Microsoft’s Xbox Live service went down again twice in the same week. Issues first began popping up some time after 7PM ET on Friday, with Down Detector indicating sharp spikes in user-reported connection problems and Microsoft later confirming Twitter that it’s “experiencing issues” with matchmaking, Party Chat, and Looking for Groups.”
On Sunday, Xbox Live experienced a similar outage that lasted more than two hours. That was slightly more serious, with users reporting issues signing into Xbox One devices. Microsoft’s Xbox Live Status page currently says there are still issues with the social and gaming portions of the platform.
At roughly 10:45PM ET, Microsoft said it had resolved the issues around matchmaking and Party Chat, but it did not say it had fixed Looking For Groups. From the Xbox Live Chat Twitter Feed:
Our engineers have identified and fixed the issues surrounding Party Chat and matchmaking. We appreciate your reports. As always, we are here and listening.
Unfortunately for Microsoft, it was a rather inopportune time to for its multiplayer gaming service to suffer another outage. There are millions of people in the US right now practicing social distancing and being asked by local governments to stay away from public spaces now that bars, restaurants, and other core social institutions have ceased operating in response to the coronavirus crisis. That means there are quite a few people hanging out in their jammies on their couches, playing video games and staying in touch with friends online in the process, or at least in the case of Xbox users, trying to do so. But perhaps that explains the ongoing “issues.” Could it be a case of gamer overload?
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