focusing on weeks old beat up rumours and not addressing the new ones ( http://www.vgleaks.com/micr... - but I can't say I'm surprised.

[Rhythmattic]

I'm not particularly a MS fan, but I have to agree with jimmy danger.

Everything about "always online " for gaming is pure speculation.....

always online for media delivery?
Thats a totally different kettle of fish......

[amiga-man]

XBL can't be hacked xbox owners pay an online subscription to keep it safe lol.

[badkolo]

its obvious that the system will not be always on in the way people are fearing it, to think ms doesnt know things happen and things go down is absurd. There is no such thing as bad publicity and all this has garneshed ms more attention and they havent had to do much, they just ;et the rumors go wild and are stealing the spotlight a little from sony. To the haters its negative for ms, to rational people like us, we realize that that its just a rumor and when the reveal happens the thoughts will change when its revealed to be different that what all the rumors have been. Its just like when we gets pics of a system mock up and people claim its real and hate on it, then the syste,m is revealed and it doesnt look anything like it.

[extermin8or]

yes I do think they'd make it always online...

[Lvl_up_gamer]

I had an issue with sending a txt msg saying "gg" to a guy who beat me in MLB2K13 that went to extra innings, but XBL wasn't down.

I then put NHL13 in and played online in a drop in game and there were no issues.

This article is just speculation and all the Sony Fanboys are jumping on it like it's truth.

XBL has NEVER been hacked.

Deal with it.

[ZombieNinjaPanda]

@Parapraxis

Have you ever heard the phrase "all press is good press" ? As long as someone is talking about you and spreading your name, it's good press. Why do you think idiot rappers talk about all this "hataz make me who ah am".

So you're wrong.

[EVILDEAD360]

/Not the first person on N4G who is trying to spin recent speculation into a positive, and seeing them try is HI-LAR-I-OUS!
MS' silence is hurting them, bad press is bad press, period. #DEALWITHIT'

LMAO. So wait Xbox Live going to for a couple of hours is going to hurt the 360?? It didn't. By the time most people heard about it was back online. Including me.

The best part of every major rumor is that it's been completely debunked by the exact same sources who are now eating crow.

The difference is N4G.com blocked every single submission of the postitive articles. (12 in all) from making it to the front page.

MS doesnt need to say a thing. The 720 is in a perfect position to be an even bigger success than the 360 ever was.

The 360 saw 7 years of negative stories from these kinds of sites, but when the hardware and the games made it to the stores, the success spoke for itself.

Evil

[kneon]

@ZombieNinjaPanda

All press is not good press, that's just a stupid saying.

When you start hearing repeated negative news about a person or company your perception towards them becomes more negative, even though you may not notice it. And it doesn't magically change if the news turns out to be false.

That's why you see so much negative election campaign ads, it doesn't matter if they are blatant lies and need to be retracted later, the damage is done already.

[ikkokucrisis]

Guess they have to

(•_•)

( •_•)>⌐■-■

(⌐■_■)

Deal with it

[Abash]

Exactly. Look at how much of a problem it is now just not being able to access the online portions of games and online services, imagine on the next Xbox when you cant even play a game you own in a similar situation to this

[miDnIghtEr20C_SfF]

Service was hacked in March? Linksys please! I only know of one network that got hacked. And that was PSN. Unless you're talking about people getting phished. That's far different from a network getting hacked, and can't play games for days.

Ya'll remember the day the PSN stood still.

Damn that COD and it's double xp. You know, the third party games that are played more online than on psn. Sometimes I guess it's going to happen.

[KrisButtar]

yes they were hacked in March, links below

http://www.engadget.com/201...

http://venturebeat.com/2013...

http://www.theverge.com/201...

Edit: @ below an account is part of the service, is it not? because without the account you don't have the service. hacked is hacked whether it be a part of the service(accounts) or the whole service(XBL)

[Mustang300C2012]

That was ACCOUNTS hacked not the actual service itself. That means individuals responsible for their own password setup. I love how people don't know the difference between an account getting hacked vs the actual service.

[HK6]

You have no idea what you are talking about, do you? Those accounts were accessed by hackers through hacking other sites. NOBODY hacked Xbox Live to gain access to those accounts.

[adorie]

Everybody gets hacked.
http://i592.photobucket.com...

[jimbobwahey]

I remember the month Xbox Live stood still and the service was completely down and unusable for everybody. All Microsoft did to make up for a month of downtime on a paid service was give away a crappy XBLA submarine game months later. Of course, if you're an Xbox fanboy it's quite convenient to forget the crippling downtime XBL users have had to put up with.

The PSN has a much larger userbase than XBL as well, by the way.

[GetSnooked]

"an account is part of the service, is it not? because without the account you don't have the service."

Boy oh boy, looks like we have some broken logic here... I shall explain this step by step so you can understand how your logic is flawed.

Lets say I have a computer that has been hacked. Now my computer is a part of the internet. Does this mean the internet has just been hacked?
Just for safe measures lets take this a bit further, the internet is a part of the big "technology", does this mean that all-technology got hacked?

If it still isn't kicking in, lets try another anology.

