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Comments: 307 + - Games: Xbox Live For Original Xbox Games Shutting Down on Friday February 05, @02:43PM
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itwbennett writes "Giving no explanation beyond that it 'will provide the greatest benefit to the Xbox LIVE community,' Microsoft's General Manager for Xbox Live, Mark Whitten, announced that as of April 15th, Microsoft will be shutting down its Xbox Live service for the original Xbox and its games. 'Cold comfort for those of you who still enjoy playing Xbox titles like Halo 2 with your friends,' writes blogger Peter Smith. But Smith notes that Whitten's announcement does hint at some form of restitution for those affected, encouraging users to check their LIVE messages for more details and opportunities."
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So I guess you would call it (Score:5, Funny)
Xbox Dead... goodnight everybody, I'll be here all week. Remember to tip your waitress.
Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
Sometimes it has to go down as deprecated, no matter when, no matter how, no matter why. Microsoft can and Microsoft shall, that's the price for being at their hands. The reward? To get to use their products.
Re:Well... (Score:4, Insightful)
It would make far more sense if they had stopped selling XBox games first.
Parent
Re:Well... (Score:4, Insightful)
Nothing's stopping you from playing single player Xbox 1 games. If anything now nobody has an excuse not to mod their original Xbox!
Parent
Re:Well... (Score:4, Insightful)
Except that the XBox games being sold still tout their multi-player capabilities. Now if they reduce the XBox game prices to reflect the loss of capabilities and relabel them to suit, this would be less of an issue (but still wholly relevant to those who purchased XBox games recently for their multi-player capabilities).
And, for the record, I don't own or use the XBox or XBox 360.
Parent
Re:Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
Game companies can't have it both ways (they can try, but eventually customers will wise up).
With 'private' servers they host (and only they can host) and even various DRM techniques; they've produced games that require the servers to be up and running for games to continue to work.
That game you legal purchased and own....you can only expect it to work as advertised, so long as the company continues to keep their end up and running.
It's easy for people to dismiss concerns of 'Ummm - what if the shut down the servers' and simply say, 'Come'on Microsoft isn't going anywhere!'. But, even in the short time that online gameplay can be expected - we've seen TONS of games lose functionality.
Apparently, every Xbox game that was playable on Xbox Live is now crippleware.
Maybe you only play games for 6 months and move on...but some people don't. They enjoy replaying their games. I'll play through FF1 every 2-4 years and that came out in 1987. It's still fun, at least for me. Sure, only a select few games get that level of replay value; but it's *your* game. Or, it should be.
This is all just another step towards having to 'rent' your games in order to play them. And sitting back and idling dismissing it as 'no big deal' just invites the problem to continue.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I would actually rather rent games, but that's because I consider them disposable except for maybe the super classics. I don't have any need to "own" licenses for music, games, television shows, or software. I pay for some in each category because there's no way to always rent.
I think a lot of the reason we pay for games, movies, and music is because we want them to run on a variety of devices, and the only way to do that is with a physical copy or DRM. But, for me, I think it makes more financial sense to
Re:Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
"We can't sit around and hope that everything will be maintained for ever..."
You wouldn't have this problem on PC, anyone with a server or internet connection can host their own.
Parent
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Not when the server list or auth servers go down. You might be able to still connect to ip address directly, but that means you need to find lots of friends to come play with you (especially in team based games where you need something like 16+ players for it to be fun).
It's time to fun to newer better games. Or just stay on single player games. Everyone playing multiplayer games has to know that at some point the player base will die because people move to new games.
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It's time to move to newer better games, I mean. Wonder where that fun came from.
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Re:Well... (Score:4, Informative)
Not any more, see MW2 for example. Also, watch what happens when Steam shuts down.
Parent
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Re:Well... (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Thank you sweet merciful lady of chaos. I used to play Tribes all the time, and wasn't aware you could do this. Wonder if there are still any Shifter servers running...
Re:Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes he is really, when an MMO shuts down it takes down ONLY the mmo and anyone who gets into MMO's knows this before hand since a game can only maintain the servers for as long as there is paying customers, stand alone games are nothing like this. Hence his fallacious comparison.
Parent
Re:Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
It is hard to make a case for forcing a company to continue to offer a particular good or service(unless they contractually obligated themselves and are violating that contract); but the fact that product design is moving in the direction of deprecation = death is extremely disturbing.
Historically, with PC games, the creator may or may not have offered a matchmaking service or servers at all, but there was nothing stopping 3rd parties from doing so. Increasingly, through a combination of DRM activation and closer tying of matchmaking services and multiplayer servers to the core game, it is becoming difficult for 3rd parties to step up(and, if they do, they often place themselves in the line of fire with respect to some DMCA or equivalent legal hassle). On the hardware side, it is a matter of driver specs and parts. If driver specs aren't available, deprecation is death more or less as soon as the next major OS comes out. If service guides/tools/parts are tightly restricted, deprecation is death as soon as the parts dry up.
The fact that products get deprecated is fine. The fact that the severity of deprecation is markedly increasing, and promises only to increase further, is very, very troubling.
