Rumor: Microsoft 'doing something' for inconvenienced XBL members
by Christopher Grant 
{ Jan 1st 2008 at 7:30PM }
But, since many of us are paying for the privilege, there's a growing sense that we deserve some sort of compensation. While we at Joystiq won't be satisfied until Bill Gates himself writes us each a check for $1, TheBitbag.com claims that an Xbox insider told them: "we will definitely be doing something for our Gold members that weren't able to get online over the last week." Though we can't be certain precisely what that is, our inside sources are telling us "footrubs."
[Via Xbox Scene]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dr. @ Jan 1st 2008 7:36PM
I can sign in and stay signed in, mostly. Still can't use the marketplace though.
laserboyjc @ Jan 1st 2008 10:49PM
I can't even log in to my profile because it is tied to my Live account...is there some way around this?
I can understand that stuff breaks sometimes, but a paid service should be reliable, and this has been about a week for me...all I want is for this to be fixed and some sort of explanation for what is going on. Come on, can they just tell us that a server went down, or they were putting new code, or something? I can't stand the "We're working on it" deal when they won't even say what "it" is...
Hannibal @ Jan 1st 2008 7:37PM
I've gone from unable to sign in to doing fine to unable to play a match. I'm curious as to what broke today that was fine yesterday.
Magetto @ Jan 1st 2008 7:41PM
I haven't had that many issues with it that many other people were having. I suppose I'm a lucky one.
playwhutyalike @ Jan 1st 2008 7:41PM
Let the crying begin!
fuliano626@psn @ Jan 1st 2008 7:44PM
we put our bipolar ground hog to sleep :(
Fernando Rocker @ Jan 1st 2008 7:48PM
I want 800 Microsoft Points or a free month of Live Gold.
sheppy2.0 @ Jan 1st 2008 7:50PM
I want a reunion tour of The Refreshments. It's fun to want things.
Raikage (Wii FC 5508 0487 4434 0992) @ Jan 1st 2008 8:06PM
I don't WANT, I NEED MORE COWBELL!
why not the LS2/LS7? @ Jan 1st 2008 7:52PM
Doing what for me? I had a week off to play and Live was down. MS can schlep a few $$$ into my account, fine. Getting me a week off work is going to be a lot harder.
If you want to sell a premium service, you have to make it worth the premium. MS isn't doing a great job of this lately, instead of adding more to the premium service, they're instead taking stuff away from the free service (delaying downloads a week). This is roughly equivalent to a father saying to his child "stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about".
More carrot and less stick, please.
Raikage (Wii FC 5508 0487 4434 0992) @ Jan 1st 2008 8:02PM
I bet you voted for the last one :D
why not the LS2/LS7? @ Jan 1st 2008 8:23PM
I did actually, but mostly because none of the others fit. I spent like 90 minutes playing Rock Band on PS3 online today. I've been playing some 360 too (PGR4), but not online. In general, I don't play a lot of online on 360 unless my friends want to play because the average person on Live seems to be rather an asshole.
Raikage (Wii FC 5508 0487 4434 0992) @ Jan 1st 2008 8:29PM
Just curious, why did you pick Rock Band on PS3 over 360? With the controller fiasco I'd surely think the 360 had the advantage.
Yeah XBL users are a great bunch arn't they?
why not the LS2/LS7? @ Jan 1st 2008 9:19PM
I bought it before the controller fiasco surfaced (the one about GH3 guitars not working). But regardless, I wouldn't care anyway. I didn't have GH2 for 360 and I sold my GH3 rig because GH3 sucked and the guitar is poop next to the RB Strat. I have two SGs (PS2 GH1 guitars) which I was told would work on RB for PS3 with a USB adapter. I have the adapter and they don't work. That kinda stinks. F Activision.
I am currently buying all games that are equally good on both on the PS3 instead of the 360 because the PS3 is more reliable (my 360 died in November 2006 and again in November 2007 each time being away for a month), I don't like paying for games and then not being able to play them because my console is broken. Also, the PS3 is a lot quieter, the 360 helicopter noise drives me nuts. Additionally, I polled all my friends who had consoles and most of my PS3 friends planned on buying Rock Band, so I bought Rock Band so I could play with them. Later one of my friends with both consoles decided to get Rock Band too and I convinced him to buy it for PS3 also since he already knew 3 people who had it for PS3 and none on 360.
I'm currently trying to buy all games that are equally good on PS3 instead of 360 (due to the reliability and noise), but honestly, this hasn't come into play in many games yet! Most aren't as good on PS3 as on 360, and I didn't buy Assassin's Creed or COD4, nor do I expect to get Burnout Paradise (in a rare case, the demo convinced me not to buy a game I was sure to buy before). I kinda think I'll get DMC4, that'll probably be on PS3.
