R.I.P Original Xbox Live
Written by Rossa AU Saturday, 06 February 2010 12:53
Some interesting news in the world of Xbox today, as Microsoft has announced that it will dis-continue it's Xbox Live service for all Original Xbox consoles and the games designed for it. This is set to happen on 15th April, 2010. Quoting Major Nelson's blog post; "While I can't comment on the specifics, this change will allow us to continue evolving the LIVE service with new features and experiences that fully harness the power of Xbox 360 and the Xbox LIVE community. We did not make this decision lightly, but after careful consideration and review we realize that this decision will allow us unprecedented flexibility for future features."
This no doubt is sad news for some, and i sympathise for them; but in reality this could open up a world of features for Xbox live as a service. This could potentially end up being something really good, at the expense of only a few thousand people who still play Original Xbox games; and when you think about it, a few thousand fish in the pond of the 23 million+ Xbox live members is nothing to Microsoft. We need to face the fact that Original Xbox Live games as a whole per week would probably not bring in as many players as one of the top Xbox 360 games alone....looking at it that way, makes this move quite smart. How smart you ask? Well think about how the old Xbox is holding Xbox Live back; 1 example being the cap on our friends list of 100 people....no doubt only being kept in place because of the Original Xbox's interface.
So let's take a minute to mourn the loss of some great games which helped Microsoft make Xbox Live into what it is today:
- Halo 2
- Star Wars: Battlefront 2
- Counter-Strike
- Splinter Cell Chaos
- Star Wars: Battlefront
- Doom 3
- SW: KOTOR
- SW: Republic Commando
Those games are still being played today by people on Xbox Live, but never the less, great things must eventually come to an end.
On the darker side of this, Microsoft has already started taking down some content in preparation for this shut down. People are already reporting that the DLC and possibly title updates have been taken off the Xbox Live servers...So are you hoping to have a last chance at downloading the Blasttacular Map Pack for Halo 2? Well bad luck, all you can do now is grab the Map Pack Disc that came out a while ago and live with the maps only on that disc. Unfortunately not all gamers have the luxury of doing this since obviously not every developer released a DLC disc.
So what are your thoughts on this news? Setting aside the fact you may not play Original Xbox games anymore, do you think this was a good move by Microsoft? Or a bad move that will make many people angry? Either way my opinion will stay the same that this is a good thing to happen as it will open new features for the future of the Xbox Live service.
Rest In Piece Xbox v1.......Rest In Piece
Source: Major Nelson
I don't care either way on a personal level as I don't play any of those games, but I just don't see how supporting original xbox live was slowing the evolution of 360 live.
Surely they're completely separate operations?
I don't care either way on a personal level as I don't play any of those games, but I just don't see how supporting original xbox live was slowing the evolution of 360 live.
Surely they're completely separate operations?
Oh, and not too sure whether that 5k of users for Halo 2 includes PC users as well, so that could dilute the Xbox Live user base further.
That's compared to almost 700,000 Halo 3 players and 70,000+ ODST and Firefight players in the same timeframe. Of the 15-20 million Live accounts and gamers, it's really a drop in the ocean.
On a side note - people getting the Live code for the Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory with their SC Conviction preorder will be short-changed - the Live servers for online play will be going down a week or two after you redeem and download the game. Effectively it'll be single player only.
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