Lets say someone stole $5 off you. Because you are a part of your great-great-great grandparents, does that mean that your great-great-great grandparents were just robbed? Then, if you take the theory that everyone is related to everyone from extremely far up the family tree, does that mean the robber just robbed himself? No.

In the first case, the computer is the subset of the internet, which further is the subset of technology. If my computer was hacked that doesn't mean all-technology was hacked.

In the second case you are a subset of your parents and so on. If you were robbed, you were robbed, not your great grandparents.

So in this case, if your e-mail that is associated with you gamertag was hacked. That doesn't mean that Xbox-Live was hacked, because it never said that "Xbox-Live ***service***" has been hacked.

To the above:

" Of course, if you're an Xbox fanboy it's quite convenient to forget the crippling downtime XBL users have had to put up with. "

Firstly the "forget the crippling" should be "forget that crippling" as it was only once.

Secondly, same goes for PS3 fanboys, it's quite convenient to forget the crippling downtime PSN users had to put up with, as well as possible breaches in credentials.

"The PSN has a much larger userbase than XBL as well, by the way."

So that makes the PSN hack worse then doesn't it? 20 people being unable to access internet is worse than 15 people being unable to access it.

[DarthJay]

@jimbobwahey LOL!!! Yeah, it has a bigger "user base" because the accounts are free. I barely even use my PS3 and I have three accounts, and I know some people that have way more, and I know people that have a PS3 and have never played a single game on it ever and they have an account.

Come on now.

[UnholyLight]

@jimbobwahey

Stop spreading your propaganda that's not even true. I've had Xbox Live since February 2006 and there has only been two times I have been without Xbox Live for an extended period of time...48 hours to be exact. Once cus I got a 48hour ban for having a sexual inuendo motto on my profile, and the other occasion was the 48hour downtime in the summer of 08 I believe where they were doing scheduled maintainance.

Please do tell where you came up with this "month of downtime" which has never happened, but did on PSN (25 days).

Get out of here you troll. Nothing worse than trying to misinform people!

**EDIT:

Only article I found when google searching xbox live down for month. and here it is

http://www.gamespot.com/new...

I remember when this happened, and as the article says, it was on and off due to server overload at the time. My location tends not to get kicked off Xbox Live for long at all (Seems to be that way for most Western Canada/West US players)

[xxLuckyStrike]

If they are/were/have been hacked, it sure as hell won't last over a month like PSN. This could actually be a good thing with the supposed bogus always online rumor for games which is idiotic to assume. It's obviously for sleep mode updates tv and cable functionality. Lol at Sony fanboy defense force continued interest in an unannounce console. Most of them have zero intent on buying 720 even if it was sent from god. Another way to tell is by how hard they troll all MS news because they don't know shit about 720

[nukeitall]

@Mustang300C2012:

Don't bother with these people, they are just trying to twist things with an agenda.

It's like saying an account was illegally accessed at a bank, yes a bank and suddenly the bank got hacked! You know how many accounts PSN looses as well?

Point being, the rest of the world other than the slanted n4g.com community will continue ignoring this stupiditiy.

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

@GetSnooked

""Lets say someone stole $5 off you. Because you are a part of your great-great-great grandparents, does that mean that your great-great-great grandparents were just robbed? Then, if you take the theory that everyone is related to everyone from extremely far up the family tree, does that mean the robber just robbed himself? No. ""

This was by far the worst fucking analogy ever. LOL

[dmeador]

I believe a better analgy would be someone stealing your keys, then you blaming Chevy for your car getting stolen

[Persistantthug]

I remember some guys at my job were kinda pissed about it back then.

It was a while ago now.

http://www.engadget.com/200...

[HSx9]

@KrisButtar

No offense but accounts get hacked all the time. It could be from a large phish attack, to social engineering their account into their hands.

This doesn;t necessarily mean the actual service was hacked.

I checked out your links and they even support my claim.

[nukeitall]

@Persistantthug:

Why are you out misleading people about Xbox Live again?

"Actually, XBOX LIVE was down for 2 - 4 weeks during the 2007 holidays."

BS. Let me clear it up:

a) It had too many people online and had trouble keeping up with the influx i.e. it was overloaded not hacked.
b) The service was still accessible for some and not for others.
c) No information was lost
d) It only lasted during the holidays, not as long as you claim it.
e) A compensation was provided.

[Persistantthug]

.

[ijust2good]

Just in. Adam Orth has hacked XBOX live...

no wonder he wanted "always on" in nextbox. He can spy and rob from your account.

[GamerzElite]

Ha ha ha

[omi25p]

Live wasnt hacked in March and it wasnt Hacked.

After what happened to Sony and there failure to tell consumers about stolen bank account details, Do you really think ANY company would risk not telling people.

Also I've been online all night and have been knocked off once.

[raytraceme]

Stolen bank accounts??? Can you even add your bank account info on pan? Please stop speaking out of where the sun don't shine.

[DavidBanner]

Anonymous Hacking Group takes Responsibility for Xbox Live downtime

[mac_sparrow]

I am still to this day using the same bank account that I linked to psn on day one. Never has one penny left my account without authorisation.

Mind you, I work hard to be rational and not blindly HOLY HELL WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!

[UnholyLight]

Yeaaaahh...about that DavidBanner

http://n4g.com/news/1232417...

