Another significant milestone is coming up for the folks in Redmond. Yesterday it was the end of Windows Vista RTM Lifecycle and now tonight at midnight all of the original Xbox users will lose their access to Xbox Live.
On top of all of those gamers losing access to online services for their console anyone who plays original Xbox games on their Xbox 360 console will not be able to use Xbox Live services for those games.
You can still play your games on either console – your just left to play them on your own or with your friends in the same room.
This news actually hit the streets back on 5 February and Marc Whitten, the Xbox Live General Manager, started his announcement like this:
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.
You can read the rest of the letter here – A Letter from Marc Whitten: Discontinuation of Xbox LIVE for Original Xbox Games
