14 DAY TRIAL // It’s now official, Microsoft has pulled the plug on the original Xbox. Xbox LIVE support for first-generation Xbox consoles was cut yesterday, April 15th, 2010, as previously announced by the Redmond company. The move from Microsoft is also synonymous with locking a variety of older titles out of Xbox LIVE, including Halo 2, one of the most popular games for the console.
“[On April 15] we’ll be turning off the ability for original Xboxes to connect to Xbox LIVE. It’s the end of an era, and there’s definitely an odd vibe in the air at Xbox HQ right now. Re-Volt, Ghost Recon, MechAssault, RTCW, Halo 2 and more – we’ll miss you,” a member of the Xbox Live Operations team revealed.
With tens of thousands of gamers flooding Xbox LIVE to give Halo 2 another spin, Microsoft pushed back the support shutdown deadline as much as possible. A member of the Xbox team noted that there were no plans to change the April 15 end-of-support date, while adding that, “We aren’t saying exactly when we'll be flipping the switch.”
However, in the end, April 15 brought with it the lights-out for Xbox LIVE support for first-generation consoles, despite gamers clinging to the service for as much as they could. The word from Microsoft is that users will still be able to play games locally, and even through LAN, but not on Xbox LIVE.
“This disables support for online multiplayer, leaderboards, marketplace and other online features but does not impact offline play,” a representative from the Xbox team stated. At the same time, the company underlined that the PC flavor of Halo 2 was not affected by this change, noting that, “Halo 2 PC will continue unchanged as it’s a Games for Windows – LIVE game and not for the original Xbox.”