Seriously, my bet is that Xbox Live is having issues because of server overload which can happen from time to time across any platform. It doesn't bother me if Xbox Live goes down for a day or two. It's something that is bound to happen as no service can possibly be 100% resilient 100% of the time. Not to mention that sometimes it's only certain areas as I have been saying before..My area (Western Canada) for me anyways has historically not been hit as bad with downtime problems as opposed to some other players.

As for Xbox Liver being hacked, most things that happen on Xbox Live are phishing scams where people accidentally fall for putting their email and password into a website to get free microsoft points. There's no way Xbox Live has been hacked and if it were I'd be incredibly surprised as it seems near impossible.

Not to start a flame war with Sony fans with this statement but, I'll take the occassional hiccup and rare scheduled maintenance times over a network that in generally recent times has been really unpredictable (Playstation Network). Last time something happened to PSN when I was with my buddy (who's a diehard Playstation guy) he was saying that it had already been down for a couple days.

I just hope that Playstation and Microsoft can both offer even better services come Next Gen as I am DEFINITELY very interested in what the PS4 has to offer as well as hopefully the Xbox but we will see what Microsoft unveils! I was a Microsoft fan this gen, but anything goes come next gen.

[TheTwelve]

The new spin is that Microsoft loves this negative attention.

[Parapraxis]

Yup, it's all part of their "master plan"! lmmfao
#dealingwithit

[ZombieNinjaPanda]

"Spin"

How is that spin though? Companies love attention, period. What's worse: Someone talking crap about you but getting your name out, or no one even knowing who are you?

[Good_Guy_Jamal]

Least I'm able to log on and play online, the only reason I pay for the service.

[xxLuckyStrike]

Yep and watch the spin when Sony starts charging there asses for online services this upcoming gen.lol Boom!! Outta Here!!!

[ALLWRONG]

lol the desperate always come out when Live goes down for an hour. Ring me when it gets hacked for a month.

[Karpetburnz]

The hackers diddnt shut down PSN. Sony shut it down to prevent further Damage.

And no money was taken, It only effected us for a few weeks ,and its never happened again. To be honest the only people that still care about the PSN hack are Xbox fanboys.

[dmeador]

@Karpetburnz

Hackers were indirectly responsible, and it was more than a few weeks. Also I'm glad you can be honest for millions of other people. Having my sensitive information available to someone isn't something I've forgotten about.

[ShinMaster]

At least we don't have to pay.

http://www.engadget.com/200...

[1nsaint]

By now all this news and rumors about microsoft is starting to look like an anti xbox campaign :P

[ps3_pwns]

dont know why you guys wont to be on the opposite side of anonymous. obviously the ps4 is the choice to get and the safe one as well. why you xbox fanboys dont want the ps4? you want to get hacked by anonymous on the x720?

[xxxxx01]

Lol this site is too funny

http://www.gameinformer.com...

[adorie]

Routine Maintenance? Wouldn't they have said that from the start? They were fairly quiet on the issue, no?

[hazardman]

Dude the article is garbage. Seeing as your contributing news, you should know that much of the always on line feature was more towards xbox mini.

Where is the actual gaming news, everytime I come on its all about always online xbox 720.......can we get a break already.

[adorie]

Blame the bloggers and the people approving the redundant tripe. News on N4G is getting slow.

[Gamer1982]

main issue with always online is servers need to go down every now and then for stability reasons. You flush the crap from the server and reboot. This is usually referred to as maintenance. Sony, MS, Origin and even steam do it now and then. So just imagine being told you cannot play your console until servers are back up??

[dcortz2027]

LOL and there were dozens of Xbox fans that were claiming that Xbox Live wasn't down and that they were online without a problem. Xbox live got hacked, #dealwithit!!

[Commandar_Shepard]

It's fitting that the XBL servers went down amidst all the chaos around the Always Online rumors. Hopefully this will help MS learn that always online is not the way to go.

If not, they'll have to hear about it Christmas 2013 when millions of people can't use their consoles and demand refunds due to the overwhelming amounts of people logging in at once.

[sharkboy421]

Well that really, really sucks. Live always seemed like some invulnerable fortress but alas, the real world has shown up once again.

[Gamer1982]

It never was only 360 fanboys made it out like it was. Although it had more backup servers than most it was still as vulnerable as the rest.

[PygmelionHunter]

Yeah remember all the crap they gave us after the PSN servers went down for like a month? Even said that their Gold subscription was justified just because of that...

[penguinhunter]

I know that I'm in the minority here, but if Microsoft wants to have an always on system, and that some how makes the user experience better, then let them. We aren't obligated to buy the new Xbox, nor are we entitled to what MS decides to do.

You deal with it by purchasing a PlayStation instead.

[rainslacker]

Perhaps you can explain to the majority how you think not being able to play your games if your net or their servers go down improves the user experience. Seems like during those times it would completely cut out the user experience...unless you consider frustration a positive user experience.

I agree with the rest of your statement though.

[Braid]

I'll just play the devil's advocate here, but I just don't understand why getting disconnected from the device for a limited period of time is a deal-breaking issue. I mean, in no way I think it's a good idea but it's not as "terrible" as some people make it out to be. It's not a good idea because if you don't have internet access, you don't have your gaming console either. But if you have a network at home and you're always online anyway, like most of gamers are, why is it such a big issue?

