NeverEnding1989

Contributor
CRank: 6Score: 20400

Xbox Live Hacked by Anonymous?

An article from yesterday raised the idea that Xbox Live may have been hacked by Anonymous in retaliation for the rumours suggesting Microsoft's next console will be always-online. N4G mods have since changed the title and source, but you can see the comments do not reflect what the current title suggests.

Source: http://n4g.com/news/1232343...

Xbox Live issues first appeared when some users reported being unable to sign in, manage friends lists, and/or access some save files.

A series of articles then popped up jumping on the idea that Anonymous has hacked Microsoft because of always-online. At the time, I had just come off of a 2 hour Halo 4 session. Personally, Party Chat wasn't working, so 6-7 friends of mine played custom games against each other, since matchmaking would have had everyone talking outside of Party Chat. This was the extent of Xbox Live being down for me. Do I want it to ever happen again? Definitely not. But I must admit it was a lot of fun playing on created maps and gametypes.

Afterwards I came on to N4G and was shocked to see rumours of Xbox Live being hacked. Sure, disabling Party Chat for a few hours isn't something that would cause Microsoft to change their rumoured next gen plans, but who knew maybe it was all apart of Anonymous's master plan. After scanning some of the articles, I was quite disgusted with the attitude N4G users had to the alleged hack. Aside from the school yard excitement about other gamers being unable to play online, a select few were hoping that credit card information was stolen. Furthermore, the scale on rumour articles was way over towards the "Hopefully" side of the scale. What a sad way for people to be spending their Saturday night. This info is from the since altered article listed above.

The original article suggesting the Xbox Live hack then retracted their statement and updated their article saying that they had fallen for a hoax created by a fake Anonymous Twitter account. In fact, @YourAnonNews, Anonymous's main Twitter account, was quick to distance themselves from the issue, stating: "XBOX Live was NOT hacked by Anonymous."

Source: https://twitter.com/YourAno...

So if Xbox Live wasn't hacked by Anonymous, what happened? Digital Spy provided a great timeline of the Xbox Live issues that were experienced on April 12th:

Microsoft stated in an update at [5:56 EST] that some users may have experienced connection delays, but added that it is "still hard at work fixing the issue".

A further update at [6:28 EST] said: "There is still an issue members are having signing in to Xbox LIVE, we greatly appreciate you sticking it out with us while we work as hard as we can to get this problem fixed. Keep checking back here every 30 minutes for another update on our progress."

[6:58 EST], saying: "If you were one of the members who was having issues signing in to Xbox LIVE, good news! This issue has been fixed!"

Source: http://www.digitalspy.ca/ga...

At the time of writing on April 13th, the Xbox Live status page states the following issues that are currently affecting Xbox Live:

- Creating new or accessing existing Minecraft game saves
- Managing friends lists and tracking what friends are doing
- Sending text or voice messages to other Xbox LIVE members

A Microsoft representative later stated to Gameinformer that the down time was due to routine maintenance. I suspect that while performing maintenance, someone made a slip up that affected the entire network.

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

In the end, the Great Xbox Live Outage of 2013 lasted an entire 1 hour and 2 minutes. Friends list issues are still persisting, but the Xbox Live status page at Xbox.com is providing updates every 30 minutes and one can assume these issues will quickly be rectified.

As a daily Xbox Live user, I was hardly affected by the Xbox Live downtime, but there are many on N4G that are confused about what happened yesterday. I hope this clears the air.

iGAM3R-VIII4029d ago (Edited 4029d ago )

well they did say in one of their tweets that they did not hack it but if they didn't, then who did? MS said that it was a regular maitenence but I doubt that. good blog though

Rage_S904029d ago

Neverending should be made mod.

Jek_Porkins4029d ago

It never went completely down and Microsoft released a statement saying it was maintenance.

Per Game Informer and Xbox:
[Updated] Xbox Live Back In Business, Outage Due To Routine Maintenance
http://www.gameinformer.com...

I was never kicked off line, but I know some who couldn't sign in.

Software_Lover4029d ago (Edited 4029d ago )

Journalism is dead. You dont need a degree to make a blog and spread rumors.

I remember in the Genesis/super Nintendo days, we used to envy each other. Friend had a SNES you had a GENESIS, and you would go over each others home to play various games. I even traded systems for a weekend with a friend. It was a good time. These facebook kids and emo adults are ruining gaming.

