feauturing article

Microsoft appologizes for Xbox Live Holiday Issues

by doodirock| Published: Friday, January 04 @ 05:34:14 EST

As we all know, Xbox Live has been anything but rock solid these past few weeks. Obviously this has everything to do with big holiday sales coupled with vacation days with nothing better to do then indulge in our favorite past time of gaming.

Thankfully Marc Whitten, GM of Xbox LIVE, has posted a public letter on just what Microsoft plans to do with all the interruptions and inconveniences of the last few days.

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

So what do you guys think? We only get a few days of work off during this time of year, and any time we don't spend with our families or children are converted to precious gaming time. Does a free arcade title make up for the lost time? 2old2play wants to know.


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Reader Comments

yes. (Score: 1)
Posted By LocGaw on Friday, January 04 @ 06:23:22 EST
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At the very least it is better than doing/saying nothing. I can't say it enough, Sony did nothing when my PS2s broke reapeatedly.

I know alot of people have had problems. I just am not seeing it all the time like others are. It seems everytime, M$ has jumped right on the problem for me and got it fixed quite reasonably. This is another example, IMO.

Loc



The More You Play (Score: 1)
Posted By DEEP_NNN on Friday, January 04 @ 06:47:14 EST
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It was the frequent player who was most affected. I knew about the problems and experienced some of it. Luckily my Over 50 and Clan nights were manageable. I couln't go into matchmaking a couple of times so I played Halo 3 campaign again.

In my case, a free little game may buy me off.



kudos Microsoft (Score: 1)
Posted By Falelorn on Friday, January 04 @ 07:35:44 EST
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Ive probably had some of the worst luck with 360s (9 dead, launch unit lasted longer then any of them), but I easily look past that because of the hundred and twenty kick ass games I have on my shelf, the 40 or so XBLA games, XNA, Xbox Live, best controller out there, and more..

I am glad they are stating things went boom bad.. I am shocked at their numbers they released 17.7 million 360s worldwide.. WOW and the huge number sign ups for xbox live.. they will easily hit the 18 million by May..



Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By selden007 on Friday, January 04 @ 07:43:40 EST
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I would rather they hand out M$ points instead of a game no one really wants to play. That way we could spend them on something we actually want. I don't know if it will be enough, since they already are on my s*%* list due to I never received my Live is 5 promotion points, even though I followed all the guidelines for qualification and have been a member since the Betas for live.




Not a bad idea (Score: 1)
Posted By VTDogster on Friday, January 04 @ 08:55:24 EST
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I was thinking about downloading the new Spongbob game since my wife is a fan, but now I may be able to do that for free.



Technical difficulties... (Score: 1)
Posted By Gatsu on Friday, January 04 @ 09:05:00 EST
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they happen. as anyone knows. sometimes its a quick easy fix....others it could be days ontop of days of stressful trial & error tests or troubleshooting.

Even though I'm aggravated Live still isn't working 100%, shit happens. Just as long as they compensate in some way for the lost time.

I am glad to see them taking some initiative and at least working to fix the issues.



Well done MS (Score: 1)
Posted By LostSkeleton73 on Friday, January 04 @ 09:13:43 EST
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This just goes with everything they have stated/done with the Live issues. Major Nelson was the first person from MS that was very vocal and pissed about the issue, and now this apology. Does it fix the problem? No. Will it make the RROD become ancient history? No. But it does say a lot to, once again, admit they had a problem and they have done something about it. Well done guys!



Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By SirRoberts on Friday, January 04 @ 09:17:09 EST
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Question: Will we get to pick the arcade game or will it be one they pick and everyone is stuck with? And if they give everyone the same title... what if they already have it??

I guess it will all depend on how they handle it. I personally would rather just get the MP in my account... then I can save them for future updates..



Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By Spearchucker on Friday, January 04 @ 09:38:18 EST
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Its about time. At least they came out and gave us some information. I must be looking in the wrong places to find these things out. A free arcade game will be nice, if there is some sort of choice, but if all I can get is a Spongebob game or something similarly lame, I'll be a little pissed.

The important thing is that someone has finally come forward, acknowledged their failures, and attempted to make amends. Its not like we can get that lost gaming time back now.



Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By PoltegIce on Friday, January 04 @ 10:01:42 EST
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This sounds more like a pat on the head then a heart felt apology.



Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By Atomicfrog on Friday, January 04 @ 10:35:59 EST
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Hey I'm just glad it's not an ongoing issue. This was my first weekend and I was getting nervous.



Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By SHOWOFF_A16 on Friday, January 04 @ 10:44:10 EST
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In my opinion XBL has been more realiable than my actual internet service. It's always there 24/7 connecting MILLIONS of people worldwide. To have it be a little unruly for a couple of weeks is totally forgiving.

Thanks for the download. More than I expected.



Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By lbsutke on Friday, January 04 @ 11:03:06 EST
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His response was corporate typical, and I liked how he tried to "spin" the xbl title as a gift for the xbl loyalty....

But at least they are doing something...and xbl for the majority is a reliable service that cost just under 14 cents a day to be a part of..

I just hope, like someone else stated they give us a choice of any xbl tile we want, or at the very least a list of several to choose from...



Give me Microsoft Points instead (Score: 1)
Posted By T3muJin on Friday, January 04 @ 11:20:02 EST
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Glad they stated what was going on, hopefully the issue is truly fixed and hasn't just gone away because the numbers have dropped. I'd rather have Microsoft Points than some TBA acrade game.


Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By TexasTwister55 on Friday, January 04 @ 11:28:16 EST
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Ditto





GG M$ (Score: 1)
Posted By kewljoe on Friday, January 04 @ 11:49:56 EST
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As a long time Gamer I have to look at the fact that alot of companies will put out crap and not apologize for it, Im looking at you EA, so the fact that M$ is saying "thanks" this way is actually better than nothing. I just hope they let you choose the game.



It could be worse (Score: 1)
Posted By CyberWolves on Friday, January 04 @ 12:13:21 EST
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On the one hand I impressed that Microsoft admitted the problem and the impact it had on customers. On the other hand, I wish they would do that while the problem is occurring and give some estimate as to the time it might take to correct (even/especially if that estimate is in days). As for the free download, it all depends on what game they offer



Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By AMC401AMC on Friday, January 04 @ 12:16:07 EST
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WE ARE PRO-RATED FOR OUR SERVICE! SHOULDNT THEY BE PRORATED FOR THEIRS? ALthough a free game is a nice!


Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By RagingBull888 on Friday, January 04 @ 15:20:38 EST
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Okay, let's say Xbox Live goes down for an entire month (30 days). Would you like your $4.10 [30 x ($50/365)] in one lump payment or spread out over the year?




Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By shred1 on Saturday, January 05 @ 01:49:07 EST
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Dude its just not that what about the money i spent on all the hardware,360,live gear and the game i want to ply with my friend across the street that cost me sixty bucks.all of that becomes worth alot less when i cant hook up and play with my friends.





Deep breath, wait for it. (Score: 1)
Posted By LuxDraconis on Friday, January 04 @ 12:35:57 EST
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Could be an ok game....maybe.

We have to just wait and see.



Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By pp2 on Friday, January 04 @ 12:39:27 EST
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I appreciate the fact that at least MS owns up to their failures and screwups and offers to throw us a bone as an apology. With my luck the game will be one I own already, but at least they're doing the right thing. Again.



Not Good Enough (Score: 1)
Posted By Dawnfades on Friday, January 04 @ 15:39:08 EST
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I'm sorry, a free arcade game, even if they let me choose which one isn't good enough to offset Live being fouled up.

My big problem with MS is that they always deny the problem until it explodes to the point that they can't continue to sweep it under the rug.

Live has been unstable since the December update and then during the holiday week pretty much busted but MS continued to say something to the effect of :Live is Up and running, certain users may encounter difficulties. Certain users turned out to be a majority of Live subscribers.

Now that MS has to acknowledge the problem they throw a pittance at us and act like we should be grateful to them and forget how bad they have handled the problem.




Microsoft appologizes for Xbox Live Holiday Issues (Score: 1)
Posted By LM2 on Friday, January 04 @ 16:27:33 EST
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I remember the early days of AOL.

Free disks for everyone
A new record of users enter the system
Infrastructure to lame to handle the load
Frustrated user base that for some stupid reason remained loyal
Only apologies from the service


Microsoft is one better than AOL here with a free game. Next time I would like a month free play for all users.



Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By Pulsaris on Friday, January 04 @ 19:47:07 EST
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While its bad they didnt do something about the issue, it makes me feel a bit better as a consumer that they have the guts to admit they made a mistake and apologize for it.
I'm holding a little bit of my dissapointment in if the free live arcade game consists of limiting it to the mediocre at best titles.



Good Job Microsoft. (Score: 1)
Posted By evldog on Friday, January 04 @ 20:43:44 EST
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Well, at least that tells me that my ISP wasn't to blame this time. Good for MS. At least they are admitting that they aren't perfect, and doing something to try to make good on it. To get anything free out of a company the size of MS is a lot like pulling your own teeth with a beer and a pair of pliers.



Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By PVS on Friday, January 04 @ 23:14:43 EST
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depends on what they mean by a free game. do we choose or do they choose. and if they choose, what if its some crappy game that they cant sell regardless? too vague for my approval/disapproval. i would rather see free points handed out.



getting in xbox live, sucked this week-end! (Score: 1)
Posted By darklingfritzy on Friday, January 04 @ 23:27:29 EST
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And I thought it was me! Thanks MS for acknowledging the problem....getting in was quite the problem, staying there was another! I like the pulling teeth with a bear and pliers guy, comments. I would prefer points over their choice of game (:)



it's still fubar (Score: 1)
Posted By shred1 on Saturday, January 05 @ 01:42:35 EST
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I played halo 3 for a while tonite and things went well for awhile,but then xbl just went down and I couldnt use matchmaker or find out what friends were doing. I finally gave up and went back an hour or so later and things were somewhat better. Stll very slow and difficult.

They say xbl is better than sonys network but im starting to wonder.Sony's is free I'm paying for a service that is not very good.

The thing that amazes me is how good pc games are online without any corporate support and run on player supported servers.If you find a good server with a decent ping no worries.
I think a private network without bungie or ms could do better and have less issues.



They suck ass. (Score: 1)
Posted By Nomad on Saturday, January 05 @ 03:32:13 EST
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Finally at almost 2am I could play COD4 so I just stayed up till 3:30am so I could play my favorite game.

M$ can kiss my ass though if they think a pathetic Arcade game will buy me off. I've never been more determined to build a gaming PC so I can consider selling all of their 360 shit.

Give me MS points or I don't want a dam thing but a working XBL service.



Oh well.. (Score: 1)
Posted By Rippr_Fynn on Saturday, January 05 @ 13:09:24 EST
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I paid 10-15 dollars a month for 5 years to play Everquest and World of Warcraft. To have unstable servers for a couple weeks out of damn near 5 years of solid service is nothing to me.

We struggled with servers every single week on MMOs.



5 years? (Score: 1)
Posted By Nomad on Saturday, January 05 @ 16:52:21 EST
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Then you have more patience than me sir. If XBL screwed me over every week then I would had dumped it a long time ago.





lame game (Score: 1)
Posted By SGTDuff on Saturday, January 05 @ 15:08:14 EST
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without a doubt offering everyone a free arcade flop is lame. a free month of service or 500 points is more like it since the entire month of december has been wishy washy since the update. besides giving the points out may actually be like a bakery giving away free cookies. sure it eats a small bit of the profit at first but you might actually end up with more cookie addicts and make more dough. anyway just a thought.



Yes (Score: 1)
Posted By Broncoswon on Saturday, January 05 @ 16:44:04 EST
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I was not expecting M$ to acknowledge the problem or give a free arcade game away. I think it is refreshing for them to step up to the plate and do so. The bottom line, they're trying to do what's right *applause*. If the game is somethiing I have, oh well, that's the way it goes. If its something I don't have, great! I have a new game. Thanks M$.

Broncoswon



Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By Murid on Saturday, January 05 @ 22:09:21 EST
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I got the RROD the week before Christmas so I've been xbox-less anyway. Their apology is sincere enough and the free game in principle is a nice gesture. But like most everyone else, I'd prefer the points to a game they designate.



Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By DreadPirate75 on Sunday, January 06 @ 18:23:07 EST
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Im happy with just the apology. It nothing less than to be expected that there will be growing pains with a record breaking surge like they had.

I'll take the free game though.



Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By LTD05GT on Monday, January 07 @ 09:01:26 EST
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I'm glad to see MS address that they are trying to fix the issue. A free live game may be O.K. I hope we get to say which title, but the option of MS pionts might be more flexible.