If your internet connection goes unstable and you can't access your games, you turn off your console and go on with your everyday life. People are acting like it's a matter of life and death, as if they can not survive a single moment without having access to a video game machine. I mean, come on now. You can read a book, go see a movie with friends, and do your daily things. Life does not actually stop itself when you have problems connecting to your Xbox, as long as you have a life alongside your gaming "hobby," which undoubtedly we all do, you should be just fine. Eventually you'll solve your internet problem or the Live servers will be repaired and you'll be back as soon as possible. People nowadays seem to have no tolerance for anything at all.

Again, I'm not supporting the notion of requiring online connection to play games and I actually don't think they'll take that route with the new Xbox but people are just overreacting to the rumours for the sake of bashing the company the console of which they don't own or they don't like very much.

And the funny part is that once they announce at E3 that they have never planned on a console requiring always online connection, they'll be declared heroes of gaming industry.

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

@Braid

I can see your issue of 'having a life' but I think you're missing the argument here.

The issue pertains to people who have a life, the ones where in tht rare moment are like 'hey I got time, why not play a game for a change." Only to be told they can't because their connection is unstable.

The issue also applies to those without a connection/a really shitty unstable one at all times. They won't even be able to play a game because they can't afford it or live in an area where there are simply no good connections?

Seems unfair to punish those people due to circumstance.

The lack of tolerance part is fair though. If you pay for something, you expect to be given the service regardless of circumstance. So yeah if whomever you paid is unable to provide the service they need to make up for it, or give the money back, simple economics. It's not about tolerance, but rather what's moral.

[rainslacker]

@Braid

First I'd like to say thanks for at least addressing this in the context of the problem with always on is when it's not optional or when it locks down your system.

That being said, you haven't actually addressed my comment. That is, how does an always on console actually improve the user experience? If the only way the user experience can be better is that when it works, your games work, then the actual idea is just self-fulfilling. There was no need for it in the first place.

I won't say that having a connected game can't have a better user experience, as some developers may be able to find creative ways to utilize this, but to cut out an entire system and game because of something outside the users control is just wrong. It's adding a layer of control onto the consumer which is just frustrating.

All that being said, your argument reminds me of a time when cable TV was not terribly reliable. During a heavy rain storm, the cable often went out, and in those cases, people had to find something else to do.

There will always be things beyond our control. People realize this. In fact this is what is wrong with an always on structure...there are just too many things outside the users control.

Any game machine that becomes unusable fully on an outage, or a server crash, or whatever, would mean that people would deal with it in some way. There's nothing they can do, because again they have no control. It doesn't improve the user experience though, any more than the Cable going out improved peoples experience when watching their TV programs.

When it comes to a consumer product, it shouldn't be about just making the best of a bad situation. There have been many scenarios listed by people, some extreme and some perfectly reasonable, that show why always on a bad idea(I won't re-list them, but I'm sure everyone has seen them). As such the product itself should be made with the consumer in mind.

Now...all of that being said, the difference between this and the cable TV outage analogy, is that today there is much more choice in the market. Back in the day you really either had cable TV with quite a few channels, low quality antennas with a few channels, big expensive antennas that were ugly and not much better than rabbit ears but you got more channels, or a big ass satellite dish(which would still go out in the rain). Cable was about the only thing worth getting for most people if they wanted a lot of channels at good quality. Nowadays competition has forced the cable company to be better and there are many choices when it comes to TV content.

The same is true for a game console. If people can't have a great reliable experience on their console due to factors outside their control, then there is no reason to assume that they won't just go to where they can. There is no reason for them to deal with it, or just find something else to do.

Like you though, I also doubt that MS will go this route. I know MS makes mistakes sometimes, but they have to know that the market isn't ready for such a thing. However, I don't really think they're going to come out looking like hero's just announcing that they don't have a feature that no one else has either. I guess if they try then as a Sony fan myself I can say they copied Sony on that lack of a feature.:) j/k

[jmc8888]

There's that #1 misused word 'entitled'.

You are using it wrong.

MS is supposed to do what makes their customers want to buy their product more. Not alienate them.

Why do you think so many companies place an emphasis on customer service. Because if you have a bad experience and they don't make it right, usually that person goes to a competitor. Had a bad experience at McDonalds? Well then you stop going there, at least for a while, and spend your money elsewhere. So unless M$ wants people to go Sony, Nintendo, or PC then they should understand what its customers want and more importantly what they don't want.

So how does 'always online' give the user a better experience?

It doesn't. It can't. Ever. Period. End of story. It's an absolute truth.

Now you may retort, well what if I want a game preloaded as I sleep?

Well then you can purposefully connect to the service and have it do that. But if you decide not to, you can still play your other games. No need to worry about someone else's network.

So what part of this or ANY OTHER EXAMPLE is is 'necessary' to have the system 'always online'?

Hint: It doesn't. It never will either.

Because you can always connect and enjoy the same features that 'always online' would enjoy.

I mean seriously, this is forrest gump type easy to understand.

Are people really this far gone into mental sloth land? Because I've read so many comments where people can't even bother to think for a second that there is absolutely no user for an 'always online' service that can't be done by a user voluntarily connecting when they want to partake of whatever benefits something online can give them.

