[Editorial] Xbox LIVE Poops Out...Again...Lessons (Not) Learned
An open letter to Microsoft:
Okay, it's about time someone stood up and commented on the abysmal reliability (or lack thereof) of Microsoft's Xbox LIVE service...
Everything was going swimmingly with Xbox LIVE until December 2007 when it tanked spectacularly, causing you to apologize to consumers by offering Undertow for free. Fine, that was a generous gesture, but as I sit here typing this missive after spending over an hour trying to redeem some Microsoft Points in order to purchase and download the CoD4 Variety Map Pack, I can't help wondering whether any lessons were learned.
I, and many other Evil Avatar members, have been stymied pretty much all day when it comes to Xbox LIVE functionality. One would reasonably think that you would have learned from last year's aforementioned SNAFU, but seemingly not.
A check of your site reveals this generic and frankly pathetic apology:
Quote:
Xbox LIVE users may experience issues with purchasing marketplace items, receiving title updates, and account management.
We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience.
Is it really too much to ask of a company your size, with the resources at your disposal, etc. to anticipate the heavy demand that the release of the Variety Map Pack would cause, and to put measures in place to prevent the colossal barf-up that's happening right now?
I've said many times that LIVE trumps Sony's online offerings, but I'm now being forced to re-evaluate that opinion, ironically enough by YOU..., and while trying to give you my money!
I don't care about pithy excuses days after the fact.
I don't give a hoot about 'unprecedented demand', or whatever you're going to blame it on. You own Xbox LIVE - you're ultimately to blame.
I couldn't care less about anything you may have to offer in way of explanation for this.
What it boils down to is simple - IT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH, MICROSOFT! Not by a very, very long shot.
The millions of people who have ponied up the cash to be part of the Xbox LIVE experience do not deserve to be treated this way, especially when you consider that Sony's PlayStation Network is FREE!
To my eyes you seem to be bending over backwards in an attempt to throw away the advantages over your main rival(s). If it's not the frankly pathetic reliability of the Xbox 360 console (which recently prompted me to create a forum dedicated to dead Xbox 360s), it's now the equally pathetic performance of Xbox LIVE.
Sort it out, Microsoft, and do it quick... You're teetering on the edge of a very dark abyss. You must know this by now, and if you don't then you need to.
-James A. Young
aka fitbabits
Last edited by fitbabits; 04-04-2008 at 08:54 PM..
Reason: Typo.
I tried on three different occasions to purchase points and buy the maps; 3:45 p.m., 7:00 p.m., and around 9:00 p.m....each time for thirty minutes or more.
I'll just say I agree wholeheartedly. I've been trying to get the maps off and on since about 10am this morning, always with the same error message as my reward.
I'd happily just download them for the PC, except that they're not even out yet for it.
Hell, I would go as to far as to say he's absolutely right. If it was a free service, or was less than a year old I'd shrug it off myself, but this is pretty ridiculous. The service is established, you pay for it and they've seen what holidays can do, but when you release a piece of software that is free and has a ton of interested users... well. They need to get their ducks in a row.
It hurts to see them do this to, what is nominally, a great service.
__________________
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kamalot
Pre-order today and get a free grizzly to wrassle!
Hey, you can't fault them, it's not like we're paying for it or anything.
Oh, wait...
I'm really astonished that this would take down their service. They manage numerous types of services that send out updates to people all over the world, yet their unified service is crippled (after years of experience) by people downloading the maps? Seems like our money is going to waste.
Good thing I have firmly decided not to buy the COD4 maps, or I would be pissed that I couldn't grab them tonight.
And who do I talk to about getting my proper color back?
Can we get Mark Rein and maybe some other industry people in here. So he can tell Microsoft to stop being dick wads about their precious marketplace and free game mods. Everything doesn't have to have a separate cost. Sometimes those things are called features. People like features. Those are not the same as defects. The RROD is not a feature.
Fits, is this really the best headline? Seems weird.
"My life requires busting faggoty assed bitches like yourself in the fucking face." -Zeal
"Real American gamers don't die after 5 days straight." -Vermy21
damn dude...you have got to calm down...so live poops out here and there...big deal...get up and do something else. and if ps3 is FREE!! then go play ps3... I dont know about everybody else...but i think 50 dollars is a very generous price for a year worth of playing online games with my buddies. especially if your on quite often. Plus its rare that microsoft has LIVE problems. Everything can't be perfect. Maybe we'll get another Undertow, which I believe was pretty damn cool of them to give out.
Hey, you can't fault them, it's not like we're paying for it or anything.
Oh, wait...
I'm really astonished that this would take down their service. They manage numerous types of services that send out updates to people all over the world, yet their unified service is crippled (after years of experience) by people downloading the maps? Seems like our money is going to waste.
Good thing I have firmly decided not to buy the COD4 maps, or I would be pissed that I couldn't grab them tonight.
And who do I talk to about getting my proper color back?
You doing alright Xerxes? I hardly understood your post!
Quote:
Originally Posted by luffypunk
damn dude...you have got to calm down
I find it amusing that you can somehow determine that he isn't calm from a computer screen display with text on it. If he wasn't calm, his post wouldn't have made sense. As it is, his post was eminently reasonable and reasoned.
damn dude...you have got to calm down...so live poops out here and there...big deal...get up and do something else. and if ps3 is FREE!! then go play ps3... I dont know about everybody else...but i think 50 dollars is a very generous price for a year worth of playing online games with my buddies. especially if your on quite often. Plus its rare that microsoft has LIVE problems. Everything can't be perfect. Maybe we'll get another Undertow, which I believe was pretty damn cool of them to give out.
So you're saying it's okay for Microsoft to screw up so long as you get a free game out of it? Apathy at its finest.
I agree completely. Xbox live has been in a pathetic state for a long time and it's time for microsoft to admit they aren't delivering a service we should be paying a premium to beta test five years after its launch.
No im saying they really didnt have to give a game away. but they did, which was cool. Shit I pay for my electric bills every month and here and there my power goes out because of a storm. I dont call the electric company a bitch at them about it. Reason being is that I know they are hard at work on the problem and ill have my power on once its all good.
"My life requires busting faggoty assed bitches like yourself in the fucking face." -Zeal
"Real American gamers don't die after 5 days straight." -Vermy21
The problem isn't that Live! poops out. It's that Live! poops out with increasing regularity - which indicates to me that they're really not doing much of anything about bogging down under load as we get more and more users signed up.
Used to be it took a colossal blunder of a dashboard update to crash Live! Then it was releases of top shelf game titles. Then it was Christmas Vacation. Each time we stew and we get promises that they're working on it. I remember back then worrying that they were doing precisely dick about it, hoping that it'll quietly go away after back-to-school and we would go on with our lives, blissfully deluded into thinking that MS had engineers working round the clock and had magically fixed the problem.
Now it's goddamn DLC bringing down the house? What's next? Live! Now only functional from Monday - Thursday? Oooh, don't everybody check their invites at once. That'll crash the system!
