14 DAY TRIAL // The Xbox 360 is a very popular console, largely due to the fact that it has a lot of games made for it and thanks to its top notch online service in the form of Xbox Live. The feature that enables all multiplayer options for the console's titles is, by far, one of the most used and heavily demanded online services out there.
That's why when it goes down, during peak times like holidays, people get very worried and/or angry at Microsoft. Many offline periods are announced, though, to anyone who starts up their Xbox 360 before the maintenance occurs, but people usually don't consider that and start panicking or getting angry.
Now, in order to prevent any unwanted repercussions, the Xbox 360 Community Manager, Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, has posted on his blog that next Tuesday, June 16, the service will be offline for maintenance. Starting from 7:01 AM UTC (12:01 AM PST), the service will be down for up to 24 hours, meaning that both it and the My Xbox section of Xbox.com will be unavailable. Also, the Xbox 360 forums will be in read-only mode, meaning that people can't post there until the service is back online.
“This service maintenance is to prepare for some of the recently announced features that will be available later this year,” Hryb said. “Let me reiterate: When the service returns, you will not have any new functions or features. This is for scheduled maintenance only.”
So, it seems that in order for new services like the already announced Last.FM, Twitter, or Facebook to be installed, this update to the Xbox Live servers is needed. Hopefully, the update will be implemented as fast as possible and people will be able to get back online to their multiplayer matches and start interacting with their friends and family.