Microsoft Resolves Mysterious Xbox Live Issue, Keeps Culprit a Secret

Summertime is a perfect opportunity for school age kids to take their backsides outside and enjoy the sun, running through the neighborhood to do all the they things they can't when stuck in a classroom. But who are we kidding -- today's generation prefers to lock themselves inside and play marathon game sessions, and we can hardly fault them with a heatwave rolling through several parts of the country.

Unfortunately for scores of Xbox Live gamers, Microsoft's online gaming service was out of commission for several hours on Friday. Microsoft issued a tweet yesterday afternoon saying it was "aware of the issues some users are having" and that it was investigating the matter. Five hours later, Microsoft had fixed the problem.


"Xbox Live should be back up and running. Thank you for your patience. Game on!," Microsoft stated in a Twitter post yesterday evening.

So, what caused the downtime? Had a band of hackers infiltrated the Xbox Live servers and dropped a bunch of dirty code? Was there a component failure? Did someone trip over the power cord? We can only guess.

"We don't have any info to share on the cause," Microsoft said in a short statement.

Gee, thanks for the 411. According to Microsoft's Service Status page, all facets of Xbox Live are now firing on all cylinders.