Xbox Live for Original Xbox Shutting Down

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Xbox Live for the original Xbox will be shutting down April 15th. The good news is that once this happens, having a friends list with more than 100 people may be a possibility.

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.
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BladeVenom said:
I bet they end support for the 360 even quicker.
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Why? The XBOX did not have the same level of success as the XBOX 360, thus why would they kill off the 360 support faster? I myself could see support lasting well beyound the release of a new console.
 
The 360 isn't a success. It's been a money loosing failure. If they can get away with ending support for the Xbox, then it will encourage them to drop support for the 360 even faster.
 
BladeVenom said:
The 360 isn't a success. It's been a money loosing failure. If they can get away with ending support for the Xbox, then it will encourage them to drop support for the 360 even faster.
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Umm, I don't know what you are using to gauge this but the 360 is definitely a huge success. It sold over 36 million consoles, not a failure by any measure.
 
Unless something has changed. Last I heard MS was selling each console at a loss. But the lost profit is supposed to be made up from games.

So they're not selling the consoles for less than it takes to make them?
 
eddie11c said:
Umm, I don't know what you are using to gauge this but the 360 is definitely a huge success. It sold over 36 million consoles, not a failure by any measure.
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and with a failure rate on the high side on the consoles with RROD it a failure. You can sell 36 million consoles but if you have to replace them over the warranty years its no profit but a loss.
 
eddie11c said:
Umm, I don't know what you are using to gauge this but the 360 is definitely a huge success. It sold over 36 million consoles, not a failure by any measure.
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It was a financial success for M$ but an utter failure to consumers. I'd wager that half of those 36 million units were re-buys after peoples original console took a shit after a year.

Meanwhile I still have my 1st gen xbox from 2002 that still works like new.

I have a feeling that when M$ releases a new Xbox it'll still utilitze the same OS but with much better hardware. Support for the 360 isn't going anywhere any time soon.
 
necrosis said:
Are people really bitching that they can not have more than 100 friends?
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Yes, apparently. And this has been referenced as the single reason for dropping Xbox1 support. Bone all the Xbox1 gamers that still use the service so all those lazy turds won't have to manage their friends list better. Fantastic. I've heard the number still playing on just the Xbox1 and not the 360 is around 50k.

MS could go about finding a solution that continues support, but apparently the cost of paying for customer good will is too much. I've always considered part of my $50 per year as something of a maintenance fee for keeping the playability of my old Xbox1 games around. Now I'm reconsidering that point of view and the value I see out of the service just took a nose dive.

Keep in mind this is coming from someone with over 200 Xbox1 games in the collection.
 
eddie11c said:
Umm, I don't know what you are using to gauge this but the 360 is definitely a huge success. It sold over 36 million consoles, not a failure by any measure.
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One thing you're likely to find about the stats you are referencing is that the number is reported by Microsoft units sold to the retail stores. Not the units sold to end users. Microsoft ships a lot more than what necessarily moves so they can inflate their numbers, this trick is likely to increase investor confidence.

The additional counter argument is that the failure rate of the 360's is something noteworthy. Even if you move millions of units, large percentile of failure rates will always come back to haunt whatever success you make. As sourced from The Consumerist back in August 2009, the console has a failure rate of about 54%.

Source: http://consumerist.com/2009/08/xbox-360-failure-rate-is-542-percent-game-informer-finds.html
 
Bgrngod said:
Yes, apparently. And this has been referenced as the single reason for dropping Xbox1 support. Bone all the Xbox1 gamers that still use the service so all those lazy turds won't have to manage their friends list better. Fantastic. I've heard the number still playing on just the Xbox1 and not the 360 is around 50k.

MS could go about finding a solution that continues support, but apparently the cost of paying for customer good will is too much. I've always considered part of my $50 per year as something of a maintenance fee for keeping the playability of my old Xbox1 games around. Now I'm reconsidering that point of view and the value I see out of the service just took a nose dive.

Keep in mind this is coming from someone with over 200 Xbox1 games in the collection.
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The XBox is a decade old. Sorry, but get over it. I didn't complain about the lack of support for the NES while I was playing my N64 or Playstation, or a lack of Playstation support while playing my PS3.
 
Your NES also didn't have anything which flat out required an online component.

