Microsoft to end Live support for old-school Xbox
Promises big things for Xbox 360 owners instead
Microsoft has announced it will soon no longer support the original Xbox console on its Live online service.
From 15 April, Microsoft will "discontinue Xbox Live service for original Xbox consoles and games", according to the software giant’s Major Nelson blog.
The decision will also impact Xbox 360 owners - specifically, those who play old Xbox games on their second-gen consoles over Xbox Live.
Microsoft claimed that it “did not make this decision lightly”, stressing that the move is a necessary step towards “evolving the Live service with new features and experiences that fully harness the power of Xbox 360 and the Xbox Live community”.
“The best is yet to come,” Microsoft added, cryptically.
Microsoft’s announcement came just hours after it emerged that Xbox Live Arcade, the downloadable games arm of Xbox Live, generated $103.4m (£65.9m) during 2009 – up 34 per cent on 2008’s total.
A record 800,000 copies of Battlefield 1943 were sold over Xbox Live Arcade during 2009, the report, from market watcher Forecasting & Analysing Digital Entertainment, also said. ®
COMMENTS
Wish I never bought
... an Xbox 360. The money would've been better invested in PC gaming. Then again, I spent little compared to other people (since I bought a broken xbox and fixed the RROD). Still, I know no one who can sell 512 flash cards at 50 dollars these days besides M$$$$$$.
The best is yet to come? Yeah, for their revenue stream maybe.
This is the problem
with buying games where a huge amount of it's playability is its online element.
Such games will now be unsellable and unplayable. 30 quid down the drain.
That's why to this day I have never bought any game that requires online connectivity as it's main draw.
Still supported?
Live might have had support for the original XBox all these years but no one else did. The original XBox support base died years ago.
Yeah
Because it've been technically impossible to differentiate consoles for updates so only the shiny new went to 360's wouldn't it.
