Microsoft Euthanizes Original Xbox Live Service. So What’s The Big Deal?

Late last night Microsoft announced it was discontinuing its Xbox Live service for original Xbox games. You’ll still be able to play games such as the Halo, Halo 2, and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory on your original Xbox and on the Xbox 360, but after April 15th, the online multiplayer features for all of these titles will be disabled. The move will free up resources and bandwidth for the latest generation of Xbox 360 games. Both Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten and Xbox Community/Xbox Live Director of Programming Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb issued very similarly-toned statements explaining the move.

Marc Whitten: “I want to start by saying this isn’t a decision we made lightly, but after careful consideration, it is clear this will provide the greatest benefit to the Xbox LIVE community.”

Major Nelson: “We did not make this decision lightly, but after careful consideration and review we realize that this decision will allow us unprecedented flexibility for future features.”

Microsoft is obviously hunkering down for a bit of backlash over this Xbox Live euthanasia, but is all of this contrition really necessary? All of the affected Xbox 1 games are really old and, in most cases, have essentially been rendered obsolete with newer, better versions. Everyone has fond memories of playing Halo 2 over Xbox Live, but it’s time to move on.

archi2

By deleting this service, Microsoft may be cutting out, low-income users, that may not have enough money to upgrade to Xbox360. They are out there.

Does Microsoft really ever run out of bandwidth? Would it kill them to keep one virtual server running?

Also, what is the fate of all our digital works of art? Deletion? Would someone consider a virtual world a work of art? I do. There should some scheme for preserving a virtual world. Future generations are going to study our development of digital worlds and they should be catalogued and stored.
moviemaestro

I completely agree with you archi2. I think that it’s very sad that they’re going to discontinue the service. I personally enjoy playing Halo 2 online.

Your point about low-income users getting stung is very true. The economy is terrible as it is and some have trouble putting food on the table, and there is no way they can possibly upgrade at this point.

Very poor choice Microsoft :-(