This is sure to upset quite a few people's apple carts but it really might be for the best as it will presumably remove many of the restrictions that exist for gaming over LIVE that are holdovers from a time when the online gaming medium wasn't quite as advanced as it is now.
And now Deep Thoughts... with Mark Whitten...
Dear Xbox LIVE Members,
On
April 15 we will discontinue the Xbox LIVE service for original Xbox
consoles and games, including Xbox v1 games playable on Xbox 360 and
Xbox Originals. I want to start by saying this isn’t a decision we made
lightly, but after careful consideration, it is clear this will provide
the greatest benefit to the Xbox LIVE community.
Seven
years ago we laid out our vision for the connected console when we
launched Xbox LIVE. We believed then that the power of the Internet to
connect people would revolutionize living room entertainment. It
started with amazing multiplayer games, and we’ve since seen that bet
pay off again and again with the launches of Xbox 360, Marketplace,
Netflix and powerful social features like Facebook, Twitter and
Last.fm. None of this would have been possible without the success of
LIVE as a multiplayer gaming network.
There’s
no greater example of the power of the Xbox LIVE community than the
“Halo” franchise. “Halo 2” has had an amazing run on LIVE, with a
dedicated community more than five years after launch and well into the
next generation of consoles. It has fundamentally changed the way we
play video games. And while it’s difficult to see that run come to an
end, the “Halo” franchise continues to act as the benchmark for
multiplayer gaming in this generation, with “Halo 3,” “Halo 3: ODST”
and soon “Halo: Reach” on Xbox 360.
Your
Xbox LIVE community has grown to 23 million strong. And as we look down
the road, we’ll continue to evolve the service with features and
experiences that harness the full power of Xbox 360. To reach our
aspiration, we need to make changes to the service that are
incompatible with our original Xbox v1 games. We will contact the Xbox
LIVE members directly impacted by this change and if this includes you,
I encourage you to check your LIVE messages and associated e-mail
account over the coming weeks for more details and opportunities. We
view you as a partner in this process.
We’ll
share more details soon, but in the meantime I want to assure you that
the best is yet to come for Xbox LIVE. I believe we’ll look back on
2010 as a landmark year in gaming and home entertainment, and I
couldn’t be more excited about what we have in store with “Project
Natal” and LIVE. The LIVE community is the driving force behind
everything we do, and it’s because of the community that
ground-breaking experiences on Xbox continue to be possible.
See you on LIVE,
Marc Whitten
Gamertag - Notwen