What happens when they decide to pull 360 support, so many games on the 360 may as well be married to live you might as well throw the thing away when that happens.
 
BloodyIron said:
One thing you're likely to find about the stats you are referencing is that the number is reported by Microsoft units sold to the retail stores. Not the units sold to end users. Microsoft ships a lot more than what necessarily moves so they can inflate their numbers, this trick is likely to increase investor confidence.

The additional counter argument is that the failure rate of the 360's is something noteworthy. Even if you move millions of units, large percentile of failure rates will always come back to haunt whatever success you make. As sourced from The Consumerist back in August 2009, the console has a failure rate of about 54%.

Source: http://consumerist.com/2009/08/xbox-360-failure-rate-is-542-percent-game-informer-finds.html
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That "stuffing the channels" argument is often used incorrectly. MS can use such a tactic, but there is a limit to how many units they can sell to retailers before the retailers stop buying more. The only explanation is that the retailers are indeed selling units to make room for the units they are receiving. Inventory levels are not unlimited.

Your second argument does make sense. The RROD problem is obviously one of the biggest electronics blunders in the history of ever. We will never know the real percentage, but it's common knowledge that it is a big number. However, using the RROD to try and claim the Xbox is not a huge success is a mistake. The fact that those getting burned on the RROD are actually buying another unit points to the success of the product. Also, the software sales are completely independent of the hardware sales unless you are talking tie-in ratios. Last we've seen the software side of things is pretty damn massive. Nobody in their right mind could see the software sales numbers and claim the 360 is anything short of a success.
 
^^ i am sure you will see some class action lawsuits if MS does not offer some method to still play those games.
 
Bgrngod said:
The fact that those getting burned on the RROD are actually buying another unit points to the success of the product.
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Not really. They're just stuck with a library of games they can't use unless they buy a new console.
 
This sucks. I never really got a chance to play SvM online in Splinter Cell or PGR2 online. Also, what is gonna happen with DLC for Xbox originals after April 15th? Torrents and XBM disc swap meets?

Hopefully a third party picks up where MS will leave for XBL for the original Xbox. Yes, I'm aware of XBconnect and Xlink Kai, but I think those solutions only work if you use system link for online play.
 
Nemesis999 said:
The XBox is a decade old. Sorry, but get over it. I didn't complain about the lack of support for the NES while I was playing my N64 or Playstation, or a lack of Playstation support while playing my PS3.
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Those consoles couldn't connect to a service through the internet you dingbat. They're unrelated.

This proves that if your game relies on a online service, then you can get screwed. People still play the original Counter Strike and the games age hasn't stopped them.

Imagine if you bought Megaman 9 and Xbox Live wasn't support for 360, but only for 720? Of course, you need to download that game again because your old 360 died. Even though you own the game, there's no way for you to play it again.
 
Friends list? I'd like a way to just turn the damned thing off.

Or at least an option to kill the announcement jelly-beans that constantly show up while I'm trying to watch a movie.
 
Nemesis999 said:
The XBox is a decade old. Sorry, but get over it. I didn't complain about the lack of support for the NES while I was playing my N64 or Playstation, or a lack of Playstation support while playing my PS3.
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That is a silly argument. Would you have complained about the lack of support for your PS3 while you were still playing it? That's how Xbox1 XBL users feel about this news.

MS should consider this a good PR opportunity to show how awesome they are with online, despite having completely screwed up the hardware side of things. Split the services in two so XBL360 can grow and Xbox1 support can stay.

"When we said forever... we meant it."
 
Jesus christ all the doom and gloomers are awake it seems. I'm going off to play xbox with my $30 12month subscription package and 2nd generation Xbox360 that has yet to malfunction in anyway or form. I am confident that in 5 years MS wont shut down the servers that will kill my ability to play all my single player games because they obviously need xbox live in order to play them.

Big deal, they are shutting down old servers. The only reason I have my old xbox around is cause I chipped it. So oh well...
 
TechLarry said:
Friends list? I'd like a way to just turn the damned thing off.

Or at least an option to kill the announcement jelly-beans that constantly show up while I'm trying to watch a movie.
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You can turn that off in the options...
 
I'm sad that MS will be discontinuing XBL for the old school XBox.

On the bright side, VPN tunnels or the like can emulate a LAN over the internet IIRC - add vent and profit. Didn't this happen already?
 