Oh, one more. I bought DiRT on PS3 instead of 360 because the 360 only has one driving wheel of note and it is crap, while on the PS3 I can use my GT4 wheel or my (awesome) G25. DiRT isn't the best example of this, since it isn't much of a huge wheel game. But I'll prefer to buy driving games on PS3 over 360 because of this. MS is driving me up a wall with their proprietary controller strategy lately, kinda ironic they ended up in the better position on Rock Band vis-a-vis controllers.
why not the LS2/LS7? @ Jan 1st 2008 9:20PM
tl;dr :)
Raikage (Wii FC 5508 0487 4434 0992) @ Jan 2nd 2008 1:21AM
Well it sounds like you more than justified the purchase of a PS3, I don't mind people owning them except when they toot their horn saying all the other consoles suck.
I have a friend who happened upon a high end gaming PC, someone needed some money I guess, so instead of a 360 he opted for the PS3 and recently got a Wii so he has all his bases covered.
Cellien @ Jan 2nd 2008 11:00AM
LS2/7: You just said you don't play online much anyways... and have been playing Rock Band on PS3... then why are you complaining so much about Live being down? ;) So not only do you complain about something 360 related on this article (which would be justified) and admit to not playing online much at all anyways, you also praise the PS3. Typical fanboy tactics.
Super Marxio @ Jan 1st 2008 7:52PM
A footrub from Steve Ballmer? I'll... pass.
Dustin @ Jan 1st 2008 7:56PM
It'd be nice if they just gave some MSPoints away as handouts... even if it was only 50 points, or maybe even 20... SOMEthing would be nice.
Myke @ Jan 1st 2008 7:59PM
My gold account just expired a week ago and I can't even re-activate it because it's not working at all!!! Uber annoying...
Donald @ Jan 1st 2008 7:59PM
Free horse armor for all!
dvdguy @ Jan 1st 2008 8:03PM
Doing away with the DRM crap that prevents me from playing the Arcade titles I've purchased on my replacement 360 when Live is down would be a good start.
Obie @ Jan 1st 2008 9:58PM
They can remove the goddamn ads while they are at it!
And gimme a free XBL game bitches! I am suffering here! (heh heh)
Twist @ Jan 1st 2008 8:03PM
I haven't had a fully functional Xbox 360 since October 1st so I don't want to hear anybody whining about Xbox Live being down for a few days. Quit your bitching and just be thankful you haven't repeatedly been screwed by Microsoft's Customer Disservice Representatives and the incompetent morons at their repair centers.
Anticrawl @ Jan 1st 2008 8:31PM
I hear ya dude. What is really great is that my shoddy repaired Xbox started screwing up for a while now and I finally have time to play online because of the holidays. Well Xbox live screws up and my 360 gets the RROD again. Well sending my 4th xbox in, along with a bomb and gonna go buy an Elite I think.
sheppy2.0 @ Jan 1st 2008 9:19PM
Don't buy an elite. The RROD issues come from the overheating GPUs. Since even the Elites still have .90 GPUs, the solution isnt truly there yet. Wait for the .64 GPUs. That's what I'm doing. I gave up on my fifth 360, sold it to a friend. He's since sent it in an additional 2 times...
why not the LS2/LS7? @ Jan 1st 2008 9:23PM
The problem with the 360 isn't really overheating, it's incompetent design. PS3 generates more heat than 360 and doesn't frag itself.
As such, you can guess that MS perhaps fixed the problem even on the later 90nm models, perhaps they only fixed it with the 65nm chips or perhaps they still can't find their ass with two hands and a map. Take your pick.
Sadly, having had a 360 since day one, and having MS said in fall 2006 that they had fixed the problem, then watching them ship at least 5M more with the same problem after that I can't believe a word they say. My latest replacement model is noisier than either of my previous two and has a messed up optical drive, so I don't place a lot of stock in MS' competence right now.
Gavin @ Jan 1st 2008 8:04PM
I just downloaded "Hard To Handle" so it works for me.
BTW, my Uncle used to work with the Robinson brother's Dad. He says to me one day "Do you know of some band by the name of something to do with Crows?". I say "Do you mean Counting Crows?" and he's all "No, No...something else" and I say "The Black Crows?" and he goes "Yeah, I think that is it". He worked with the guy for years and never told me until after they broke up. He could have gotten me free tickets that bastard.
Raikage (Wii FC 5508 0487 4434 0992) @ Jan 1st 2008 8:04PM
A friend can't get XBL Gold because it's acting up. Bummer...
You can buy XBL straight off the 360 right?
ssuk @ Jan 1st 2008 8:18PM
Yeah, from the Dashboard, press A on your gamertag, select "Profile management", select "Account Type", change stuff there.
