Remember last year, soon after the release of Call of Duty 4, when all the good little boys and girls that got Xbox 360s for Christmas proceeded to destroy Xbox Live? I do, as I’m sure a lot of you do as well, and I know for damn sure that Dan Landis does. When he reported on it last year, the article became a hot topic on Ripten for a good long while.

Well, this year is looking pretty scary with multiplayer heavy hitters Gears of War 2, Call of Duty: World at War, and Left 4 Dead on the horizon, not to mention the New Xbox Experience. All of these hit within the next three weeks. However, Microsoft claims that this year, they’ll be prepared.

Talking to Eurogamer, Xbox Live product unit manager Jerry Johnson seemed pretty confident that Microsoft won’t get caught off guard this year.

“I can tell you that when Robbie Bach is on the phone on Christmas Day calling people asking what the hell is going on, and that’s coming down from Steve Ballmer… that’s the kind of attention it got last holiday.”

Steve Ballmer is a pretty terrifying-looking man, so I imagine that he gets what he wants. Here’s to hoping that Microsoft won’t get caught with its pants down again.

Tags: Microsoft, New Xbox Experience, Xbox-Live

• Major Nelson Muffled: Microsoft Can’t Legally Discuss Xbox Live Issues
• Fall Xbox Live Update: 500 Free MS Points Plus Original Xbox Titles
• The 12 Days of Christmas, Revised for Gamers: Day 11
• Xbox LIVE is Going Down… Temporarily
• Microsoft Gift Points Are Now Available
• 360 Holiday Sales Wreak Havoc on Xbox LIVE Servers – Seriously
• Xbox Not So Live Today
• Downloading The New Xbox Experience Off Friends Means No Xbox LIVE

1 Comment » Dan Landis on November 3, 2008 7:57 pm I’ll believe it when I don’t see it. RSS feed for comments on this post. Comment Now Note: Commenting on Ripten does not currently require registration, however to be eligible for contests on the site, you must be a registered user. Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website Commenting Rules: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Ripten reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. Thanks. Notify me of followup comments Tired of the Goomba? Upload your own custom comment avatar.