I don't know why people are so concerned about a companies financials. Who cares how much money they made or loss, the 360 is the console of choice when it comes to online gaming. As for the failure of the consoles, they repair the ones under warranty just like any other company would do. PC parts also fail or need to be replaced just like any other piece of technology but we seem to accept that more some reason. Motherboard DOA or GPU problems? Just send it back and get a new one. 360 RROD? Leave a I hate Microsoft rant on every 360 hardware topic you come across. You can clearly tell which platform has the more mature audience.
 
TechLarry said:
Friends list? I'd like a way to just turn the damned thing off.

Or at least an option to kill the announcement jelly-beans that constantly show up while I'm trying to watch a movie.
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Yea as someone said above you can turn this off in options specifically while watching a video. This way it still pops up during games, etc. Or you can turn it off altogether. I did this for Netflix and stuff.

And I highly doubt they will end XBL for the 360 faster than the original Xbox. I don't really understand why anyone would think that. The 360 was a much larger success than the original. They probably won't stop selling 360s as quickly as the original when the next gen comes out because they probably handles contracts for hardware a lot better this time around. Not mention they are trying to turn the 360 in a media center, not just a gaming console.
 
XamediX said:
Jesus christ all the doom and gloomers are awake it seems. I'm going off to play xbox with my $30 12month subscription package and 2nd generation Xbox360 that has yet to malfunction in anyway or form. I am confident that in 5 years MS wont shut down the servers that will kill my ability to play all my single player games because they obviously need xbox live in order to play them.

Big deal, they are shutting down old servers. The only reason I have my old xbox around is cause I chipped it. So oh well...
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Weren't there map packs for Halo2 and some other games that required a Live sub? So now people can't play the content they paid for once Live is cut for xbox?
 
BladeVenom said:
The 360 has lost $2 billion dollars. I would consider losing $2 billion dollars a failure.

It's getting crushed by the Wii, and even the PS3 is outselling it now. http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php
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It has seemed from the beginning with the first XBOX, that Microsoft's goal is to sacrifice short term profit for a large gain in market share / presence. You can argue money as much as you want and I am sure they would love to have their cake and eat it to, but to win against an established competition they are being as cut throat as they possibly can.

I say it has paid off, the PS3 has some ground to gain still and for being so strong the last 2 generations it really doesn't take much to notice their short comings this generation.

The Wii is sort of fad, sales numbers of some great exclusive titles pretty much put the Wii at the bottom of the list for Software profits. It's quite obvious that many of these Wii owners aren't typical run of the mill gamers and some just bought it for Wii Sports and Wii Fit. With the number of owners the Wii has this is truly surprising, but at least Nintendo makes a profit on the hardware.

I say take what you will out of this generation of consoles, but from a consumer stand point the XBOX 360 is leagues above it's predecessor and that is really what Microsoft needed to stay in the game.
 
Derfman said:
It's quite obvious that many of these Wii owners aren't typical run of the mill gamers and some just bought it for Wii Sports and Wii Fit. With the number of owners the Wii has this is truly surprising, but at least Nintendo makes a profit on the hardware.
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VGcharts puts Wii's game sales at 450M, compared to 340M for the 360 and 211M for the PS3. There's isn't the slightest chance in hell that either MS nor Sony is anywhere near Nintendo on profits this round.
 
BladeVenom said:
The 360 has lost $2 billion dollars. I would consider losing $2 billion dollars a failure.

It's getting crushed by the Wii, and even the PS3 is outselling it now. http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php
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Correction: The XBox 360 *had* lost ~$2B through 2007 because of the RROD warranty coverage. The Entertainment and Devices division has been profitable for the last two years:
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/halo3untitledodstgame/news.html?sid=6237794

Units sold is not the right measure of success here. It's like printers--you can absolutely sell a piece of hardware for a loss if you have other revenue streams. Like Live and Halo 3.

However, that's not even the case for the XBox. As this article indicates, the console itself became profitable in 2008 due to decreased manufacturing and marketing costs:
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/24/the-xbox-turns-a-profit/

RROD was not part of the business plan. Surely, they should continue to make the money that the console (and the Live marketplace) will let them. "End-of-Life"-ing XBox1 will likely push more people to the 360 than its competitors.

