14 DAY TRIAL // Online services are very important to console gamers around the world as they hold the key to multiplayer matches and, most importantly, the place where they can download demos, items and get exclusive content.
Xbox Live is certainly one of the more popular ones, boasting over 20 million users worldwide. As you may know, the service has been down the whole time on Tuesday, due to the fact that various upgrades needed to be made to its infrastructure in order to support all of the new features that will arrive at the end of the year, like Last.FM, Facebook or Twitter.
But after the service was back online, players who anxiously waited to redeem codes, and download new demos or new titles found that all was not well with Xbox Live. Missing games, failing downloads and codes that weren't acknowledged by the system were abundant, making people quite angry.
Titles like Sega Vintage Collection 2 disappeared from the Live Marketplace, while others do appear and are available for purchase but can't be downloaded, with users being greeted by an error message.
Also, Ghostbusters fans reported that pre-order codes for the Xbox 360 version of the game weren't being registered by the service, while PlayStation 3 users are already enjoying their early-adopter bonus swag offered by the game.
Microsoft hasn't released anything related to the problem, but has updated the Xbox.com support page with the following message: “Users may experience difficulties when attempting to use Marketplace and/or making purchases. We are aware of the problem and working to resolve the technical issues. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience.”
Hopefully all of these problems will be fixed so players can once again resume their normal gamer lives. Until then, you'd better not make any big purchases using the service unless you want to throw away your MS Points.