[ps3_pwns]

nope as gamers and human beings we have to nip this in the butt right now. no letting it get to the masses who dont know any better or dont relise it untill its to late. this drm always online is hitler level. if only they stopped hitler earlier like we can stop ms now.

[matrixman92]

ive been on since this morning...but of course nobody else here would know that, because nobody here even owns an xbox. Bring on the dislikes

[StreetsofRage]

It's not a worldwide issue. I couldn't get online earlier in the day but I'm able to connect now. These issues are normally corrected pretty quickly.

These sony guys are funny people. They go nuts over Live being down for just a few hours but didn't mind that psn was down for a whole month. Got to love sony fanboys. Soon after you would get a sony blog with an article, "Why PSN being down is a good thing" lol!!!

[Snookies12]

No, I think the only reason the Sony fans went "nuts" as you put it, over Live being down was because of all the stuff said about the PSN when it got hacked. I saw quite a few people who preferred Live laughing or mocking people who had a PS3 during that time. Which is not cool to do, we're all gamers here no matter what system you choose. Bottom line, it doesn't matter how well you protect your service, whether you pay or not, whether you choose Live or PSN, the service can always go down. Nothing is as secure as you think it is, especially servers and anything connected online. There will always be people who can get around these things if they want to.

[scott182]

I'll tell you why PSN being down was a good thing for me.... Because for that month I was able to get off my butt and go outside for a change lol. Plus, after the service came back up they gave everyone so many quality free games and extras, it more than made up for a free service being down.

[Gaming_Guru]

So you are telling everyone that they do not have an xbox 360 in this article thread because you were online all morning since no one here can vouch, is this to be the most hated prejudice commenter in the article thread or something?

On top of that, in order for someone here to know that, they would have to be your friend on xbox live, and you don't even list your gamer tag in your profile. You appear to be an instigator to me at least.

[Game4life]

i can vouch and say i couldnt get into my zccount earlier it took me like 3 hours. Stupid stuff man.st wanted to build with friends in minecraft but no..... :(

also in response to the always online stuff above,

I think it really needs to be
gaming first and foremost
online functionality secvond (multimedia features and whatnot)

im just tired of the always online stuff but i know the future is inevinitible but thats ways off

[Anon1974]

According to Microsoft, it looks like they've had problems for a couple of days. The notice about XBL marketplace having issues is at least 2 days old. I see people flooding Twitter worldwide having XBL problems.

I hope everyone is back up and gaming soon!

In the meantime, here's the MS status site. This is for US, but I imagine it won't be hard to find your individual regions from here.

http://support.xbox.com/en-...

[Corpser]

But xbl down is a good thing because we can spend time outside now right? That's what ps fanboys were saying that whole month.

[Belking]

Lol at n4g.... Staying classy as usual. XbL wasn't hacked. There were just sign in problems but mine is working now. It was down for a bit but nothing on the level of psn. Live is still the most reliable service. Pricey but better overall.

[Godmars290]

"It was down for a bit but nothing on the level of psn."

How about the XBL Christmas outing from a few years ago? From when MS had a price cut and increased sale but didn't have enough servers to cover extra traffic?

More than likely that's going to happen with always online. Everything online has had that issue.

[Jek_Porkins]

Good thing always online is just a rumor and not fact huh? I mean there is also the new rumor that it isn't always online.
http://www.nbcnews.com/tech...

A few years ago, which was actually almost 5 years ago now, Xbox Live had some spotty outages, but I never had issues connecting or playing, in 8 years I've never not been able to connect. I cant say the same thing about PSN, which seems to be down every week for one reason or another.

So you basically choose to believe one rumor over the other and run with it.

[Godmars290]

At the very least the one thing all this always online uproar should do is make the industry - the entire industry, not just MS - reconsider implementing it.

While EA certainly messed up with Simcity and Blizzard with Daiblo 3, now people are trying to head off the mistake of it before it happens with the Nextbox.

If like those other instances however people buy the system despite all this complaining, then we all get what we deserve.

[GetSnooked]

Well said Jek_Porkins:

"So you basically choose to believe one rumor over the other and run with it."

When one has full belief in one rumour while not even considering another, it is EXTREMELY clear that you're biased to one side.

A non-biased person would take ALL the rumours and figure out which are realistic and which aren't. Whereas here in N4G, all anti-Microsoft rumours are automatically considered facts without question, while anti-Sony rumours are considered a "slow day for news" or some garbage.

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

A non-bias person would ignore the rumours and wait for an official announcement...just saying. But hey, if you wanna play the speculation game, but all means be a sheep like everyone else. LOL

[barb_wire]

Down for a bit?! - it's still down for me, I haven't been able to log into XBL since yesterday morning and it's still out.

[DarkZane]

Xbox Live is not the most reliable service, it's the same as PSN, the only difference is that people actually pay for it.

Whoever hacked PSN and took it down for a month could easily do the same with Xbox Live. Sony pissed the wrong people back then, Microsoft so far haven't (although this always-on business could have that effect).