MS may not be making as much of a profit as its competitors. It may not even be growing as quickly. It's still hard to ignore 50% growth in Live profit and billions in revenue.
 
At some point, you just have to move on. The Xbox died long ago and you just need to accept it. Life will go on without Halo. Really.
 
Bgrngod said:
That "stuffing the channels" argument is often used incorrectly. MS can use such a tactic, but there is a limit to how many units they can sell to retailers before the retailers stop buying more. The only explanation is that the retailers are indeed selling units to make room for the units they are receiving. Inventory levels are not unlimited.

Your second argument does make sense. The RROD problem is obviously one of the biggest electronics blunders in the history of ever. We will never know the real percentage, but it's common knowledge that it is a big number. However, using the RROD to try and claim the Xbox is not a huge success is a mistake. The fact that those getting burned on the RROD are actually buying another unit points to the success of the product. Also, the software sales are completely independent of the hardware sales unless you are talking tie-in ratios. Last we've seen the software side of things is pretty damn massive. Nobody in their right mind could see the software sales numbers and claim the 360 is anything short of a success.
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The failure figures include things above and beyond the RROD. Microsoft only provides the extended warranty for the RROD effect, not for things like failing optical drives or other elements. I know this as a friend had his optical drive fail.

I understand your counter argument that the success of the xbox 360 should take into account the software available for it. By the same token, would you declare the PC a success based on the software available for it?

Notice that I didn't say it was a failure or a success in my original post, I was merely covering the sources of data.

I would say it's safe to declare the xbox 360 a success in most regards. Has it had shortcomings? Sure. Has it made Microsoft a lot of money? Likely. That alone makes it a success, as they are a corporation and their solitary concern is making money.

But as a device standing alone, free from the software it could use, free from the sales figures is it a success in terms of quality? I wouldn't say so. Sure, I really like the design of the controller (mostly, and except for the D pad). I also really think they did a good job of simplifying the design both externally and internally. But the failure rates clearly indicate it just wasn't enough.

If you take a look at consoles made a long time ago they survive a lot better than the 360. Have you ever heard someone quote a failure rate for the NES? I sure havn't.

My point being is that Microsoft is in the right market, but to make the device a qualitative success they need to revisit what has made consoles so great. Durability, value ($10 more per console title compared to PC is not value, it is a monopoly), enduring gameplay (Do we really need more maddens?), a memorable experience.

Many remember the NES, SNES, Sega, Dreamcast, and many others. How many are going to look back and think as warmly about the 360 as they do the other consoles? I for one will not. I just see it as a PC wrapped into a small form factor, with many of the things that make a PC great removed.
 
BloodyIron said:
... would you declare the PC a success based on the software available for it?...
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Classic "I am a Mac" mistake: There is no "PC" company that sells software. Microsoft sells both the Xbox console and some of the most popular software that runs on it. And it owns the marketplace. Furthermore, unlike iPods and iTunes, the hardware and software are inextricably tied together.

Separating those elements would be artificial. Not only does the money all go to the same company, it is credited to the same business unit.

It's like saying Verizon is losing money for giving away free cell phones, completely ignoring the service plan.
 
I own a PS3 and an XBOX. Both are amazing consoles but sadly I don't own a single game for PS3 other than LBP....

And people making uneducated comments about the Xbox losing money still read this article from HardOCP.

[ulr]http://gizmodo.com/5464610/sony-still-loses-money-on-every-ps3-they-sell[/url]
 
I still keep my old Xbox since 1 of my games that I like didn't work on my 360 last time I checked.
I have the Destroy All Humans Trilogy and either 1 or 2 didn't work on the 360 (1 worked and 1 didn't).

I didn't realize Live was still going for the original xbox, I had thought it was shut off a couple of years ago.
 
This isn't a huge deal to me, but I do like to go on Amped 2 once in a while and join a random game.

You'd think that they would make a two-tier system where could choose your chosen 100 and only allow you to be able to interact with those on the original xbox live service.
 
sweetreddyd said:
Your NES also didn't have anything which flat out required an online component.

What happens when they decide to pull 360 support, so many games on the 360 may as well be married to live you might as well throw the thing away when that happens.
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Dude you knew this would happen. Thats why PCs own.
 
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