Xbox Live down intermittently — here we go again

While Xbox Live was up and running for many people today, the service is once again collapsing under crushing demand.

Many people are complaining that they can’t access games like Destiny or other online games on Xbox One and Xbox 360. Microsoft has updated its service site to acknowledge that problems. In addition to people having troubles accessing games, many people are finding it difficult to play multiplayer matches in games that use matchmaking to hook you up with other people. Xbox Live went down on the morning of Dec. 25, and the cyberattacker group Lizard Squad took responsibility for it. But the band of Internet vandals explained earlier today that it stopped its barrage because of a donation of lifetime memberships to the file-transfer site Mega courtesy of that place’s boss, Kim Dotcom.

“Are you having trouble launching certain titles,” reads Microsoft’s status page. “Our engineers are already working to find a solution. In the meantime, we appreciate your patience, and we invite you to check back in a half hour for an update on our progress.”

In addition to the aforementioned issues, people are reporting troubles downloading certain applications like Netflix and Hulu. Other people are running into difficulties buying downloadable items for games.

Microsoft has acknowledged all of these problems, and it says it is still trying to fix them.

While you might think that Lizard Squad has gone back on its promise to not attack Xbox and PlayStation, the group swears that the ongoing problems (PlayStation Network is still down as well) are either no longer due to its assault or just the aftershock.

Mega is the followup to Kim Dotcom’s previous site, Megaupload, which is under investigation by the U.S. for facilitating Web piracy.

We’ve asked Microsoft for a comment, and we’ll update this post with any new information. At this point, the most likely reason for the issues is that demand on the Xbox Live network is extraordinarily high.

Everyone just got new hardware or new games. Many people have the time off, and others have family over and want to play games with one another. Even more are hopping on Xbox Live to use Netflix or Amazon Instant Video to watch TV or movies.

All of those people slamming the network at once is potentially enough to cause troubles for Xbox Live.

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