360 Holiday Sales Wreak Havoc on Xbox LIVE Servers - Seriously

by Dan Landis on December 28, 2007 at 8:38 pm

All I want for Christmas is to play online, but Microsoft won’t let me

As of Wednesday the 26th, my experience with Xbox LIVE could best be described as “inconsistent”. I am randomly and sporadically kicked off of the service, and by that, I mean any time I try to do something — anything.

To make sure this wasn’t an isolated case of shitty broadband service on the part of my cable provider, or a local “malfunction”, I rang up some friends in various parts of the country to see if they were having similar issues — they were.

Around noon today, my annoyance got the best of me, and I called up 1-800-4my-xbox. I was greeted, as always, by the never-helpful automated super-dork — Max.

I’ve been down this road before, so I know to skip past his bullshit by spouting off “Agent” a hundred times until he finally gets the hint.

Anyhow, long story short, the agent tells me that the Xbox LIVE servers are having difficulty dealing with the massive influx of users that apparently got a 360 for Christmas. “Seriously?” I asked. “Yes, seriously” he responded.

In fact, it’s such a problem, that they have temporarily disabled the ability to create a new LIVE account. I went ahead and tried to create an account (out of curiosity) and I wasn’t able to.

I am unsure if this is the “official” Microsoft stance regarding the issue, but it does seem logical, and it did come straight from the mouth of a Microsoft employee — Tier 3 even! His Thetan levels must be off the chart.

The agent estimated that the problems will be fixed by the end of the weekend, if not by the end of the night. So I guess I just want to say “thank you” to Microsoft for making such a killer system. If it weren’t so awesome, I might actually be able to sign into the Chromehounds servers and, you know, play some freaking games.

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Tags: annoyance, christmas, chromehounds, isolated_case, Microsoft, microsoft_employee, servers, thetan_levels, xbox_live

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jonathan zungre
on December 28, 2007 11:29 pm

Chromehounds, dan?! really?

haha, jk, buddy, great article. invest in some mass effect single player action.
Dennis
on December 29, 2007 1:38 am

Ja, Chrome Hounds rulz. But, I haven’t been able to log in without serious trouble for a few days. The servers being down really puts a damper on games that are 98% XBL, like CH.

They really should have been more prepared! I want someones head!
Chad Lakkis
on December 29, 2007 9:51 am

Congratulations Dennis, you are the first reader on ripten to successfully upload an avatar for yourself.

Chad-
John Kershaw
on December 29, 2007 10:26 am

I think Dennis should get cake for that.
Dan Landis
on December 29, 2007 1:01 pm

Yes, he really should. If his avatar is any indication, cake is definitely needed. Otherwise, he might get angry… and we wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.
Patrick Steen
on December 29, 2007 1:20 pm

Chad,

He is not actually…i have seen one other, though his face has been allusive ever since.

Nothing is true, everything is…
Unwiired
on December 29, 2007 2:07 pm

So many stories of Xbox Live coming out recently.
tim
on December 29, 2007 8:01 pm

I just bought an xbox live subscription today. I got home from the store all excited to get online and play ponly to find that the xbox live can’t be reached right now….very annoying…really makes me regret the $200 I spent this morning on the subscription and gear
Steven
on December 29, 2007 8:33 pm

Bummer… My PS3 doesn’t have this issue.
DiddlyDoo
on December 29, 2007 8:33 pm

A teensy bit melodramatic aren’t we. I wouldn’t quite use the phrase “wreak havoc”. I played COD4 all night last night and the night before and had a few oddities but nothing remotely close to havoc wreaking havoc. Occaisionally it would state that I had to have an active network connection to join a game (when it was active) but trying to join again worked fine.

Also the picture with the jab about MS only liking new Xbox owners doesn’t fit at all. Everyone would be having the same problems and if they really did cut off new Live signups then it would be the opposite.
Portaluvr
on December 29, 2007 8:52 pm

THE CAKE IS A LIE.
Dennis
on December 29, 2007 8:55 pm

Cake would appease the Green Gargantuan! You are wise to suggest such a thing!
Ace
on December 29, 2007 9:04 pm

I too found it tough to get online today. A new XBox 360 under the tree for me this year, and COD4 was having trouble assembling matches. Too much traffic, and I was kicked out many times today.
Ed
on December 29, 2007 9:24 pm

Yeah, getting a match on COD4 in the past 2 days has been extremely difficult. Now it won’t even let me sign into XBL. It just has that stupid loading symbol on 3 screens of the dashboard. Boooo
XINOOBSLAYERXI
on December 29, 2007 9:31 pm

i hope they fixed it by tommorrow.. shows that 360 and xbox live is the most popluar gameing platform every..
Macca
on December 29, 2007 10:47 pm

@Steven - “Bummer… My PS3 doesn’t have this issue.” - Is that because there aren’t any PS3 games worth playing online? ;-)
Macca
on December 29, 2007 10:47 pm

ps. XBL has been fine for me in the UK…
DanceOfD3ath
on December 29, 2007 11:03 pm

Yeah, im having the same problem as Ace, it took me 2 hrs to play 5 games…i was very upset about this as i have been looking forward to this game for a long time, then 2 days after i get it, i cant play it.
Some tech guy
on December 29, 2007 11:09 pm

@Steven
“Bummer… My PS3 doesn’t have this issue.”
It can’t have issues for services it is no where near competing against.