Joke (Score: 1)
Posted By fecknmental on Monday, January 07 @ 11:38:57 EST
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Well I personally dont think this is good enough. I have spoken to people about this and they say that M$ excuse of too many people on it is utter rubbish as this would been fixed in hours by M$.
The rumour I heard is they got a virus which would explain why it is taking so long to fix.

A free arcade game is not good enough IMO I play on Live loads probably too much and after 5 faulty consoles the Live was what keeping it good but now we have had problems since before Christmas.

If this service was free it wouldn't be as bad but this is now ridiculous.



Come on guys, grow up! (Score: 1)
Posted By Armorsmith76 on Monday, January 07 @ 12:24:52 EST
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The company I work for has a policy regarding fixing screw ups with customers.
Do your homework, find out what happened,how to fix and prevent it from happening again(that can take a few minutes or a few days). When it is our fault, we admit fault and apologize. Then we offer compensation on par with the reatil price our mistake cost the customer.

I believe this is the way it should be. You mess up, you apologize, you make it right.

That is what it looks like MS is doing.

Some folks say that XBL service sucks, but I have been online for a few years and this is the first major problem I have ever had. But I can only speak for myself.

So here is one last reality check concerning the dollar amount of compensation MS owes us...

1. The law says they owe us NOTHING. they are doing this because they choose to (the fact that it is good for business to keep customers happy notwithstanding). so stop stamping your feet and sticking your hand out like a greedy spoiled child with a sense of entitlement, you joined this site to get away from those.

2. We pay 14 cents a day for ths service. Some had worse service than others, But most were able to get on and game from time to time since December. Let's assume that you couldn't get on at all for the last 45 days, at .14 cents a day for the service, they owe you $6.30 for a total blackout.

3. This is a game service, not the company that makes your grandmothers dialysis machine, not the company that makes car airbags, not the system that is in charge of educating your children. If you want to pound the table with feiry indignation, do it regarding something important, not this.

I don't like MS as a company, I think they do lots of underhanded horrible things, this wasn't even in the top 100.

These things considered, they get to set the terms of compensation, I think a free game is just fine

See you online.


Hear, hear! (Score: 1)
Posted By Edmo on Wednesday, January 09 @ 15:22:51 EST
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Armorsmith76, I couldn't agree with you more...





Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By corbin_dallas on Monday, January 07 @ 13:47:07 EST
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At this point I could care less about compensation. I just want it fixed! Take the service down for a day or so or however long it takes and FIX IT! I'd rather know that I can't get online at all due to maintenance than try to get on and be overly frustrated that I can't play COD4 for more than 3 minutes without having a problem.



um.......yeah (Score: 1)
Posted By taintd on Monday, January 07 @ 21:37:13 EST
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i'm in agreeance with a lot of people an jus would like to see some microsoft points, and not a game.........the best free game i think they've even put out is aegis wing........oh, well.....



Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By GiantLakeOfire on Monday, January 07 @ 22:19:49 EST
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First of all -- this is not an apology. It is a Press Release, followed by a lame excuse, followed by an announcement of "celebration of record success for the service."

Please, somebody find the words "We are sorry" in this e-mail.

I'm irritated that the service has been so poor for so long, especially over the holidays when I actually had time to play, but I'm actually more peeved by Microsoft's inability to actually communicate to us in an honest and straightforward way.

The problem has been going on for three straight weeks now, is still not fixed, and we have still not seen any explanation of what the problem is, what they are doing to get it fixed, and what a true ETA on a fix is. THAT is incredibly lame.

A crappy arcade game does not make up for this. A month of free live doesn't either. All I want is an honest admission that "we screwed up", a true and detailed explanation of what they problem is, and timely updates on what they are doing to fix it and keep it from happening in the future.

Instead I get BS platitudes and self-serving marketing speak.



Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By Armorsmith76 on Wednesday, January 09 @ 21:06:06 EST
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In this world, you will always get spin (platatudes and self serving marketing speak) when a huge company deals with their mistakes. timliness issues are made worse by all the layers of beauracracy in company. Also, an open admission of fault probably sets them up for lawsuits.

