Halo 3 beta today? No, probably not.

XBL withdraw seem to taking a toll on some people.

That Would Be Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We can only hope.

No wonder I kept getting an MTU error.
It said to check xbox.com, which is down.
Can't they announce these so I dont have to check major nelson every day? (Or reconfigure my wireles network!!)

They did announce this infact they announced it awile ago. As to crackdown reporting newly released content I think it was when they released that new gameplay trailer because thats when i saw that in-game notice.

it's 2:16pm pacific time why the heck is it still down?!

In the official downtime article, in the list of the "top 10 things to do on March 27", at #6 ("Study up on some March 27 History"), there are 4 things listed. The THIRD mentions an earthquake that killed 117 people.

For those dozen of you who don't know, Master Chief's code name is SPARTAN 117

@ #2:

I received an email, a message through Xbox Live, saw on Xbox.com and on Major Nelson about the down time. How did you miss it?!

@5 ha ha ha ha ha ha ha awesome.

I think it's something big because it is late and lets face it how hard is it to turn the servers on when you say your going to turn them on.

@6 - I hope you don't think that I'm joking...take a look for yourself and see
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=435337341&size=o

Is anyone else having the problem of a failed MTU test. Because that is the only reason on why i cant get on.

Anyone know how to fix it if it doesnt have to do with the maintenence test?

the latest crackdown patch put advertisements for the movie 'shooter' starring mark wahlberg on billboards across the city.

The thing to keep in mind is that this downtime occurs pretty much before every update. It's par for the course. It's in preparation for the next six months. I wouldn't expect anything fantastic to occur today.

I'm not really sure about the halo 3 thing. I wish it was true but I don't Know. And I am getting the MTU thing also so it is normal. Does anyone know when live is sopposed to be up?
Btw if anyone wants to play the h3 beta with me if its tru my Gt is Chase09

Speculation be damned, what happens will happen. And all I know is that if I get an E-Mail from Microsoft with my download code in the next 2 hours for the Halo 3 Beta I will cream myself.

I'll also have to tell my girlfriend that we won't be seeing each other this month and I'll have to quit my job and school.

Live should have been up nearly an hour ago.

All I know is that my HD TV arrived on Sunday, so as far as I'm conserned, let the beta roll!!!

On Major Nelson's podcast it was made fairly clear that this maintenance is for the server side of the spring dashboard update.

The Dash update still won't be available until later, but the servers are being updated to handle the upcoming new features, whatever those may be.

Hmm, some of you may need an intervention. Gaming addiction is a very real and very disabling condition. Going without Live for one day is not a catastrohpic event and-

Did you say the Halo 3 beta might be coming out soon?!?!?? YES!

Haha, I don't think anything big will happen today. First, I agree with #9 post, because it will obviously be released (hopefully) within the next 6 months, so its just getting ready. And yeah I also agree with #12 I guess some people can't live without it.

I hope this is true but i was ready for Beta in April - May time but hmmmm.... this makes me think, I haven't had an Xbox 360 for that long, what happen last downtime?

retro-
no email, no message (even if there was I can't get it now), and I dont really check major nelson.
anyway im glad the mtu things ok.
now to go cry because i still dont have beta...

there are 3 ppl currently playing halo 2 haha!

ilikesandwiches
PerpetualIrony
Swing Ninja

Usually, Live downtime happens during the night only for a few hours in order to fix a few bugs here and there. But when it is down for over 15 hours, then you know that something big is about to happen.

on wikipedia.org they say the deaths in that quake were 120+ maybe they rounded up though?
thought 11 7 was november 2007?
isn't that the release date? circuit city has it as 11/2007(:

My thoughts on the subject are this.

Consider the fact that the Xbox.com site is down aswell. This is odd. It makes me think that they don't want to reveal features on the site that will be appearing on Xbox Live. But the whole site? This makes me think that this is fundamental. Why take down the whole site when you just have to add one small part about a beta test?

This makes me thik it's not a beta test. What do we know that is big and coming out soon? IPTV is what. IPTV is the biggest part of the 360 for Microsoft as it can get the console in non-gaming houses. This would also require a fundamental redesign of a of the Xbox site. I'm also suggesting this because there is talk of the elite 360 coming out with the IPTV version of the firmware on it's release. This presumably means that in the factory xbox 360s this has already been implemented during manufacture (though this could be done at a later date for shipping timing this is unlikely). This would mean that Microsoft could have designed this already. Why sit on this update if it is already complete? Therefor today's larger than usual maintenance could be the explanation as it would be a complete redesign of Xbox live and not a simple small addition live a new backwards compatibility profile. Though it could also be a large implementation of many new online game profiles...