Hey Dan, I know it’s frustrating as we can’t get online. All I want to do is play some CoD4, is that really so much to ask over a weekend holiday break?

But I just want to say, in response to your “thanks” to their “killer system”… when have you ever experienced a service like Live for online gaming? All the feats they’ve accomplished (online gaming, arcade, videos, social networking, etc), and accomplished well. All I’m saying.. with technology, we experience downtime. And considering how little Live is ever down, and how amazing it works the rest of the time.. it’s understandable to be frustrated, I just try to keep perspective.
analCockFuck
on December 29, 2007 11:12 pm

fuck all you gay homosexuals
DanceOfD3ath
on December 29, 2007 11:14 pm

And Diddlydoo, (sorry for the double post)I believe the picture was a joke, and was never meant to be taken seriously. Also, EVERYONE on COD4 is having problems, i have attempted to play for the past 2 days, every game i have managed to get into, nearly everyone said they were having the same problem. You are having problems too, you just wanted to be condescending and rude.
jeremy
on December 29, 2007 11:42 pm

U ain’t got no problems with ur ps3 cause the majority bought a xbox which is causing a few disruptions on the servers.
TuxedoBond
on December 30, 2007 12:03 am

Define “cake.”
Mike
on December 30, 2007 12:42 am

There will be cake.

The PS3’s online service works great! You and the other three people in the world stupid enough to buy a PS3 have fun!
Delta
on December 30, 2007 12:47 am

YEY! It’s up and working fine at 11:43pm east coast time and hope it will be working fine through out the world.
luke
on December 30, 2007 1:31 am

xbox live signup is currently unavailable

ive benn getting this problem for months not just now when i try to migrate my account it says xbox live signup is currently unavailable but every once in a while be fore when i migrate my account it will work usually takes a couple of times the reason i migrate so much is bc i go to my moms n dads everyother day there divorced bugt now i cant play at all or even sign live blowns cock rite now i wanna play some h3
aross
on December 30, 2007 2:38 am

chin up dan landis, you are exploding an issue to make a point. The problem is it makes you look like a whining cry baby.

This problem is not new to Xbox Live, they had similar growing pains in the early years the service was set up.

Even Blizzard, apparent world conquerer of all online gaming had similar growth problems.

it’s nothing a bunch of money can’t fix, and even though I love to hate M$, we all know they don’t cheap out with the Xbox system. So chill, it WILL get fixed.

No go play some single player
Super Doode
on December 30, 2007 4:03 am

Its officially the end of the weeked(in texas at least) and the servers are still down!!! i cant play any of the games that i got for christmas because it wont let me recover my gamertag so anything i do wont be saved and would be pointless i love microsoft but this is making me begin to question them
Dan Landis
on December 30, 2007 4:41 am

Dear DiddlyDoo and Some tech guy,

Try not to be so emotionally attached to a faceless corporation. I think Xbox Live is great - isn’t that a good enough reason to be upset that it isn’t working properly? You don’t need to explain to me how awesome it is, but you should also realize that its awesomeness is not an excuse for poor service.

So anyways, where is the effing cake already?
Dan Landis
on December 30, 2007 4:51 am

Oh, and thanks for pointing out that my picture busting on Microsoft “doesn’t fit at all”. I wasn’t sure it was quite obvious enough that it was just a joke.
shortshire
on December 30, 2007 5:05 am

I’ve been having some serious problems trying to play Call of Duty. I was randomly kicked off of matches where I was pwning the other team. The server worked great on my bad games but on my great 30-8 games, I was booted and it has been killing me.
Dan Landis
on December 30, 2007 5:15 am

Maybe that’s part of why you were having bad games in the first place.
Patrick Steen
on December 30, 2007 6:45 am

Macca: I’ve been playing Warhawk all weekend. Plus everyone here is talking about COD4, which is available on the PS3.

Jeremy: This may be part of the story in the US, selling 400,000 more. But worldwide the PS3 and Xbox360 are equal this Holiday.

