Xbox Live, Game Pass cloud gaming access back after being down for hours
Game on! After hours of going gameless, Xbox Live players are finally able to play again Thursday night, though after bedtime for some East Coast players.
Microsoft's online gaming service, which lets players engage in multiplayer games and access cloud-based games, was down for more than four hours Thursday afternoon.
In addition to the more than 100 million monthly users who subscribe to Xbox Live for multiplayer gaming, 18 million pay for Xbox Game Pass and must connect to Xbox Live for access to that cloud gaming service.
"Users should once again be able to sign-in, complete purchases and join chat sessions," read the update from Xbox Support on Twitter at 9:29 p.m. ET. "Thank you for your patience and as always, we're listening."
Users should once again be able to sign-in, complete purchases and join chat sessions. Thank you for your patience and as always, we're listening. https://t.co/d8rSxOsgNk
— Xbox Support (@XboxSupport) February 26, 2021
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The Xbox Live Status web page said the outage began at 3:15 p.m. ET. At 5:39 p.m. ET, it noted that "We're close to resolving the issue" for multiplayer gaming and cloud gaming.
We are aware that users may not be able to sign-in to Xbox Live at this time. Our teams are currently investigating to fix this issue. We will update here and on https://t.co/PzAdjUFMJj when we have more information to share!
— Xbox Support (@XboxSupport) February 25, 2021
Still, it wasn't a timely outage for some Xbox players. "Finally sit down to game and Xbox Live is down!" wrote one Twitter user.
Finally sit down to game and Xbox Live is down! pic.twitter.com/RVNHC7GA4a
— NBA 2K21 MyTeam News (@NBA2KNewsTeam) February 25, 2021
Another used a video clip from "Forest Gump" of the main character running to show how players feel when they cannot connect online.
Running to twitter to see if everybody else’s xbox live is down pic.twitter.com/Gxw1pTSaZw
— Oliverb888452 (@oliverb888452) February 25, 2021
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Xbox Live is back. Microsoft video game network online again Thursday