Xbox Offers Free LIVE Game To All Members
Well, it's official, Xbox LIVE members are getting stuff on the free. Thanks to what they are attributing to increased server load thanks to the holiday sales, the Xbox Live servers broke and left many users upset and unable to play online.
In an apologetic letter from Xbox GM, Marc Whitten, it was announced that Microsoft will be giving away a free Xbox Live Arcade game to all Xbox Live members. Details are sketchy, and it is still undetermined whether or not it will be for gold service members or to everyone.
Dear Xbox LIVE Members:During this past holiday season you helped us break a number of Xbox LIVE records. This included our largest sign-up of new members to Xbox LIVE in our 5 year history and just yesterday you broke the record for the single biggest day of concurrent members ever on the service.
As a result of this massive increase in usage we know that some of you experienced intermittent Xbox LIVE issues over the holiday break. While the service was not completely offline at any given time, we are disappointed in our performance. I would like to take this moment to thank you each and every one of you for your patience and understanding as our team has worked around the clock to return the service to a stable state.
At the same time we would like to offer a token of our appreciation to all of you in celebration of record success for the service. And as a thank you for your loyalty during this holiday period, we will be offering all of our Xbox LIVE members around the world access to a full Xbox LIVE Arcade game that will be available to download free of charge. In the coming weeks we will be sharing the specific details of this offer with you.
Thank you again for helping make Xbox LIVE everything that it is today!
Sincerely,
Marc Whitten
General Manager, Xbox LIVE
Gamertag: Notwen
It's good to see Microsoft stepping up to the plate and taking care of their mess. I'm not going to say one game makes up for nearly two weeks of interrupted services, but at least it's a start.
Asterick
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 4 January 2008
· Comments (4)
Other stuff like this: arcade, free games, poor performance, restitution, xbox live
They weren't exactly sitting on their laurels, they were doing the best they could...
That's a kind gesture from Microsoft. I didn't exactly come away from the holiday online rush feeling like they owed me something, but I rarely turn down a free game. Granted, had I been trying to set up a new box or to get some COD4 matches together I probably would be telling a different story.
Indeed a very kind gesture by Microsoft.
I don't know if you guys heard the latest Major Nelson podcast, but he briefly mentions Gaygamer.net in an interview with Stephen Toulouse, Xbox LIVE Policy Manager.
geez, I hope I get my 360 back in time for this event. (sending it to the repair depot tomorrow.)