Over at CES, Microsoft representative Albert Penello confirmed the suspicions held by most folks able to perform basic deductive reasoning; namely that recent Live downtime and connectivity issues were largely caused by a massive surge in Xbox Live sign ups. Penello went on to say that in addition to the deluge of new memberships a reduced staff of Xbox Live team members contributed to the length of the outages.  You don't say.

Admittedly, Microsoft could have more adequately prepared for the inevitable onslaught of Xbox Live sign ups and probably shouldn't have reduced their staff considering the likelihood of little tykes the world over getting an Xbox 360 for Christmas.  However the number of sign ups is simply staggering, with Penello reporting over 10 million people signing up and attempting to play in a single day.

Penello also suggested that the issues with Xbox Live have been addressed, yet it still seems that most of us know someone still experiencing problems.  In spite of the fact that some are still reporting issues connecting to Xbox Live or recovering gamertags it seems Microsoft is handling this as best they can (with a few extreme exceptions).  Although nothing has been said from Microsoft in this regard, it's probably a safe bet that they'll be better prepared next year; with a full staff of Xbox Live team members pissed that they have to work on Christmas.

[Via NG -- Thanks, Justin]