Xbox Live for Original Xbox Shutting Down

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Microsoft has announced it will "discontinue" Xbox Live for the original Xbox and its games on April 15, including Xbox Originals and Xbox games playable on Xbox 360.

Xbox Live launched in North America on November 15, 2002--the first anniversary of the Xbox's launch--requiring a $50 'Xbox Live Starter Kit' which packed a one-year subscription, a headset and demos for Whacked! and MotoGP.

While the Xbox was not the first console to support online play, Xbox Live certainly revolutionised it. At launch it packed a unified 'gamertag' user account with friends lists, matchmaking, voice communication and downloadable content. Xbox Live Arcade brought downloadable games and demos in November 2004, then run from a disc.

"As we look down the road, we'll continue to evolve the service with features and experiences that harness the full power of Xbox 360," said Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten. "To reach our aspiration, we need to make changes to the service that are incompatible with our original Xbox v1 games."

Backwards-compatibility is reportedly why friend lists are limited to 100 people, while the same source says the enduring popularity of Bungie's shooter Halo 2 was a large motivating factor behind Microsoft's decision not to discontinue Xbox Live sooner.

"'Halo 2' has had an amazing run on LIVE, with a dedicated community more than five years after launch and well into the next generation of consoles," says Whitten's letter.

Whitten ends on a chipper note, promising "We'll share more details soon, but in the meantime I want to assure you that the best is yet to come for Xbox LIVE."

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    February 5, 2010 6:30 AM

    So very happy. F-lists greater than 100 here we come!

    • reply
      February 5, 2010 6:41 AM

      FUCK YES!

      In the words of President of Madagascar:

      SHUT
      IT
      DOWN

    • reply
      February 5, 2010 6:55 AM

      yes please... I'm at 98 people right now.

    • reply
      February 5, 2010 7:11 AM

      If that is what it takes, I'm totally cool with it.

    • Ziz legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      February 5, 2010 9:29 AM

      I know it sucks! Only 100!? Pfft! I've got 6 now so i'm sooo close to the cap!

      • reply
        February 5, 2010 2:35 PM

        You aren't very social, so why the fuck would anyone else be? Seriously, what kind of loser has more than 6 friends, it's pretty pathetic when people have large social groups. It's like, get a hobby or something.

    • reply
      February 5, 2010 10:57 AM

      I hope they add the ability to sort friends by games or custom groups.

      • reply
        February 5, 2010 1:14 PM

        this would be good. some of the people i always play with are at the bottom of my friends list so some sort of favourites group would be helpful.

    • reply
      February 5, 2010 11:55 AM

      This was my reaction upon seeing the headline. About fucking time! Now for Steam to allow more than 200 friends (seriously, WTF is up with that?)

    • reply
      February 5, 2010 5:48 PM

      That's great, but even better? In-build clans please. I'd LOVE a shack clan so I don't have to add every one of you fuckers by hand just to play with awesome people.

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