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Xbox Live Arcade giveaway following Xmas problems

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Xbox Live Arcade giveaway following Xmas problems

Record numbers of new and existing users to blame for festive network hiccups

Following a troubled period for Microsoft’s gaming network Xbox Live that saw many users’ service disrupted over the traditionally gamer-friendly Christmas period, Microsoft has stated that it is to offer a free Arcade game to all subscribers.

The announcement, which was made through Major Nelson’s blog, stated: “During this past holiday season you helped us break a number of Xbox Live records. This included our largest sign-up of new members in our five 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.”

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Whether this will take the form of a specific download, or whether users will be able to download any title of their choice, is not yet known.

How convenient

posted by Ryu Hayabusa Jan 04, 2008 at 10:11 am
1
Ryu Hayabusa

At one stage they have issues and the next part they want to celebrate by giving away a free live arcade game, killing 2 birds with one stone basically.

I think they should give out 2 free live arcade games or some free points!

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Re: How convenient

posted by Jan 04, 2008 at 12:13 pm
2

why do they lie? it wasnt completely down?yes it was....i havent been able to connect to live for around 3 weeks...and it still isnt fixed!

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Re: How convenient

posted by Gavin Jan 04, 2008 at 3:41 pm
3
Gavin

3 Weeks? Wouldn't that coincide with the last wave of bannings? Are you sure you haven't been banned from live? I didn't think live was down that long

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Re: How convenient

posted by happy 360 elite owner Jan 04, 2008 at 4:54 pm
4
happy 360 elite owner

well if its 2b a free xbox live arcade title 4 every1 i hope its a new 1 as i buy 99% of all arcade titles anyway hopefully it'll be REZ :D

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Re: How convenient

posted by Vince Jan 05, 2008 at 1:16 am
5
Vince

in other words we got caught with our pants well and truly down... Live is vy no means 'back up and running' it hasn't been since Halo 3 launch. why can't they just acknowledge this obvious fact and maybe give europe seperate servers to the USA ones. who likes being yee hawed at by the yanks all the time anyway... there's only so many 'Dude' and WOO HOO's i can take anyway... trust me Major Nelson, Mr Gates and anyone else who may ready from Microsoft... Live is FAR FROM UP AND RUNNING...

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Re: How convenient

posted by Cem Aykan Jan 05, 2008 at 6:24 pm
6
Cem Aykan

I am tracking each day(every 10 minutes) the status of xbox live, and creating
statisical images, this shows the biig picture on how "live" xbox-live actually is :)

http://www.acddv.com/" onclick="window.open ( this.href ); return false;" class="comment_url" >http://www.acddv.com/

Also these statistics are available for the public as-well

Cem Aykan

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Re: How convenient

posted by Jan 05, 2008 at 11:11 pm
7

no i didnt get banned....my xbox live was working fine for bout 2 years...then the update came and it said xbox live was down STRAIGHT after...has been like that ever since and when i rang they keep saying theyre having issues with it....like it hasnt been down all that time when it has!!

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Re: How convenient

posted by Nick Jan 07, 2008 at 9:58 am
8
Nick

I find Xbox live works fine during the day.The problem starts happening when the Americans start logging in to live,European servers needed.The free Live Arcade game is to celebrate the Xbox live records that have been broken,not to say sorry for the poor service we have recieved over the holiday period.Microsoft you need to sort out the service that we pay for & stop trying to b******t your way out of it.

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