Parent
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
really?
You think this would happen if it was on a PC and for things that allowed dedicated servers?
I'll give you a clue: it wouldn't.
Welcome to what happens when non-technical console users get shoved into the world of pc gaming/become more techie as a result of MS's poor business choices. I hope people realize this applies to apple and any company/services that uses DRM (such as windows live gaming or whatever it's called) as well.
Punish Them (Score:5, Informative)
If you want to know what the cost is for buying games from companies that control their platform this tightly, now you get to see it.
If it bothers you, you have one option. Cancel your xbox live subs. Ebay your xbox. Buy your games on a different platform.
They didn't even set out to screw you over and make the games you (thought you) paid for (largely) worthless. You just gave them so much power that they practically did it by accident.
The answer is the PC games model we already had, where the platform is open and the infrastructure isn't something you are forced to buy from a single seller you are locked to for life (xbox live).
Yeah, I know - what is one slashdot post going to do to stop the console juggernaut? Answer: nothing. But don't say I didn't warn you. Give a thought at least to patronizing developers who make and sell their games the old-fashioned way. Especially the ones who support open standards and open platforms like opengl and linux - there are a few.
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Re:Punish Them (Score:5, Funny)
That line had me all sorts of confused until I realized that Fender is a guitar company, not a supplier of stripper apparel.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
I, for one, will gladly accept those consequences since for me they are more than outweighed by the benefits of having things as easy as possible while the game is supported. No drivers, no installation woes, no licensing issues - it all just works out of the box. If that means that after a couple of years the product is no longer supported, so be it. Disposable income I have, but free time to do things I enjoy I don't have enough of.
Re: (Score:2)
Well your options are kind of limited, Sony threw out backwards compatabilty completely with the slim, none of the current models of PS3 sold have backwards compatability or even the "other OS" option.
Nintendo dropped online support for the few gamecube games that supported online back in 07.
That leaves...PC gaming I guess? Well unless you have certain EA titles or Capcom tiles or certain MMO's, etc.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Or the non-hypothetical gamer who owns Halo 3 and an Xbox 360, but also enjoys playing Xbox 1 games online from time to time.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Does it mean I miss out on some of the latest and greatest games? Sure! But there are also a surprising number of games companies that
Re:Take it a step further, now back a step (Score:3, Insightful)
Makes sense. It is annoying when I can't eat my food because they took down the server and now I can't activate it. It is even worse that I can't give my food to someone else or resell it; I should have purchased it on DVD or downloaded the installer. Perfect analogy.
You can't keep track of your stuff, thus those who prefer having a local installer that doesn't need activation or an internet connection must leave society. Makes sense.
I
Planned Obsolesence (Score:2)
I'll be sure to keep this in mind before purchasing any games through Xbox Live Marketplace.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Ever since Microsoft decided Xbox Live Marketplace content should only work offline when played on the particular console to which it was originally downloaded?
Life expectancy (Score:5, Insightful)
From the article, Halo 2 has a 5 year run on the internet. Wow, thats a LONG time!
Doom is still being played online.. that's about 17 years and still going?
So from this we can see, if you happen to be attached to a particular game, then in future you get to be dispersed by the company for loitering.
How many people here play chess?
Re: (Score:3)
I still haven't gotten the hang of the Laser Rooks and Transforming Bishops yet.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Mid-December '93, to be precise, and ISTR that the full version started shipping in Jan '94.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
You could play Doom over the Internet by 1995 via Kali [wikipedia.org] which allows IPX network games to work over TCP/IP. Apparently there were earlier precursors to Kali that also enabled Doom over the Internet. Nowadays you would probably just use a port like ZDoom which has Internet play built in.
Is anyone surprised? (Score:2)
No service lasts forever, and this is why buying a product with a required on-line component is a bad idea.
How many times do people need to be taught this lesson before it sticks?
Hahahaha (Score:2)
Shutting down for no good reason at all. Its like flickr, or Facebook, or GMail just disappearing.
Don't trust the cloud.
That stuff should never happen. I bet you can still find people playing Duke Nukem 3d on the internet.
I played some Battlefield 1942 a couple months ago. Its nice to feel nostalgic.
Let some non-profit group take it over, or release it to the public so people can run their own servers.
What a bad design. Those who make the games should be able to have their own servers and release Linux
In order to serve you better... (Score:4, Insightful)
... we have decided not to serve you at all.
What do you say? That doesn't make any sense? Look! Shiny! New stuff for you to buy, Mr. Consumer!
Dedicated servers (Score:4, Insightful)
And this is why you want player controlled dedicated servers for your :p
favorite FPS or RTS game. A game studio will eventually shut down the central
one because of the lack of $$. Oh and I am still waiting for a game studio to
try the monthly fee route for their central server
PC Gaming is coming back in style (Score:3, Interesting)
Translation (Score:5, Informative)
- Love Steve Ballmer
Replayability and licensing (Score:4, Interesting)
As an avid gamer, I hate the way modern games are moving away from the old model of pay once, play forever, and moving toward licensing. It may not be called licensing by the producers, but that's exactly what it is. How many of us still enjoy a nostalgic game of Donkey Kong, or Super Mario Bros.? I'm sure there is still a group of gamers out there who enjoy a multiplayer game of Quake or Command and Conquer.
