Xbox Live for Original Xbox Shutting Down
Microsoft has announced it will “discontinue” Xbox Live for the original Xbox and its games on April 15, including Xbox Originals and Xbox games playable on Xbox 360.
Xbox Live launched in North America on November 15, 2002–the first anniversary of the Xbox’s launch–requiring a $50 ‘Xbox Live Starter Kit’ which packed a one-year subscription, a headset and demos for Whacked! and MotoGP.
“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,” said Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten. “To reach our aspiration, we need to make changes to the service that are incompatible with our original Xbox v1 games.”
Backwards-compatibility is reportedly why friend lists are limited to 100 people, while the same source says the enduring popularity of Bungie’s shooter Halo 2 was a large motivating factor behind Microsoft’s decision not to discontinue Xbox Live sooner.
“‘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,” says Whitten’s letter.
Whitten ends on a chipper note, promising “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.”