So long to the Big Black BoX's online play.

gunsmoke on 8/2/2010 at 19:18

(http://gamerscoreblog.com/press/archive/2010/02/05/gh789.aspx) Microsoft have decided to end Halo 2 and all of the rest of the original Xbox's online servers.

Maybe you have heard, I did several days ago, but I thought it was worth a mention as it affects the 360 as well. Even playing Xbox games on the 360 via emulator and even fucking Xbox Originals downloaded to your 360's HDD (which you probably just purchased within the last ~2years) are dead. Single player is unaffected, but say goodbye to all of the DLC and online play for any Xbox 1 game, no matter what console you play it on.

End of a frikkin' era. Reminds me of the Dreamcast's premature death, in a way.

Malf on 8/2/2010 at 19:24

Undoubtedly a sign of things to come too.

Tenkahubu on 8/2/2010 at 21:43

Quote Posted by Malf

Undoubtedly a sign of things to come too.

That's a good point. When the 360 stuff becomes obsolete it will mean that the multiplayer focused games will become junk to those who don't LAN party.

As for downloaded content, I assumed that once I've purchased it I have the right to re-download it when necessary. I doubt there will be any refunds for those without the hard drive space to hold all their files.

On the other hand, this will only happen when the xbox720 is out and we don't give too much of a shit about our crappy old 360 games with their outdated graphics etc, just as we don't give too much of a shit about this.

Or if MS goes bankrupt I suppose.

Al_B on 8/2/2010 at 22:38

I'm not an XBox owner. Never played Halo. So, not really qualified to gripe in this thread.

However, that link makes me annoyed. Why? "we will discontinue the Xbox LIVE service for original Xbox consoles and games"... "it is clear this will provide the greatest benefit to the Xbox LIVE community".

Am I missing something here? Is removing a service from the people that bought their game system the "greatest benefit" to their community? It may not be as profitable these days and there may not be many people using it but these are probably the same people who have bought the latest version of the console on the back of the games and the support at the time.

I'm happy to be corrected on this but that link seems to be full of political double speak and if it's true then Raymond Chen is truely dead.

Eldron on 9/2/2010 at 01:05

I would guess it means that microsoft supported an a really old part of their service that made it hard to improve on their new one, and cutting off support means that they no longer have to worry about it anymore.

I doubt they did it to save money in any way since it wasn't too big of a crowd, and they still required gold membership to play, it was just that it most likely was an ancient system that held them back.

Shadowcat on 9/2/2010 at 06:32

Quote Posted by Eldron

I doubt they did it to save money in any way

If your existing staff really can't deal with both XBox and Xbox360, then you can hire new staff (read: spend money) to maintain the old system, so that the existing staff can get on with the new stuff.

It's obviously about money, and clearly they're happy to dump on their old customer base in order to end up with more of it.

Mr. K. on 9/2/2010 at 08:21

And marketers wonder why users don't trust cloud storage, online activations and all that garbage.

gunsmoke on 9/2/2010 at 16:53

Yup. Game like Splinter Cell, KotORs, and countless others have single player DLC that VASTLY helps the games. KotOR has the PC version's additional content for example, Splinter Cell has all of the Vselka levels (3 levels total), RLH (Run Like Hell with Lance Henrikson) has challenge levels, skins, and tons of other stuff. These are just off of the top of my head.

These are only acquired through a paid Live account, and now are going to be unobtainable from here on out. I just received a brand-spanking-new Xbox 1 as a replacement to a dying one. I have all of that shit on the old system's drive, but I am not going to be able to re-download this stuff on a playable system. Thumbs down.

inselaffe on 9/2/2010 at 22:50

Multiplayer servers is understandable but downloadable content is a pisstake.

SubJeff on 9/2/2010 at 23:00

cry some moar fanbois

:p

it'll happen to us all eventually