The Real Reason You Can't Have More Than 100 Xbox Live Friends -- Halo 2

From G4tv.com: "Microsoft has never issued a fully satisfying answer about why Xbox Live, almost four years after the launch of Xbox 360, cannot support more than 100 friends. The company has blamed it on technical obstacles related to the original Xbox Live architecture. It's simpler than that. The real reason you can't have more than 100 friends on Xbox Live is because of Bungie. Specifically, Halo 2."

[Saaking]

hmm. Interesting.

[WenisWagon]

Like any Xbot would even have that many friends.

[TheColbertinator]

Plenty of people still play Halo 2 and I found some that still play Doom 3.The H2 community will take a long time to die just like how the Halo 1 community still exists

[ShabzS]

true true ... i still play a lot of halo ce "the multiplayer only version" on my pc

[Blaze929]

Not a problem with me personally, I only have about 65 friends on my friendslist and probably about 15 I don't even speak to on a regular basis or ever. I do "Xbox LIVE cleaning" every once in awhile and my number always stays short becuase no point on keeping people who I dont even game with or talk to.

If you're at 100 maxed out and hate it, you must be really popular.

[FragMnTagM]

People are just lazy and don't weed out their friends list.

[chaosatom]

interesting find.

[Lou-Cipher]

I have only 8 Friends on PSN, and 5 on Xbox Live. I don't really need more than that at the moment.

I would go insane from all the friend notifications that pop up if I had 100 PSN/Live friends.

[a_squirrel]

3 accounts, 1st one I had 100, the other has... *goes to check* 23, so that's 123, and the last one has 57, so that's 180 friends.

-note-
the 1st one was for the original xbox, the other 2 are on my 360.
The account with 23 is aSquirrel5, add me

[RockmanII7]

I have a little over 80 friends, but if I needed to I could go down to 50 friends without really missing anyone.

[DJ Pillz 317]

Does anyone seriously need more than 100 friends? I got bout 90 and only play a lot with about 20 of them lol

[Ninji]

The HD-DVD add on, the disc tray, not being able to support more than 100 friends because of previous games. The 360 is a last gen console (which is still getting beat in monthly sales by the PS2).

[Sonyslave3]

It funny you talk about last gen halo2 have more player online then all the ps3 exclusive shooter combine.

[Ninji]

But that's only because the 360 really has no other games to play plus the xbots only play shooters.

[JOLLY1]

The problem with your though (I sure won't call it logic) is that 360 beats ps3 on 95% of all multiplat game sales. Also the ps2 hasn't beat the 360 in months. The combined sales of the ps2 and ps3 barely beat the 360 in some months.

[RockmanII7]

"the 360 really has no other games to play (besides Halo 2)"
Wait, what?

[Sonyslave3]

Their more people playing halo 2 then Killzone 2 and Resistance 2 combine.

[Coolrah]

Theres more people that bought ps2 than both Xbox and xbox 360 combined.......twice.....oooh the ownage burns doesn't it...

[air1]

oh yea...

well more ppl got a 360 over the ps3 as of right now. you know like the moment that you read this 8-10-09..

but yea, teh sales no matter this gen..

lol, all butt hurt cause more ppl still play halo 1 than kz2. hell last i checked halo 3 was out selling kz2 in the uk.

cant fail much more then that..

[Coolrah]

Yes more people got a 360....only 6-7 mil more (A leads thats slowely closing) but I dunno maybe your 6-7 mil lead is a tad bit weak to the 115 mil lead the ps2 had over the xbox? I think a triple digit win is more than a single digit?

Also what year did halo come out? 2004? killzone 2? 2009? Exactly let the games be out a few more years then come talk to me. And before you say the same thing I guarantee 360 won't make it over 100 mil....Wanna know why? cause M$ is gonna jump ship and make a whole new console and screw over its fanbase like it always does. We already have visual proof of this from lastgen.

Seriously when has the xbox beat the sony at anything in triple digits? Never...Comeback when you have...Its also sad that me a "Sony Droid" just owned you at your own game....SALES!!

[RockmanII7]

Sony Fanboys living in the past because they know that they are getting owned in the console war.
bu-bu-but-but the PS2 lol

[Coolrah]

xbot fanboys are living in the past of halo2? halo3? These games came out more than 2 years ago get over it. In your comment your just making you and your entire xbot just own yourselves. Good job for doing it for me :) Next please? I need moar xbot to feed my insurmountable lust for xbot guts and the tasty beverage of their tears!!

Bu bu but but Halo 2 LOL!!!