[xPhearR3dx]

XBL not reliable? Please. I've had my 360 for 6 years and I can't even count on one hand how many times XBL has been down for an extensive period of time. Everything connected to the internet eventually has problems, it's technology, it happens. However, XBL is pretty damn reliable and it should be considering people pay for it. PSN is a different story. It's free, so when there's maintenance (Which is fairly often) people can't really complain because it's a free service.

[M-M]

"Pricey but better overall."

Lmao.

[xxLuckyStrike]

Worse case its A whopping $5 a month @ $60 a year (that's 12 months). However, there are always online deals for less. Lol cheap ass Sony trolls

[M-M]

@xxLuckyStrike

Nothing beats free =).

[tachy0n]

it was hacked.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

thanks anonymous for helping us on teaching M$ to listen to their customers :D

[T2]

First world problems lol ... Also why dont you have a ps3 at least for backup ?

[DarthJay]

Haha right? Real gamers have both.

[Zhipp]

Or just play single player.

[bub16]

so buying a PS4 #DEALWITHIT

[Jek_Porkins]

Hacked? I doubt it, but if the service was hacked props to Microsoft for getting it up without a total shutdown and month of offline.

I was never offline, I was online since this morning and hadn't signed out, once I saw people were having trouble signing in I just didn't sign out and was fine.

Xbox Live has actually never been down for hacks, in 8 years as a member I've never not been able to connect, never any kind of maintenance or anything like that, I realize this is N4G and the Sony sniffers are actually hoping for something negative to go wrong with Xbox Live, but let's not be so childish shall we?

[WalterWJR]

The only childish one here is you spewing out your dirty flame bait.

[TekoIie]

"The only childish one here is you"

Really? But you posted something 8 minutes before hand which makes me question your definition of childish:

"Haha all the xdrones scratching there heads thinking there internet is down, priceless."

[GetSnooked]

"spewing out your dirty flame bait."

Flame-bait? Hah you have GOT to be kidding me. How is that flame-bait? The only "flame-bait" part I can see is " Sony sniffers are actually hoping for something negative to go wrong with Xbox Live" and if you consider that flame-bait, you just agreed that you're a fanboy because it was CLEARLY targeted at them.

Also, Pekolie is right in proving the point.

I'm sorry to say Walter, but "The only childish one here is you".

[a_squirrel]

"Haha all the xdrones scratching there heads thinking there internet is down, priceless."

Doesn't that mean:

"Haha, all the people who play on Xbox are thinking that their internet is ACTUALLY down."

Sounds like he's saying that it just rarely goes down for them. Maybe they're in disbelief? I remember when PSN was hacked and there was all that trolling.

[WalterWJR]

@pekolie

#Dealwithit

To the guy below me, is that a joke because the part where you talked about bf3 and cross game chat made me laugh. Calling others Sony fan boys when you are a clear xdrone yourself. Ok time to tone it down as I am apparently trolling.

[TekoIie]

I think you proved my point so thank you! ;)

Stealth edit btw from me since I thought your entire comment was replying to me.

[Belking]

Don't listen to these fanboys. The service itself was never down. It's a problem with user / gamer tags . You could connect to live but not while signed in under your gamer tag. Mine is back up now. They are just a little mad that psn was down all around the world and made national news all because of their crappy security. XML is still a more solid service....... Now, back to my Battlefield 3 and cross chat.

[Ezz2013]

***Don't listen to these fanboys***

ok , note to my self:

*don't listen to @belking*

[a_squirrel]

@above
Is xdrone the new 'cool' thing to call someone who plays games on an Xbox... because they have an Xbox?

Call me NinSon Xdrone PC.

[ziggurcat]

bu-bu-but i thought XBL can't get hacked because people pay for the service...

/sarcasm

[DasTier]

That was an annoying 2 hours, but at least now its back up

[a_squirrel]

Ha, disagreeing trolls in full force.

[SephirothX21]

The always online rumour for the 720 is absolute rubbish. There are too many potential customers that have limited access to an internet connection for MS to even consider this. They might have some kind of package where if the user agrees to be online to play games, they get xbox live gold for free and get discounts on all games bought online. Also, online connections are not reliable enough for such a an obligation.

People need to wait until MS announces the thing before trashing it without having any information confirmed.

[Ayabrea123]

It takes 6 years to hack Sony and that's the rebuttal? Because they got hacked? Really? XBL was hacked until it got right. Just because Microsoft rather call it an 'outage' which is a buttery word for 'someone is trying to break in but let's not tell our customers because they are paying' is no different.

When Sony got hacked, no accounts or cards were compromised however during the fifa hacks people accounts were compromised. When people's gamer tag are hacked without then doing anything wrong and sold on the Internet for money, with their personal information.. It's okay but in year 2012 when almost every single company, even the FBI AND THE CIA was hacked and personal information was posted online, we are really still going to pull the Sony got hacked card? Windows has viruses... That doesn't mean the Xbox can't either. There's is no amount of money that can stop a hack. If you think they are pouring money just to keep your information safe, you are living in the wrong world. But keep thinking that.. It's your money. You get what you pay for

[Pinkdolphin]

You realize this is server maintenence right? They are updating the servers in different regions. Psn goes down all the time for server maintenence you hypocritical pos. If your going to call someone out on something atleast check yourself asshole.