Ten years from now, a few friends would like to play a game of Halo 2, but they won't be able to. Just last year, I sank a good 30 hours into the original Sid Mier's(sp?) Colonization, like I have been doing since 1996. I don't know the details about Xbox Live, or Halo 2, but if the game requires a centralized Live server for multiplayer functionality, then it simply won't work. In effect, you are only licensing a portion of the game for a certain period of time. Sure, you can code your own server from scratch, like the Star Wars Galaxies fans have done, but that still eliminates 90% of the fans who will one day want to replay the game that they loved.
HA HA HA Serves you suckers right! (Score:4, Interesting)
Just another reason to buy a computer.
I will admit I too had an Xbox. I long ago let the subscription expire. At one point I had to make the decision: Buy a new console (likely the 360) or spend more and get a new computer. I am 100% glad I sent it on a new computer.
It was just last week that Sony announced that "hey guess what? Even though you bought the PS3 thinking online networking would be free, well not anymore suckas!".
Now MS is saying they are shutting down service for old hardware, making many games pretty useless (as they were sold as online games with limited single player options).
That's the problem with consoles, they (MS and Sony, and Nintendo) own everything. They can do whatever they please. Don't like it? Too bad. Your option is to buy the other guys console, who is going to screw you just as much.
So buy or upgrade your computer where you can actually own your own stuff, and join in the big boy games.
Also there are less 12 year old shouting profanities at you (notice I only said less, you can only do so much!) and generally being asshats.
Makes sense to me. (Score:4, Insightful)
Listen... xBox v1 has been around for almost 10 years. They stopped selling the thing 4 years ago. Look at any Microsoft support life cycle.
Windows 98
- Released June 1998
- Discontinued 2002
- Extended support ended 2006
---Total shelf life - 8 years
Windows ME
- Released December 2000
- Discontinued December 2003
- Extended support ended 2006
---Total shelf life - 6 years
Windows 2000
- Released March 2000
- Discontinued June 2005
- Extended support ends this summer
---Total shelf life - 10 years
Microsoft is right in line with their typical support life cycle for the xBox. Even though its a different product line, Microsoft is still Microsoft. They cannot support an aging product forever (even if by support I mean maintain a server for it)
To move forward what choice did they have? (Score:4, Insightful)
People have complained for years about the 100 tag limit on friends list and other seemingly stupid limitations put into place. The reasoning offered by MS then was that in order to maintain compatabilty with original xbox games the limitations in the original live service had to follow over to the 360.
MS has decided after 5 years of the 360 to remove the legacy caps by removing support for a platform that hasnt been sold in 5 years. You cant really have it both ways...
Already a trend (Score:4, Insightful)
But - Quake 2? Still kicking. Released the same year as JK, too, IIRC. Microsoft continues to do this; they entice game developers with easy online/multiplayer libraries and then kill the service to force people to upgrade. I fear for all the Games for Windows games; that's why I'll never buy a title that uses Games for Windows Live. 10 years down the road, all those games will be permanently offline too, as will (likely) all this trash like CoD42 which uses an even smaller and even more restricted network. Meanwhile, I'll still be playing Quake 3 (and hopefully RAGE, now that it's not being published by EA).
DirectPlay. Live. When will developers learn?
Thisis a GREAT thing.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Because the demand for a "fake" Xboxlive server just became reality.
Someone will hack one together in short order and post the code out there.
I love it when Microsoft creates a need for someone to completely hack a service they were providing and decided to end.
Re:battle.net still lives (Score:4, Informative)
not only that, but you can play those games over a direct IP connection for free without involving battle.net. So when battle.net eventually does shut down or upgrades beyond compatability. You can still play those games with your friends. However this will not be true for starcraft 2.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Its like when GEnie shut down the Air Warrior servers!
(did I just date myself?)
Seriously, though. Halo2 is fun, but its 2010. Play Halo3. All of the rest of us know its identical to Halo2 only with better graphics. You'll barely even notice the change if you're on an equally old TV.
And it sure sounded to me like they aren't happy they're making the move and, unlike most companies that do it, are planning on interacting with the affected people *somehow*.
I know people on Slashdot hate Microsoft for just about everything, but once you pull your head out of that hole, I don't see how this is worth grabbing the pitchforks for. If you aren't one of the people impacted, why do you care so much, and if you are *they said they're going to work with you about it*. So why are you bent out of shape *before they have*?
So you're saying Halo 3 is exactly like Halo 2, but because Halo 2 was released so long ago they should just buy a new console and Halo 3 to continue playing the same game?
And then you're saying people need to pull their head out of the hole and get over their hatred for Microsoft?
...
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And more importantly, its replacement was released in '05!