Xbox Live No More for Original Console, Games
By Benjamin Opal
The party’s over for the original Xbox and its games, as Microsoft is discontinuing Xbox Live service for its maiden console. In addition to cutting off Live for the first-generation Xbox, support for Xbox games such as Halo 2 and Doom III will come to an end even on the Xbox 360. That includes downloadable Xbox Originals and backwards-compatible discs. Service will cease on April 15, so you’ve got a couple months to send teary-eyed goodbyes to your last-generation friends. Microsoft says it’ll contact people who are “directly impacted” by the change, so hopefully there won’t be any surprises to those who don’t keep up with gaming blogs.
Theoretically, there’s something in this change for people who’ve moved on from the original Xbox. “To reach our aspiration, we need to make changes to the service that are incompatible with our original Xbox v1 games,” Xbox Live General Manager Marc Whitten wrote. He doesn’t get into specifics, but it’s a good bet that the cap on Xbox Live friends will be raised above 100 people, as the original Xbox was reportedly holding the Xbox 360 back from a higher limit. I’m interested to see what other changes can be made, and whether they make original Xbox players a worthy sacrifice for the rest of us. [via GamerScore]