As far as fixing it, I don't know what that would involve, perhaps they are incompetent in that respect,

I think your expectations are a little to high. It's ugly and irritating, but this is the reality we live in. I know you're angry, but deal with it man.

Many times, you get absolutely no explanation, no acknowlegement, and no compensation of any form.

This is warm and fuzzy by comparison.






Untitled (Score: 1)
Posted By thegarbone on Wednesday, January 09 @ 12:51:21 EST
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What, a free downlaod of Crackdown you say?

Hope they fix this soon..



XBox Live Problems (Score: 1)
Posted By tait on Thursday, January 10 @ 21:52:04 EST
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Yeah, duh - XBox has been having issues. First, just a quick recap: around Christmas time, XBL got hammered big time as new owners gained control of presents and promptly setup accounts. This is a GOOD THING - I'm happy to have the company. I also believe quite a number of copies of COD4 made their ways into shooter hands. Now, almost immediately, there were some serious issues - you guys are already aware of them.

Major Nelson is an employee of Microsoft who writes a blog - on 12/29, he posted an article:

http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2007/12/29/xbox-live-status-12-29.aspx

Microsoft did eventually own up to the issues and wrote a release that also promises an unnamed FREE XBox Live Arcade game for all gold and silver members sometime soon (unknown when). Yippee. I can barely contain my excitement. Another game that won't get played while I try to enjoy COD4 - yeah, that makes up for 3 weeks of inconsistent play. Thanks. I'll link to another article that contains Microsoft's statement:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/04/microsoft-hooks-up-xbox-live-subs-with-free-arcade-title/

And Major Nelson's say on it:

http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2008/01/03/xbox-live-holiday-performance.aspx

OK, so yesterday 1/9/08 after "normal" work hours, XBL just goes to hell for me when playing COD4. Yeah, I can play other games, but it's COD4 that continues to cough up. What's worth noting for me though is this: COD4 was pretty buggy even before XBL had issues. I know Infinity Ward loves to blame Microsoft, but it's hard to defend IW on this. First, anybody remember the debacle that was COD2 when it first came out? It was completely unplayable. COD3 wasn't played by enough people to see if any lessons had been learned, but with COD4 we have enough people to see the glaring issues. Prior to the December crash (Christmas Crash 2007, anyone?), we got accustomed to seeing "Host Ended Game", "Draw", "Unable to Connect to Host", Dirty Disk errors and random dump outs to the lobby (or worse, disbanding of parties altogether). We dealt with Host Advantage and with parties ending when the party leader had to go make dinner. Why? Because this game is so darn good, we're willing to overlook it. We'd have crucified Bungie for these issues, but we wanted COD4 so badly, we shrugged and played anyway. We even trudged along with the continuing bug of "Oh, so-and-so didn't make it - back out" - easily one of the most annoying bugs yet.

But, IW's poor online code coupled with XBL capacity issues brings us evening after evening of "The party is no longer active" and other nonsense making the game mostly unplayable. Now, tonight, I've been playing for a few minutes with just a few issues. At least it's been playable with a dose of patience. I just don't get it - the lack of information from IW and Microsoft make it frustrating - if they just came clean and said what the problems are with all honesty, it'd make a world of difference to me. The fact that it took days for Microsoft to acknowledge there even was an issue, then to actually have the gall to state that XBL was never down, just that people had intermittent problems was a slap in the face to a loyal customer (I was a beta tester for XBL, so I have quite a history with the product). To give us a freaking Arcade game as repayment is just ridiculous. Really and truly.

With the truth, I'd request a more stringent approval process by Microsoft - a game should not only meet minimum specifications for multiplayer to be approved, but also a minimum play experience. I'd like to see more games emulate Halo 3's online components - I'm not talking the gameplay, just all the multiplayer aspects that make this franchise great. Imagine COD4 with Halo 3's multiplayer components....

At the end of the day, though - I just want the truth! But, maybe I can't handle the truth... :-)

-Tait Lifto



Well, they can't tell us anything anyway... (Score: 1)
Posted By ABACAB72 on Monday, January 14 @ 23:51:52 EST
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I heard Major Nelson's podcast today, and he said that he, and MS for that matter, can't talk about it anymore because they're being sued by those dudes in Texas. I'm thinking, well that's obvious because anything they say can be used against them in court. So, they have a gag order placed on them. Looks like we won't hear what's up for a while.



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