[imahustla19]

Should have known this would happen. Sony takes out backwards compatability... hacked. Microsoft want a to make a system that's always connected online and tracks how many people are watching movies(supposedly) ... Hacked... Maybe.

[Max-Zorin]

Sony and MS fanboys doing what they do best. Proving that they need to meet up and kill each other already.

[Ravenor]

I haven't logged into anything all day, so I just pushed the power button on the Xbox and voila XBL. The times I've been affected by an outage on XBL is extremely small, on the other hand other than the great PSN disaster I haven't been hurt personally by PSN outages either.

[josephayal]

this is terrible for ms

[Pinkdolphin]

How? Its been 6 hours and none at all for some. Psn goes down all the timefor maintenence is it bad for them too? What a troll....

[Rusty515]

Well psn is free so....

[a_squirrel]

He wasn't being a troll. My goodness you guys.

[SaffronCurse]

Still can't sign in Via xbox.com

[marcoskids]

Online for UK

[QuantumWake]

Article has been updated and the servers are now back up. I am online right now using the Youtube app. No problems for me at the moment. Xbox.com also is up but the forums are unavailable.

[Pinkdolphin]

So xbox live goes down for one day all for maintenence to update the servers in certain regions (you would know that if you actually knew whats going on) its rumored to be hacked. Its also been down for a month aswell in the past due to hacking i suppose too according to these comments. Well i'll be i guess it must have just flew by my head because i don't recall such a catastrophe in years on xbox. To the person whom disagreed with my comment what is the basis of your disagreement? Tell me i would like to know. Really lol Only on n4g people disagree for no reason.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

umm...its up on my end...not sure when they went down but I have been on Live on and off yesterday..today...

[DarthJay]

This has been quite a comical read. The PS3 fangirls salivating at the opportunity to regurgitate tired one-liners whereas in the time it took them to think of something creative, which by the way, hasn't happened yet, Xbox Live was back up.

The disagrees and the people claiming Xdrones/Xbots etc clearly don't have an Xbox 360, because the service is in fact working right now. There are still a few bugs, but I was just playing Defiance with tons of people online in the game and I just loaded Battlefield 3 and I see tons of full servers.

The only thing that is not working for me right now is my friends list, so I can't see who is online to link up. Wow. BRUTAL. My day is ruined.

Classic making a mountain out of a mole hill with some serious wishful thinking. If you spent more time enjoying what you have instead of spewing nonsense about something you don't own, you'd probably have a much better life.

Meanwhile, isn't Sony's annual maintenance day coming up? You know, that one day like every 1-2 months they have to take everyone offline to do server updates?

Anyway, thanks for the laughs. Back to the almost completely Live I go.

[Crillvirus81]

Me and my son where not able to connect all day untill 5 mins ago

[DS36]

But I thought when you paid $60 a year, it made Xbox Live a better service than free online. (sarcasm)

[BrianC6234]

I noticed this story all over Twitter this afternoon and not one story on N4G for a long time. What's with that? This shows why it's dumb to require an always on Internet connection. Hear that Microsoft? Someone must have been sending them a message.

[Kingthrash360]

and people say it never happens to xbl....smh it hurts because its a paid service.

[headblackman]

I'm online so I don't know what they are talking about. so it couldn't have been hacked

[Gaming_Guru]

I find gaming journalism so bias, before the PS4 was even thought of, you would never see an article like this about Xbox Live. Now ever since the PS4 announcement and the Microsoft employee defending online-only business model negative article about Xbox Live start popping up.

[BLKxSEPTEMBER]

Becareful not to speak your mind on this site especially if its in defense of ms, you will be marked for trolling like I was at the top. I think its time to find a better more mature site.

[2v1]

go find it bro reality still wont change

[Agent_hitman]

Inb4 they were all laughing at Sony when they got hack in June 2, 2011.. Now, I don't know if Xbox fanboys still have a guts to laugh after this fiasco.. Tsk tsk tsk

They used to think that LIVE is most reliable Online service, heck they even underestimated sony's online service before and calling it obsolete..

[TheSaint]

I couldn't play Minecraft last night due to it being downloaded on another Xbox.

It fucking sucked and basically made my Xbox an expensive doorstop. Couldn't access the internet, couldn't access Youtube, couldn't do jack diddly squat.

If Nextbox is always online they have lost me as a consumer.

[a_squirrel]

That has a lot to do with how their accounts work. With PSN, I can sign on to my brother's account (if activated) and download anything he's downloaded. There's even a Downloads History specific for his online account that makes it all super easy. But there's a limit to the amount of time you can activate (3) and you can only deactivate it from that console, or maybe from tech support and asking nicely.

[urwifeminder]

Ms wont match the great sony hack they went all out with that one.

[extermin8or]

Well I must say bad news for xbo gamers sorry to those thaat were reasonable but to the knobs that took the piss when ps3 was down due to being hacked etc a couple of years back- how do you feel about it now the shoe's on the other foot?

Anyway annoying thing with a group like anonymous is that it has no official leader so anyone can have the group claiming responsibility for anything/taking any action if they can garner enough support-something I suspect will do more harm than good in the future; all you'd need is a few individuals who want todo something really vile. Also I REALLY hope this isn't over the "always online" rumours because as I say they are still only rumours, not saying it's reasonable to hack/DDOS xbl if it were true- but surey you'd wait for it to be confirmed? Anyway whatever it is about I guess it does prove a nice point about always online should microsoft be considering it...

