Xbox Live downtime next week
On Tuesday the 17th of October, Xbox Live and xbox.com (including forums) will be unavailable for access for a whole day. That’s right, a whole day with no online gaming; but we are promised cool stuff is being added.
Amusingly (or bemusingly), this comes during the Beta testing of Phantasy Star Universe, which already suffered a delay, and now seems that gamers may as well not even bother downloading it. Surly Sega will extend the Beta? If not, they have to be pretty pissed off at Microsoft over this one.
And don’t get all excited, this has nothing to do with the “Fall” update that everyone is anticipating. That is set to come later on in the year. In the mean time, xbox.com has provided ten ways in order to pass the time while they add stuff to the service. I’ve picked the best ones, in no particular order:
- Talk to your significant other. Remember them? You last spoke about 11 months ago when you got your Xbox 360 console. Just don’t say anything like, “Have you gained weight?”
- Birthdays! October 17 is also the birthday of Rita Hayworth, Evel Knievel, Mike Judge, Eminem, and Superman creator Jerry Siegel! It’s a great opportunity to use Xbox 360™ for more than games—watch the Shawshank Redemption, Beavis and Butthead, and Superman: the Movie.
The service will, rather obviously, be back up and running on the 18th. This in no way affects the services provided by ICGamers; it will run as well as ever!
Thanks to Rockaholica, Gotmian and Glenn for submitting.
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Hmm.. Cool new stuff? I think something to do with Vision Camera.
…or maybe firmware hacks
I’m thinking more, able to view your friends list’s custom display pictures.
you mean on xbox.com?
Yeah.
that would be a nice touch…agreed!
It sucks that this is happening when the beta for PSU is happening.
and also our first moments with splinter cell double agent, and tiger woods 07 will be offline…:( what an odd move
I bet its to ban the firmware hacks. Im glad i held off and didnt do anything to either of mine.
Why would they need to shutdown Live to do this?
Or even more improbable: xbox.com?
yeah…so we get PSU on sat or Sun…play those days and monday then get cut off on Wed? why bother spending the 2-4 hours to dl the damn thing anyway.
Its takes you 2-4 hours to download demos? Thats sucks me normally only take about 30 min for the big ones
big ones? like the time it took to install ff from the demo disc? if psu is anything like that, the play time will be minimal
just play some ESIV or lego staw wars or any racer, or any offline game and the time will fly
its because of the new mod…microsoft…is scared of the mod…so they will be changing a few things
what new mod? the firmware hacks have been out since a couple weeks before the spring dash update
We posted the scoop on March 15 actually, and May 15 it was “weaponized”.
dony be dumb,… the mod would need a firmware upgrade, this isnt its a xbox live upgrade server side.
“Q: What kind of cool stuff?
A: Secret cool stuff that we’ll tell you about when we’re back online October 18. Other stuff we’ll be talking about later in the fall”
I wonder if the “other stuff” will be connected to the Fall update???
Fall update is 1080p and buncha other stuff….
I wonder what this super secret cool stuff is thats happening on the server… I WANNA KNOW … i dont mind downtime as long as its for improvements…
So lets see.. XBL keeps getting upgradesa, and the ps3 service is still unknown and from what developers have said a pain in the ass and kinda non-existent sorta
Damn….splinter cell is coming out tuesday and was lookin forward to spies vs mercanaries. Guess ill have to wait another 24 hours…sheesh!
Well you’d have to think this maintenance is probably related to the fall update, i.e. implement backend support for some of the *hopefully* cool new features we’ll be getting.
I’m also wondering if this might be LiveAnywhere/Windows Vista related given that Vista’s RTM is not too far away.
Either way, you’d have thought that they would’ve figure out a way to perform this kinda maintenance without downtime.
What i want to see is MSN intergration into the service. Allow us to see our Friends list on MSN in real time and also allow us to videochat with people (360 to MSN)
I dont’ mind down time for upgades to the service ,but really MS shouldn’t need down time. They should have Mirrored/backup servers so they can switch them around while others are upgraded and then swap them back to upgrade the mirrored ones.
i dont even use xbox.com
then you should!!
I think it has something to do with Live Vision video features and extra effects as well as some function or other for the wireless headset which comes out 2 weeks after the downtime.