Raikage (Wii FC 5508 0487 4434 0992) @ Jan 1st 2008 8:20PM
Your a hero, thanks!
Have some cake.....
Jhongerkong @ Jan 1st 2008 9:00PM
The cake is a lie.
(Even more fitting since I just beat Portal)
Chris @ Jan 1st 2008 8:06PM
I'd settle for a functional Xbox at this point. I had my second RROD on the 23rd.
Anticrawl @ Jan 1st 2008 8:34PM
My forth one went out on me right after Christmas. Boy what a holly jolly christmas this one has been. Talking to people from India who could care less about the customer.
ssuk @ Jan 1st 2008 8:14PM
They wont refund any money, it's section 13 in the Xbox Live User Agreement, look it up on xbox.com. However, I think MS will have to do something to put a big happy smiley face as a good-will gesture to us, who despite knowing we can play free on the PC, pay our subscription for uninterrupted, reliable services.
Personally... Free subscription to XNA would do me. =P
Grizzly @ Jan 1st 2008 8:16PM
I want a press release with the words "now better than ever!", is that too much to ask?
Nessman @ Jan 1st 2008 8:15PM
number 3 exactly describes my situation.. The poor Xbox Live quality and the possibility of our modem not working is a bad combination. The only way i can get experience in CoD4 is if i'm hosting the match, then about 5 minutes in it boots out all the players and makes the enemy forfeit the match. It lags for them but not for me.
Anam @ Jan 1st 2008 8:21PM
I just recently started playing online and I'm glad to know that it isn't supposed to be like this. I keep getting disconnected from Team Fortress 2 matches. Also, when I try to join a game, usually there are only one or two available, but I don't know what's normal for it.
CONFUSEDgam3r @ Jan 1st 2008 8:27PM
The problems caused my 360 to Red Ring. And I'm being serious. I was trying to get online with GH3 when all of a sudden my 360 froze. I turned it off then back on again, it froze. I waited a day to turn it on again and it showed the three lights of death.
Damn you XBL! I just hope it all works again when my XBOX 360 gets back from Microsoft. I was just about to get COD4 too, as well as The Orange Box, both are on sale as of now for being really great games. I'll still buy them anyways.
I choose choice b.
embassy @ Jan 1st 2008 8:28PM
they'll find some way to curb the murderous rampage of the XBL obsessed...
they did it with the crackdown/halo 3 beta.
so they'll prolly do something here too.
but seriously..a free month of live? for a week of on/off, janky service?
thats like what? $4 worth or service time?
get real people.
MinorHavoc @ Jan 1st 2008 8:30PM
Not good. This is one of the peak usage periods and XBL and MS can't afford to leave bad impressions like this on new XBox owners. This combined with the security issues is poor execution.
embassy @ Jan 1st 2008 8:44PM
as fickle as gamers are...
MS will just add a week of service, a free 400 MS points or something comparable to the time lost and everyone will forget this all happend...we gamers have the same disposable attention spans that 14 yr old teenage girls have for pop music. for better or worse.
look at the halo 3 beta...look how quickly people stopped caring about the 1-day lag for crackdown players when MS/bungie added a week to the beta.
Dragod @ Jan 1st 2008 8:41PM
Phr33 st00f pl0x.
Jhongerkong @ Jan 1st 2008 9:04PM
T4£k1ng 1n £33t Ð03$nt m4k3 ¥0µ (00£ ¥0µ kn0w...
0h, w41t...
Dragod @ Jan 1st 2008 9:06PM
I know, lol. It's just sorta a joke between me and a friend.
letsgetit @ Jan 1st 2008 8:56PM
lets face it.... MS isn't going to do anything, y should they, its not like people are going to stop paying for live when it comes back, they wont loose any money.
Wickedneoq @ Jan 2nd 2008 5:55AM
Choice number 3 in the poll is made of epic win. I can't even START a match. That seems like where most of the complainers are coming from as well, but I'm not bitter about this at all. I expected something to happen during the holidays considering there's no Wii systems around. The next best present to many gamers, in North America at least, would have been the 360, thus this inevitable "down" time.
Wickedneoq @ Jan 2nd 2008 5:59AM
Ack, forgot to confirm this at the time I posted. 3 hours later, smooth sailing. We jinxed it.
Orionsaint @ Jan 1st 2008 9:00PM
It's not working for me at all. I can't even sign in. It might have to do with the fact that I don't even have my 360. It got the TRROD and is currently in Texas being fixed. Thanks MS!
waynski1457 @ Jan 1st 2008 9:25PM
thank god i havent been home since the 26th because thats when it seems all the problems started. heres hoping its back by the 7th!