Mike: Tell that to the 8 million PS3 owners.
Captainjy
on December 30, 2007 7:08 am

Your PSFree doesn’t have this problem because there are 10 people in the world who are actually on it.
.
on December 30, 2007 12:14 pm

Chromehound “servers”. It’s peer based.
Patrick Steen
on December 30, 2007 12:25 pm

CaptainJy: They just keep coming.
Mike
on December 30, 2007 12:30 pm

“Mike: Tell that to the 8 million PS3 owners.”
Why would I want to talk to a bunch of 9-year olds?
Patrick Steen
on December 30, 2007 12:44 pm

Mike: Surely the PS3 was/is too expensive for nine-year olds? Online is quite mature on PS3’s.
steve
on December 30, 2007 2:06 pm

Chromehounds… well there is your problem right there. fag.
Dan Landis
on December 30, 2007 2:20 pm

Mr. period no-name, regardless of the fact that Chromehounds is peer-to-peer, you still get connected through Xbox Live. If you and the person you are trying to connect with both have the greatest broadband in the world, it won’t do you any good if the SERVICE you are trying to use it with doesn’t work. I apologize for using the word “servers”. I am just super stupid and don’t care about your tech-speak.
EJ
on December 30, 2007 6:53 pm

Ask Xbox: Outstanding, you selected Xbox 360.

I’m happy to help!

Check out these helpful hints before you begin…

Hints:
# Ask one question at a time
# To see a list of topics, type ? or “TOPICS”
# For information about an Xbox error, just type it in
# To change the Xbox you’re asking about, type MENU

Type your question or topic in the space below and hit “SEND”.
You: is xbox live down ?
Ask Xbox: I’m a robot.
You: yes but is xbox live down ?
Ask Xbox: I’m not sure I understood that exactly, but maybe this answer will be helpful:

I’m a robot.
You: …damn you microsoft
brent
on December 30, 2007 7:14 pm

i can’t connect i finally hooked all of my computer stuff up and when i try logging into my windows live ID when i am making a gamertag, it disconnects me. Every time. This is really starting to annoy me because i have spent 2.5 hours working on it.
Djiem
on December 30, 2007 7:23 pm

God, the author of that article is a whiny little bitch.
Dennis
on December 30, 2007 11:27 pm

Is XBL actually “down” or is it malfunctioning? I was having problems logging in before, but now, I just can’t. I wish they’d've sent a message or something about this. Why do they have to be all hush about it?
Dennis
on December 30, 2007 11:28 pm

What in the world are Thetan levels? Nobody I asked knew what they were and I know some super geeks, fo’ real. So I have to ask the source.
HIKURO1983
on December 31, 2007 1:32 am

I was trying to get on almost all day and it just wouldn’t do it….it’s such a pain in the butt…I can’t log on period and microsoft would be wise to keep ppl more in the loop so their customers don’t drop their accounts and lose money or something.
Razor
on December 31, 2007 1:34 am

LOL at all of the xbots that are having problems with Live so they attack the FREE PSN. Hey, that’s what you get for $50. N
jeremy
on December 31, 2007 7:02 am

ok patrick but we are talking about the servers in america now aren’t we. but thanks for being a ps3 fanboy instead of the logic behind why xbox live is having a few issues.
Patrick Steen
on December 31, 2007 8:07 am

Jeremey: There was no logic in your response since both console makers had an large percentage rise of sales in the US - where the PS3 actually had a larger percentage rise.

The rise of sales was also expected by both companies, so claiming that Xbox Live servers broke because they sold 400,000 more boxes in the US, and that the Playstation servers would break if they had 400,000 more sales is mere speculation, and has little support to back it up.

Claiming that there are a lot people playing online on the PS3 is not being a fanboy, it’s merely defending the truth.

I forward you to my PS fanboy articles - “Too High Risk to Stock PS3 titles”, “Is the PS3 Really Selling that Well?” “Warhawk Importers Shafted on Downloadable Content”
jeremy
on December 31, 2007 6:36 pm

as of september xbox sold 13.4 million total and ps3 sold 5.59 million total. The Us only bought up to 2.1 million ps3’s i don’t know how many xboxs were actually sold in the states but we all know europe and japan didn’t buy many so even if the sales of the xbox and ps3 where the same then that would mean that there still a good chance that there was a probably around 8 million xboxs already around using live. don’t tell me theres no logic when the xbox servers are still have more xboxs trying to access thier xbox live accounts especially with the first month is free. now take in the fact that only around 51 ps3 games can access the playstation network vs xboxs 150 games that came out just this year which majority can access live. numbers are important but ps3 number just don’t match up. and if anybody truly believes that sony is going to keep there network free once home hits…well we all find out i guess.
bob
on January 3, 2008 9:49 am