[tehReaper]

You guys have a nasty stuttering problem. -_-;

Anyway, Coolrah, you're an idiot. Seriously, you = an idiot.

The PS2 still gets support from Sony, right? How many games do you have access to once you purchase a PS2? How much is a PS2? Answer those questions and you'll see why people still buy the PS2.

Now, with Halo 2, it's another story. Halo 2 hasn't received ANY new map packs, or support, unless you count the sequel on the 360, for years. The fact that people still play that game without support, without new content, etc., is amazing. It means the game is just that good.

It's foolish to compare a console(that plays many games) to a single game.

Coolrah, here, is an example to why abortions were invented.

[air1]

so is that the new thing coolrah? yu have to win by triple digits to count it as a win? wtf, i bet you are the biggest sore loser in school.

bu bu but you have to beat me by triple digits to call it a win 7-8 is nothing.

you hear that ppl we are not allowed anymore to play older games. why dont you tell that to the ppl that are still buying ps2s moron..

and the ps3 has been out sold all year long so please tell me what year will it be this time that the ps3 will take the lead 2010, 2011, 2012,2013??

why dont you come back when/if the ps3 digs itself out of the grave. till the why dont you sit back stfu and play your role, incase you forgot its 3rd and there is no spinning that.

[FantasyStar]

Wow, I only have about 9 friends on my list and I only keep people I know in real life on that list. Reaching 100 will be a problem for me. Especially since other friends don't play games.

[-Mezzo-]

EXCUSES,EXCUSES,EXCUSES, what will we do with you Microsoft.

[NaiNaiNai]

Heres ones for you

"We can release GT5 now, but we don't feel like it"

ROFL, even your best devs shove it up your A#%

[Kamikaze8]

Wrong. OXM asked Microsoft and they said this.

"Effectively, never. The 100 friend limit is based on the amount of network data being swapped around when the list is updated -- which is all the time. Tracking 100 names is (at the moment anyway) all they are willing to do for the sake of the system. More than that and they told us it would affect performance -- too much network data above 100. If bandwidth increases for all users everywhere, then maybe that will change, but right now, Microsoft has no plans to bump it above 100."

[darkequitus]

Makes sense. IT Obviously uses a different system to PSN. XBL realtime, while PSN On demand, if you know what I mean?

WHen I do a compare trophies etc on PSN I get a time wheel of shorts while the system does its job. On XBL it is already there when I compare Achievements.
PSN : a bit slower as on demand but the advantage there is that it is unlikely that everyone will be comparing trophies at the same time, therefore on demand saves bandwidth.

XBl: A bit faster as it updating friends status live, but uses more bandwidth as that bandwidth is pre-allocated for 100 friends for each user on the network. You also have people playing with friends on friends list shown grouped together. You are also stream their avatars.
E.g. Friend A may be partying with 7 other people not on my friends list. But but their animated avatars are show. So potentially that is , if all my 100 hundred friends a re partied up completely different people, that is 800 avatar dancing around on my friends list.

That is how I interpret it.

[XLiveGamer]

We all gonna die because we cant have more than 100 friends in our friends list on live!!!! AHHHHH!!!!! cough! AHHHH cought!!! ahhhhh.... cought.... ------------------.

[BX81]

Who the f*ck cares if you can have 100 friends on xbox live? Probably the same amount of loosers who try to attach as many friends as they can to their myspace and twitter... oh yeah and face book. Just because you have a good game with people doesn't mean you need to send them a friend request. I rather have 20 close friends than 80 people at random. It's just me.

[Rob Hornecker]

I love it! I think we should blame every thing wrong in the world on halo! (LOL! I can't stand the game)Although I think the authors statement that the friends limit is because of Halo2 is hard for me to buy. Considering halo2 is like so 7 years ago. The bandwidth issue makes more sense.I still think it would be nice to have more than 100 friends on a list and with technology getting better all the time it should be a problem that will be overcome.....someday?

[AngryTypingGuy]

I try to keep my friends list very limited anyway. I don't want to get the pop up every two seconds letting me know one of my friends is online. I know I can always disable it, but I'd rather not.

[OhMyGandhi]

depends on the kinds of games you play with.
I have about 15 or so friends who played Splinter Cell Pandora Tommarow back in the day, 40 who played Halo 2, ten who played Burnout and so on.

I was constantly cleaning out people who I hadn't played with in a while or hadn't been online. Simply because I would gradually forget who the hell they were.

I guess Halo (for me) made it easy for people to join up after a game win and then add the people to continue playing or play later.

Anybody who is genuinely complaining about this just needs to clean out their lists.