9.5
Xbox Live To Drop Original Xbox Support This April
The time has come to load up Halo 2, and have a few matches – before it is no longer possible. Today, Marc Whitten comes to us in the form of a blog post announcing Microsofts intent to discontinue Xbox Live service on the original Xbox console on April 15, 2010.
This move will extend it’s effects to Xbox 360 owners, as well, in the median of original Xbox games that run via the 360′s backwards compatibility feature. Offline play in games for the original Xbox should continue without issue. Though, for those of you who still play Original Xbox titles on Live, your days are numbered.
The reasoning behind this move hasn’t been completely spelled out, but the gist of it’s right here:
To reach our aspiration, we need to make changes to the service that are incompatible with our original Xbox v1 games. We will contact the Xbox LIVE members directly impacted by this change and if this includes you, I encourage you to check your LIVE messages and associated e-mail account over the coming weeks for more details and opportunities. We view you as a partner in this process.
Typical PR stuff. Obviously they're not getting much income now from it, so they decided to scrap it.
I was surprised these games were still supported in the first place.