Xbox Live outage was 'human error'

Microsoft has explained yesterday's brief Xbox Live outage, blaming the problem on "human error" and claiming it is updating its process to prevent it from happening again.

4

If you tried to download a game or play online with Xbox Live yesterday morning, you might have been unceremoniously booted for a few hours. Microsoft has now issued a statement on the temporary outage, blaming it on "human error." You know what that means: Steve Ballmer must have tripped over the power cord again.

"Earlier [Monday] members were disconnected from Xbox Live and found themselves unable to log back in," a statement read. "This impacted LIVE users on Xbox 360 consoles, those running Zune & Games for Windows LIVE software on PCs, and Windows Phone.

"The root cause of this outage was human error. A change resulted in an interruption to normal traffic flow within our datacenters, which logged users out and prevented them from logging back in. We're sorry for this, and we’ll be updating our processes to prevent this from happening again in the future."

The outage could've been worse, since it took place during the day when most potential users would be at work or school, but it's good to know Microsoft is promising a safeguard to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Editor-In-Chief
From The Chatty
  • reply
    October 4, 2011 10:00 AM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Xbox Live outage was 'human error'.

    Microsoft has explained yesterday's brief Xbox Live outage, blaming the problem on "human error" and claiming it is updating its process to prevent it from happening again.

    • reply
      October 4, 2011 10:04 AM

      Sony, please take note. We understand that we all mess up, what we don't understand is beating around the bush about what went on. Admit the mistake, resolve the problem, and get back to gaming.

    • reply
      October 4, 2011 10:17 AM

      It sounds like it was resolved pretty quickly? Seems weird of them to feel the need to issue an apology for such small downtime, but nice none-the-less.

      • reply
        October 4, 2011 1:43 PM

        Didn't want to pull a Sony and wait 10 days before admitting there was a problem.

      • reply
        October 4, 2011 5:27 PM

        It's a paid subscription service. An apology should be expected for any downtime.

    • reply
      October 4, 2011 10:29 AM

      Where are my free games?

    • reply
      October 4, 2011 11:53 AM

      Damn those humans!

    • reply
      October 4, 2011 6:13 PM

      Steves and Servers...

      Like oil and water.

Hello, Meet Lola