Xbox Live Service Maintenance

re: Xbox Live Service Maintenance

Viper7751 — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:12:03 GMT

@ HFC

I'm on my 3rd 360 and MS has never given me anything other than those 1 months.

re: Xbox Live Service Maintenance

HFC — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:34:20 GMT

@dirtbound

Good points mate. There is no such thing as the 'perfect system' and I don't expect for a minute that the service be up 100%. I also think that live is a fantastic service and the live team do a great job. I was annoyed at the implied assertion that because the 360 is made by MSFT that US users should somehow get priority. While I think the service is fantastic, I do think there are a few things that could be improved. I believe you guys get a free game if you have to send your console back for RROD. I've sent 3 back and you get 1 month live free. As for Markeplace (and I accept this is sometimes beyond the realm of MSFT) we have next to no content. I bet Netflix on NXE doesn't extend to the Antipodes. My point is that I do feel sometimes that there are two types of 360 owners - the US market and everywhere else.

The 45 mins is no biggie but I did ponder if a decentralised system pushing common as well as regionalised content may make more sense and help in terms of mitigating these types of issue. Like you point out, there are downfalls. There are also benefits (wonder how much revenue is lost during downtime) but I guess it comes down to cost/benefit at the end and only MSFT are privy to that info.

In summary, I think the live service is fantastic in every sense. Second to none and part of the reason I have had the patience to endure three failed 360's (and bought another one while one was being repaired) rather than go to the dark side and buy a PS-3. I think constructive debate on how the service may be improved is a valid conversation that we should all have and people shouldn't take it in any way as criticism of the service. The live team do an amazing job.

Anyway, thanks for your comments. They are well constructed and have validity to them. L8RS !

re: Xbox Live Service Maintenance

citybeat — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 02:41:51 GMT

its still the same can not play online keep getting knocked from xbox live waste of money

re: Xbox Live Service Maintenance

Alex Atkin UK — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:41:19 GMT

Sadly this does seem to have fixed the Live problems.

While I do not keep getting knocked offline (I never had that problem) I am finding Marketplace to be very slow.

I was trying to browse the Guitar Hero III downloads and it was painful. Select a download, wait a couple of minutes to read the list of tracks, back, select another, wait a couple of minutes, wash and repeat. I got bored and gave up.

I hope things are quicker than this once everyone is back on the same page (dashboard) on Wednesday.

re: Xbox Live Service Maintenance

CoolRunninJA — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:19:51 GMT

this sucks man... ive had issues since friday and all i hear is that they are fixing it. I spoke with a rep that said that it is being worked on. Major Nelson said all the issues are fixed. I still have issues. I cannot see game marketplace or the video market place.. cant access netflix and i cant even watch a movie in the video player.. Major Nelson.. please can someone help me... customer service doesn't know whats going on. Ive spoke to 4 reps.. and they had no idea.... ahhhhh.. i can connect to live... but nothing works... whats the point?

re: Xbox Live Service Maintenance

dirtbound — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:59:03 GMT

@Exu

Perception is crazy that way, isn't it? :-)

re: Xbox Live Service Maintenance

Exu — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:57:07 GMT

No matter what the timezone, 45 minutes ain't too bad. I mean, if we hadn't had those days of maintenance before, this would have been much longer anyway!

re: Xbox Live Service Maintenance

dirtbound — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:50:47 GMT

@HFC

In fact, looking at the time zone situation, it just occured to me that within the three time zones that cover Australia AND all the other Nations within those same three time zones there are probably fewer than 3 Million users AND that is the ONLY set of time zones that fall into "PrimeTime" (6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.) during the 2:00am PST update period.

I know this doesn't make you any happier, but it's plain and simple math. When 3 out of 22 Million users will be the MOST impacted, it makes it a pretty basic decision. No, they don't WANT to do it, but they have to.

re: Xbox Live Service Maintenance

Iris Koalddein — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:47:31 GMT

did they ever find what was wrong with xbox live originally?

if so what was it?

re: Xbox Live Service Maintenance

dirtbound — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:37:17 GMT

@HFC

There are major drawbacks to that idea as well.

1: Bringing down a "REGION" of Live would only fan the flames of anger as the "TARGET REGION" would feel as though they were being negelected especially if something didn't run as smoothly in one region vs. another region.

2: Consistency WOULD see a hit somewhere, in some region. Today if something is wrong EVERYONE knows it and the problem is resolved WORLD WIDE in one shot.

As I said earlier, Microsoft has to pick a time to do this and the VAST amount of up-time you have had on Live far outweighs the down-time. It's not like we've never experienced full day downtimes in the U.S. but even if it were once every six months, there are always offline games to play until things get back up and running.

EVERYONE agrees that 100% uptime and perfect network performance would be ideal... however this is the real world and work has to be performed.

But again it comes back to USER POPULATION at any given time:

1. There are fewer than 2 Million 360's in Australia

2. Around around 9 Million in all other NON-U.S. Regions

3. There are over 11 Million 360's in the North American Region Alone.

Those numbers are the EXACT reason why Microsoft has chosen the time they have to perform maintenance.

That being said Microsoft has also stated that they would TRY VERY HARD not to have to bring the system offline for service, however things happen and it has to be done.

So... which 11 Million consumers do they want to upset? NONE

Which difficult decision did they make? 2:00am PST

re: Xbox Live Service Maintenance

HFC — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:15:32 GMT

JohnnyDethmatch - its that attitude that makes others outside the US dislike you so much. Listen to yourself for god's sake..."we created the xbox 360". Since when did making something give anyone the right to treat customers differently? And thats what we are talking about here - there are US live users and everyone else. The 45 mins does not bother me so much but there have been other times where I have lost the whole evenings gaming while America catches it's beauty sleep. I think I am quite entitled to ask that the service be decentralised. There are some advantages to MSFT in doing that.

For Aussies/Brits - when Major quotes PST - he is talking about Pacific Standard Time (basically the time it is in Seattle). Brits need to add 8 hrs this time of year onto PST and Aussies 18 hrs (if you are on the east coast).

re: Xbox Live Service Maintenance

N0RDS — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:02:35 GMT

@MeS FEAR

You dont know what you talk about.

I got the NXE since Nov 1st and on Nov 10 I received the same update again ( i mean the same kind of big update, probably the latest big build. Im pretty sure that I will received another update on Nov 19 and it wont be background update like you mention.

re: Xbox Live Service Maintenance

ShinobiSteve81 — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:06:35 GMT

@dirtbound-Yea, people shouldn't be rude about it, trying to demand the few pennies for the hours of downtime back and such as some do on here. An with NXE coming out, I'm gonna hold off on it for a few days as well and finish up Civ Rev myself. Means I'll be holding off on buying Left 4 Dead as well though since the meat of that is online, but I can wait a week.

re: Xbox Live Service Maintenance

Warrengonline — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:04:53 GMT

@dirtbound

Yeh, it is easier to complain than to 'report', at least with reporting you are providing and answer that may help solve the issue.

Oh, yes... UNLIMITED STREAMING!! It's the ONLY WAY to go!

re: Xbox Live Service Maintenance

Nelsonpby — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:02:44 GMT

@dirtbound - That should be stickied. Good job :)

re: Xbox Live Service Maintenance

Warrengonline — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:01:55 GMT

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Wil is America I signed up for the $8.99 - I'm NEVER having a movie mailed to me EVER!

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And some how I got to 14000 GamerScore over the weekend! ALL mine and not my wife's, wait, I'm single so more power and play time for me!

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