The real question is why is bungie.net not down. Was it's recent redesign in preparation for this day and they just got it done a little bit early? Maybe they thought it was pointless waiting for the beat to come out while sitting on a new look. Or maybe they wanted to test it for a while before releasing the beta details so it didn't come crashing down with a missed flaw and ruin the big day when everyone would check out their site. This is a possibility (how recently was the update? I forget). Maybe there are only simple small changes that need to be made on the bungie site with the beta.

But my money is on IPTV as all the xbox language sites have come down. There is no good reason to take down the whole site unless it creates problems with the connected xbox live statistics and logins. Or unless it is a fundamental change to all the sites that are being precisely timed so there are no early leaks. Though if it was this big would somebody not has said something before now? Would there not need to be big media contracts that we would have surely heard about? Though surely if Microsoft are releasing the IPTV version of firmware in April (or even later) we would have heard something about big media deals buy now. Unless they are being kept hush hush, which would seem to be the case.

Thought it is likely that America will be the only country to reap the benefits of IPTV as they have companies that do this now (unless I am mistaken). Britain (where I am from) will be getting companies next year doing this. BT for instance. Unless you count Virgin media as they send their TV and Internet over the same cables.(which I don't). Though this would explain why they have not made nice over the sky deal which removes sky one from their packages. This would not be a problem with IPTV as companies are able to sell their shows straight over the Internet like iTunes does with Lost e.t.c.

Bear in mind this is mostly complete guess work, but maybe somebody will see patern in my writings that they to recognise and have some more information.

Major just updated his twitter feed. "Ohhh...I have a surprise for you later today :)"

Hm.

http://twitter.com/majornelson

Lummy ftw.

its weird if you look at bungie.net theirs 2 people online

http://twitter.com/majornelson

Major Nelson's twitter site...

"ohh... I have a surprise for you later today :-) "


Halo 3 beta baby!!!

They're having a staggered deployment of the Halo 3 beta. Gamertags A - F will be getting it Wednesday, G - M on Thursday, and N - Z on Friday. That's to prevent the whole system from crashing. It'll be avaialable to everyone with an invite on Saturday.

Even though live is down, there are still ppl playin halo 2 online if u go to bungie and check it out

if u go to bungie.net ppl are playin online

does any1 know when the xbox live will be back on.. also whats up with the mtu thing

I think it has something to do with the "HALO 3 BETA" And I really hope so. i'm dying without my XBOX LIVE.

halo 3 beta please!!!!!!

3 hours after it was supposed to be back up. Still down.

Still down, and it's 8pm est!

@26

How do you know for sure?

If what you say is true, then I better change my gamertag right now to begin with A instead of Z. I really do not want to wait until Friday. :P

Strange....There are 4 people that have been playing Halo 2 games for the past few hours according to bungie's site. I wonder...how did they get on and what are they doing there?
Their gamertags are:
ilikesandwiches8
Swing Ninja1
Crimson Canuck
PerpetualIrony1

Anyone know if they are developers or something?

Still can't log on to xboxlive, It's 8:10 EST. It should of been up 3 hours.. Or is it just me.. Or is it still down for maint?

NEXT TO YOUR HALO 2 STATS ON BUNGIE IT SAYS "HALO 3 STATS COMING SOON"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

halo 3 ftw

now when u look at bungie, they took the players on line thing and nulled it out

Nick, it has said that for over a week now... it started saying that when the updated the layout of the page.

nick hadnt checked his stats before today on bungie.net. hence not seeing it yet. its been there, like toefurb said, since the update.

@43 i dont believe him/her, if that was true... there would be more than one person confirming that...

yeah its almost been 4 hours since they said it was "suppose" to be up. There *has* to be something big happening... we know for a fact it isn't maitnence or anything because that only takes a couple of hours not like 18 hours or 19 (soon to be) so i am a little anxious to see what is going on

I commented on this maybe about 2 or 3 hrs ago and i went over to bungie.net and went to the forums for info and they are literally going crazy.

I also called The customer support and asked if the delay had anything to do with the halo 3 beta and they said that they cant relase any information that can lead to speculation and that is a great sign.

if it is Halo 3 Beta

I CAN'T WAIT!!!
And even because im thinking it is I still CAN'T WAIT!!!