But be prepared, you will not get a lot of responses on your blog because it isn't a down with Microsoft/Sony blog. Its just pure fact.

Some people were having issues and after about an hour, it was fixed. End of story.

4029d ago
Show all comments (9)
220°

Fallout 4's 'next gen' update is over 14 gigs, breaks modded saves, & doesn't change much at all

We were expecting problems with mod support, but there are a lot of other issues.

isarai9h ago

Wow what the actual hell 🤣🤣🤣

just_looken9h ago

This is why you get the GOG version on gog you can select the version of the game to download.

On pc fallout 4 fallout new vegas and skyrim are all broken on steam because they all got the same "next gen" update.

Skyrim dec 2023
https://www.pcgamer.com/sky...

Can not find new vegas but anyone that modded it knows the script extender there was also broken

Valkyrye7h ago

Not accidental, they want modders to stop modding their older games to force them to mod Shitfield.

just_looken5h ago

There doing the same on starfield with a mods store and blocking mods

There goal is like blizzard and what they did with fallout 76 you make mods they can sell and you become a slave.

On skyrim they have "trusted" mod devs now basically a badge that lets your mod on the store you get a crumb of the sale when someone buys it.

Inverno4h ago

lol to the disagrees, the last Skyrim update broke mods too. They've been trying to kill mods to monetize them in creation club for years, it's not a stretch that they purposely put out patches just to break free mods.

porkChop2h ago

The disagrees are from people who have common sense. They aren't trying to kill mods. Most mods for any game will break with a new update because they rely on files/code that have been changed. This isn't new. Even with Bethesda this would happen way before the creation club. Mod support is literally one of the things that got Bethesda to where they are, and they're one of the only devs that releases comprehensive mod tools for each of their games.

Chocoburger3h ago

Over 14 GBs and doesn't change much at all? What? Taking up that much drive space for a pathetic 'remastering' is shameful.

Par for Bethesda.

Aussiesummer2h ago

It's not a remaster, it's a next gen update.

badz1492h ago

LOL people are actually expecting massive improvements or something? From Bethesda?? the same people who released Skyrim multiple times and the all look like shit? THAT Bethesda? are people for real?

Profchaos1h ago(Edited 1h ago)

The ps5 version doesn't change a ton but from my small playtime it's enough to make me want to replay it just to have it running at 60.

A side note to this my PS4 version no longer boots after it's "update" so I guess that's what it feels like to own a Bethesda game on PC

Show all comments (14)
120°

Why Monopolies In Gaming Must Not Be Allowed

As of right now, there are no monopolies in the games industry, and for the sake of the medium as a whole, they never should either.

thorstein8h ago

Shouldn't be allowed in any field.

Inverno4h ago

And yet the biggest tech companies in America are essentially that. They buy up all the small comps only to kill them off and steal what they have, and if they can't buy em they bleed them to death.

jwillj2k43h ago

Eventually they’ll realize the value is with the employee not the company. Buying an IP means nothing if the people who contributed are let go. They’ll get it one day.

MrCrimson2h ago

tech is different because they buy threats and then kill them. Twitter bought Vine and did nothing with it. Despite people seemingly liking it. Could've had tiktok a decade before bytedance. go figure.

Zenzuu3h ago

Monopolies shouldn't be allowed regardless. Not just for gaming.

MrCrimson2h ago

They buy IPs not talent. That's why these buyouts never work and the IPs die. Right now it's too expensive to develop games - but I expect that to shift maybe as AI tools can make it easier. The best games have been indie games for awhile as big developers fuck their ips to death with "games as a service" -

100°

Gears of War Voice Actor Hints At New Game Announcement Coming In June

A voice actor from The Coalition's third-person shooter series, Gears of War, has hinted at a new game announcement coming in June.

Read Full Story >>
twistedvoxel.com
Ra30302h ago

Hopefully Microsoft will go back to the original story line and get away from that woke nonsense from the last Gears game Gears of Woke! But were talking about Microsoft so all the betting money is on more of the same woke nonsense.

Sciurus_vulgaris1h ago

The Locust trilogy concluded with Gears of War 3. I don’t get how Gears 4 and 5 are “woke” .