Console: units sold
Sony PlayStation2: 280,000
Nintendo Wii: 259,000
Microsoft Xbox 360: 199,000
Sony PlayStation 3: 130,000
this is the us retail sale and not unit sold or held in stock at shop’s warehouses (you can not count console not sold to the public) as microsoft and some outhers do
i have all of the above and by far the best is the ps3 for gaming and on line play
the xbox live to say as little as possible is not good i chould say lods on xb live but the page is not long Enough to finnish if i start
bob
on January 3, 2008 9:54 am

PS see if you can find a link to complain to microsoft on the xbox live matters if you can post it any where peploe will fine it no problem
jeremy
on January 4, 2008 12:10 am

Your telling me that out of 1.5 million pre-sales of Halo 3 (http://news.filefront.com/current-halo-3-sales-figures) were only for roughly 199,000 consoles in the US, and the fewer that sold in europe? Unless your talking about this Christmas alone in which case still makes my previous point valid. Plus lets all be real here what service do you pay for that is up 100% all the time, internet uh no and most roughly pays around 45 dollars for internet a month, how about electric or cable. I miss the old days of gaming when it was about the games instead of the consoles cause the consoles aren’t worth anything with out play worthy games. And for me so far the PS3 which will probably have many in 4 years will probably have a slimline version for a cheaper price that will finally make it worth buying for me personally. Lets face xbox currently have better games and are paying for better features like the maddens exclusive 60 frames per second vice PS3 30 fps. and yes we all know MSG4 and i’ll envy you for about 6 months until something for the xbox comes out that lets me forget about it. come on gamers get back to what really should matter to a gamers heart the freakin games.
Joe
on January 4, 2008 11:41 am

I don’t see this posted yet, but Microsoft is offering up an apology and a future FREE LIVE GAME download. Personally, I still had problems last night logging in at 11pm. It connected, but DL rates were low (1% every 2 minutes).

Here’s the apology.

An Open Letter from Marc Whitten about Xbox LIVE this Holiday
Published January 3, 2008

Dear Xbox LIVE Members:

During this past holiday season you helped us break a number of Xbox LIVE records. This included our largest sign-up of new members to Xbox LIVE in our 5 year history and just yesterday you broke the record for the single biggest day of concurrent members ever on the service.

As a result of this massive increase in usage we know that some of you experienced intermittent Xbox LIVE issues over the holiday break. While the service was not completely offline at any given time, we are disappointed in our performance. I would like to take this moment to thank you each and every one of you for your patience and understanding as our team has worked around the clock to return the service to a stable state.

At the same time we would like to offer a token of our appreciation to all of you in celebration of record success for the service. And as a thank you for your loyalty during this holiday period, we will be offering all of our Xbox LIVE members around the world access to a full Xbox LIVE Arcade game that will be available to download free of charge. In the coming weeks we will be sharing the specific details of this offer with you.

Thank you again for helping make Xbox LIVE everything that it is today!

Sincerely,

Marc Whitten

General Manager, Xbox LIVE

Gamertag: Notwen
AKON VI
on January 4, 2008 2:29 pm

LIVE has been going nuts lately, and I can say I am one of the many who has been annoyed. The truth is that nothing is always working, like previously said. So many people want to join LIVE or got it for the holidays… bc its a great system for live gaming. It’s not what console is better than another, just the fact that we want LIVE to get up and running again. Plain and simple, and I’ve found it’s working somewhat better than normal.

any who wanna play some CoD4… the names my gamertag…holla atcha boiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
Jim
on January 4, 2008 4:32 pm

“Thank you to Microsoft for amking such a killer system” wow Dan, not sure if I really need to ask this but are you gay? Cause you sound like a gay homo Xbox fan boy to me. Microsoft screws you and you still praise them for it, man the brain washing is really working.
Sw1ft Snipur
on January 7, 2008 1:50 am

i’ve got a ps3 with COD4, and there are plenty of people online for it and i’ve seen little problems,even if i did, i’d say ok…no problem because it’s free, but i’ve got a lot of friends that are on the 360, so i’ve had no choice but to get on live just to play with them, but live has been jacked up since xmas, and as of right now, is still extremely difficult to get on and get some rounds going on COD4…still getting the “you need and active connection” error, and sometimes you can’t invite anyone to the party, and even if you did, you’re almost guaranteed to lose someone out of your party…it’s not about what system is better than the other, it’s about us paying money for live and it not working since xmas…it’s january 7th for GOD’S sakes!!! Microsoft needs to fix it, or give us some damn points or something…cuz this is a crock of sh*t!!! I just want to play, anyways if any of yall are on the cod4 for live, if it ever gets straightened out…hit me up…the name is my gamer tag.
BC
on January 10, 2008 9:48 am

….really, no COD4 issues on the PoS3…. hmmm, that’s not what this says:

http://www.infinityward.com/community/forum/index.php?topic=9088.0

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