I'm sure most of you are at least semi-aware of the rampant problems on Xbox Live as of
late. Ever since Christmas Eve, everything has basically gone to shit. I can't get into any
matches of COD4, and in the rare event that I do, it's full of connection problems that
eventually lead to the host ending the match in the first five minutes. This has been going
on for almost two weeks now. In typical Microsoft fashion, they refuse to admit there is a
problem until the internet forums are ablaze with complaints. And even then, they report
that users are experiencing "intermittent" issues and that the problem will be fixed
"shortly." Being unable to use LIVE for this long is not intermittent. Half the time, I can't
even navigate the Marketplace, download anything, or even get my blades on my
dashboard to load (since they're linked to LIVE to give us these wonderful ads!). And by
"shortly," I usually think 24 to 48 hours. Not 12 days. Especially not 12 days during which
the greater part of the world has free time that they can devote to gaming (I've been
aching for semester to end so that I could put a serious dent into all the games I bought
this fall). Wasted. Semester starts back up on Monday.
Now, MS claims they'll "compensate" the gold users who have been shafted over the past
two weeks, but I remain skeptical. They can't give us our free time back. Giving us free
LIVE time doesn't seem great at the moment either, since LIVE isn't working. Honestly, it
hasn't been working well since that abomination known as the Fall Update. Instead of
speeding up the blade interface (which we've been screaming for since fall 05), they add
more menus and slow the whole setup down even further. And now LIVE is completely
unreliable. And not even Major Nelson has provided us with any update(s) as to what's
going on. His last post pointed out that users may have problems with signing in, account
recovery, and matchmaking. Wow. That's Xbox Live in its entirety. And his update says
that they've made great progress, but some users will still have these issues. In other
words, no progress has been made. I still can't play on LIVE. Just as I couldn't over a
week ago.
I MEAN WHAT ISSUE COULD POSSIBLY TAKE THIS LONG TO FIX?! AT LEAST UPDATE US
REGULARLY INSTEAD OF ACTING LIKE EVERYTHING IS OK!
There. My rant has reached its conclusion.
Has anyone else been experiencing similar problems lately?
http://www.engadget.com/tag/xboxlive
Here's a link for those who are curious.
brobots's blog
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speeding up the blade interface (which we've been screaming for since fall 05), they add
more menus and slow the whole setup down even further."
Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Microsoft at it's best.
they do crap like this with almost everyone of their products
I am powerfully envious.
@IceMax
Yeah Microsoft isn't very in touch with its user base. Ever. The fall update didn't add a single feature that I would see in the "what we want to see in the next update" threads on every online forum. In many cases, it did the exact opposite of what we wanted.
@brobots: I can say the one thing everyone was clamoring for and they delivered was Divx/Xvid support. I haven't had to watch a single video on my laptop since. Also, it is actually quite easy to set up, and it streams really well with no slowdowns or hiccups.
If i try to just play with random people.
FORGET IT!
I would love to ship my 360 to MS with some special plasma nades enclosed.
Maybe even a bucket of dough nuts with 'tehArtist's special glaze'
Oh yeah I had forgotten about the DivX/xviD support. That was nice. :)
@ tehArtist
Yeah the problems are mainly with matchmaking. If I do private games (like I did in Halo a few days ago) it runs fine. But since COD4 and Halo 3 in particular are heavily-matchmaking dependent, it totally ruins the entire experience, since there really isn't a way to play without using the matchmaking procedure. You can't just host a game and wait for people to join (like RS: Vegas for instance).
Haha yeah I'm sure about that. My connection is as fast as a cable connection can get, and I can do anything else just fine (WoW, Wii, PSN, etc.)
It's Xbox Live. It's having major issues. All the online forums will probably have a giant thread on the front page about it (I know TeamXbox does). Even MS released a half-assed statement on Dec. 29th, and then an update on Jan. 1st I think.