[DivineAssault]

It happens.. I really dont see it having to be online just to play a physical game you buy.. That would be INCREDIBLY STUPID! There would be MANY ppl who complain constantly about not being able to play under circumstances like this.. Or no1 will complain cuz they wont buy it if its true..

I guess we will have to wait & see what happens.. MS should hurry up & show the thing.. I must admit that it has my interest... Only because i want to see if the rumors are true or not.. I dont think ill be buying the machine until way later in the gen unless they have some really awesome exclusives i wanna play

[Iltapalanyymi]

get wrekt.

[TemplarDante]

PSN= Free
XBL= Premium Paid For Service.
Get your ass in gear and fix it, MSFT!

[Honest_gamer]

I came home with a fresh (and used) copy of Halo 4, excited to test out the Forge multiplayer map editor.

wow milking the situation much?

[TheKayle1]

yeah in fact maximum u will get is some hours down...

just the time of everyweek fixing psn

or u wanna talk about the last patch? hahaha

the psn hack toke weeks.........so pls stop bsshitting

[generalthadeape]

I'm spending most of my free time playing on my 3ds XL, lately.

Haven't been inclined to re-up my Xbox Live Gold subscription until yesterday.

The only reason I did was because I wanted to stream Game of Thrones from HBO_GO.

That, and I realized that Microsoft was holding my game saves hostage because they were being saved "in the cloud".

Awesome!

I must say, I'm not really looking forward to having to pay my hard earned money for these kinds of "basic services" anymore.

I'm seriously thinking about making the "switch" to PS4 when it comes to buying my next system.

[Bryan574]

Always on with a mandatory camera pointed at you? Lol No thanks.

[Bryan574]

On a side note Microsoft just came out with their full support of the online spying bill known as CISPA.

[Dan_scruggs]

Oh man. I suppose I will have to do something drastic like... wait a little while, or go outside or talk to people in person. Nah I'm gonna bitch on a forum about how stupid and DOOMED Microsoft is. Yeah that's the answer.

[GamingForTheLols]

I think xbox knew something was coming like this anonymous are really good hackers but I think xbox hasndone something to the hacking group and this is has happening but why to the gamers thou :(

[Soldierone]

Why do they hide it? Every server service needs maintenance, which means some downtime unless they have a fully fledged backup service to take over for the time being.

The issue here was the fact MS did service without announcing it. Unlike Sony which always publicly announces "maintenance, service may be down" And then all the Xbox fans jump all over it "hahaha its going down"

It's a stupid PR move to justify paying for the service. It puts the idea of "we are never down" into people's heads. If you are up 99 percent of the time, thats still good, but don't lie and say its up 100 percent of the time. The only thing that does is what just happened, "omg its down!!!!"

[kingPoS]

I can't help but believe that this incident was no an accident due to the timing.

Any ideas on what really happened?

[cl1983]

Typical system break down.
http://n4g.com/news/1232411...

Issues started on Thursday.

[airgangstarr]

the best is all the ps gamers are payin for plus so they can get a free game a month in no way does psn match up to xbl why everyone on psn says u have to pay for xbl an ps is free is bullshit.. i gurantee more then half of them are payin for plus an gettin that shitty piece of crap psn.. its free cause how could they charge u for that crap yet people pay for plus every month wow talk about a ripoff

[pop-voxuli]

HMMM yes what was that about "You get what you pay for"???

[shauzy]

HAH, and they want to make the next xbox always online

[iNFAMOUZ1]

mine never went down, and all my friends i know also said theirs never went down, i heard from like one person on gamespot that it went down for 2 hours on that dude.

ps3 fanboys going crazy over nothing, yet when psn goes down its out for the whole world for days or weeks.

the nerve of you guys, damn, grow up.

i rather pay for my xbox live service, why? its top notch, more "real" accounts live, all my friends on their, and its just overall a funner more put together experience, its been here before psn, its miles ahead of psn technically, and its the reason i game still, i love xbox live, and will continue to pay.

[ZeroChaos]

Well its down again :(

[generalthadeape]

XBOX LIVE Service
Users may experience difficulties with the following services:
Managing friends lists and tracking what friends are doing
Sending text or voice messages to other Xbox LIVE members

4/14/2013 4:24:59 PM PDT:
Are you running into issues accessing friends and/or the messaging service? We're hard at work trying to get things back to normal! We appreciate you and your patience more than you know! Be sure to check back in 30 minutes for another update!

[ufo8mycat]

It's down but be thankful you can still play Single Player games.

With the 720.....

[Mac42o]

Yea to all the kids saying it wasn't down if you were on prior to 12-2pm Est yesterday (Saturday) you might have been 1 of the lucky few that didn't get kicked off. Some are even reporting being on at the time of outage an being signed off then when signing back in having no friends list. Xbox.com wasn't working an calling MS was a joke when I finally got through to the wait line after 6 attempts, the automatic response said it would be 2 hours. I just feel bad for all the Reps that work for twitter because some of the things that have been said to them in the past couple days is ridiculous. An just to let people know they are still having problems. You sir are just not well informed go back to COD.