Xbox LIVE

Even consoles can no longer escape the Internet, even if you play games offline. In addition to actual online gameplay, console platforms require you to go online and sign in to your account for some activities and features, especially when buying digital copies of games. That, of course, means that when those remote servers go down, gamers suddenly find themselves locked out of certain experiences, just like what happened with Xbox Live for more than a few hours.

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This afternoon Xbox services had a few outages and/or issues. This included what Microsoft marked as a "Major Outage" for items like "Account & Profile", "Store & Subscriptions", Multiplayer gaming, and Cloud gaming. Together those basically make up the biggest bits of the online space for Xbox players of multiplayer games - chances are you felt the impact of this set of issues.

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With the first day of March getting ever closer, Microsoft has revealed the Xbox Live Games with Gold lineup for next month. If there's a theme to this month, it definitely seems to be shooters - be they tactical, top-down, or run-and-gun games. If you're a fan of shooters of any variety, you'll probably want to reserve at least a little bandwidth to download these games next month.

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Following heavy criticism of the change, the Xbox team has announced that it will not be increasing the price for its Xbox Live Gold subscription service. 'We messed up today and you were right to let us know,' the company said in its update on the matter. Instead, the company says you'll no longer need Xbox Live Gold to play free-to-play games on Xbox consoles.

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It seems that Microsoft is doing some light cleaning in preparation for the launch of its Xbox Series X console. It has retired the Xbox One X as well as the digital edition of the Xbox One S but it isn't just the physical products that are being retired. Apparently, even the 12-month subscription tier of Microsoft's Xbox Live Gold has been quietly eased out of the scenes, feeding rumors that Xbox Live itself might be the next one to go.

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Last summer, Microsoft introduced Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, something of a premium offering for to subscribe to all of Microsoft's services. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate bundles Game Pass for both Xbox One and PC along with a subscription to Xbox Live Gold, allowing you to play Xbox games online. It's a nice little package deal if you play on Xbox One and PC, but it can be a bit on the expensive side.

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The official Xbox Support group released a note this afternoon confirming the down status of Xbox Live online play. This system is down for some players for two significant areas of functionality. One of these areas is Joining Parties - one of the most essential bits of the entire Xbox Live universe.

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Paying a monthly fee that includes getting access to some free games has seemingly become the new norm in the gaming biz. Streaming services like Google Stadia and new stores like Epic Games Store have recently joined that bandwagon but consoles have long been at the head of that line. In fact, Xbox has just announced the games that Xbox Live Gold subscribers will be able to get their hands on starting in a few days and they will have their choice of gritty dark action or lighthearted platforming fun.

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NBA 2K20 was ushered into existence today by a set of player ratings and the reveal of three bundles. Three new Xbox One bundles were shown NBA 2K20 cover athlete Anthony Davis at a special event hosted by Xbox and the folks at 2K Games "to celebrate what's next in basketball culture." Davis showed three models, two for $500, another for $300. The most interesting of the three looked like it was splattered with paint.

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A number of websites and services have experienced issues today, including the multi-hour outage over at Reddit this morning followed by a brief outage at Twitter. Microsoft is among the companies having trouble, in this case with its Xbox services. Though most services remain operational, one is limited, and that's causing big problems for players who want to download purchased or new content.

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These days, people usually equate "online identity" with things like avatars or bitmojis. At the most basic level, however, an online user is almost always identified by their online handles or nicknames. In the Xbox world, that name is called "Gamertag" and it's going through a rather major change. Now only will it now let gamers use characters from among 10 new supported alphabets, it will also let you grab a Gamertag that might already be used by someone else, but with one minor catch.

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A day after Sony revealed the free PlayStation Plus games for June, Microsoft is following suit by announcing its upcoming Games with Gold lineup. As always, there will be four games up for grabs - two for Xbox One and two for Xbox 360 - and there's at least one very recognizable name in this group. Tell us: How do you feel about portals?

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