Xbox Live is currently down and is affecting users ability to play games on their Xbox One consoles. The status portal is reporting that Xbox Live Core Services are limited for the Xbox One. Microsoft reports that the other parts of Xbox Live are still up and running, such as Purchase and Content Usage, Website, TV, Music, Video, Social and Gaming.
This is exactly the kind of outage which gamers were worried about when the Xbox One was originally announced. The idea of an always on, always connected Xbox is awesome for cloud saves and sharing, but when it comes to simply accessing games — the servers are not 100% reliable. As Microsoft began to change their plan to be more traditional like the Xbox 360 or the PS4, fans were happy because it gave them more freedom.
Using servers to authenticate the legitimacy of a game is great for publishers who need to know the digital game hasn’t been pirated, but gamers see little to no benefit. Popular platforms like Steam have a similar method of authenticating a game is legal via the internet, but Steam does offer an offline mode, which the user can activate and go offline for a period of time.
The Xbox One was Microsoft’s attempt at giving consumers digital gaming wherever they were, while still keeping publishers happy. Days like today are a sobering reminder that servers still go down and at the end of the day gamers want access to the games they paid for.
