Xbox is down: suffers major outage, preventing sign-in and game launches
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| Credit: Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images |
Updated at 3:06 p.m. CT: Shortly after the publication of this article, Xbox Support posted an update on X, apologizing to users for the long wait for a fix. "Things are slowly improving, though players worldwide may still experience failures launching games, along with potential sign-in and purchase issues," the post reads.
Microsoft's Xbox is currently experiencing widespread service disruption. The tech giant's games division has confirmed outages affecting multiple parts of its online ecosystem, according to VGC.
As of this writing, Xbox's own status page lists "major outage" conditions across four services: Account & Profile, Games & Gaming, Store & Subscriptions, and Apps & Mobile.
The Account & Profile status warns that users may be unable to sign in, may get disconnected mid-session, or may lose access to features that require sign-in, including most games, apps, and social features. The Store & Subscriptions page notes that some games may not appear in the Store, while the Apps & Mobile status flags problems launching apps.
All four services list the issue as identified, with a fix still pending.
SEE ALSO:Microsoft cuts 3,200 Xbox jobs, spins off four studios in major layoffs
Data from outage-tracking site Downdetector shows the bulk of user complaints center on launching games, which accounts for 65 percent of reported problems, followed by gameplay issues at 13 percent and server connection problems at 12 percent.
The official Xbox Support account acknowledged the issue on Sunday morning, stating that engineers were "actively working to mitigate" errors affecting sign-in, game libraries, and game launches, and pointed users to its status page for updates.
Team Xbox then posted a follow-up update at 2:03 PM EST, stating "our teams are focused on multiple investigation angles and remain hard at work. Thanks for your patience while teams keep working — we'll share more details as they become available."
The outage comes just a week after PlayStation Network suffered its own multi-hour outage, which VGC reported began shortly after the open beta launch for Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, leaving PS5 owners locked out of PSN and any games requiring a sign-in.
Topics Xbox Video Games
Just wanna say that they officially recognized the problem at 5:30am this morning but the problem actually started last night for me personally at 11:00pm pst.
ReplyDeleteSame here
DeleteI work from home and play while I work. I get addicted to games and very upset I can't even play a disk game I own because there's single multi-player on it.(red dead redemption zombie). Please figure this out asap. Gaming is my thing. Gonna have to play my Nintendo switch but really need my Xbox going. My husband has been bored with my battlefield sense last night.
ReplyDeleteI still can’t log in to any digital game. Stuck watching prime. Boring
ReplyDeleteWelp I guess you should have PROPERLY set up your console instead of account sharing.
DeleteIm so tired of people on both XBL and PSN who either account share or just didnt care not setting up their console properly.
BOTH literally during setup have "setup as home console" and BOTH tell you it effects playing offline. Both work perfectly fine when either the network goes down or if my internet goes down offline because I setup my stuff correctly
Uninstalled the game I wanted to play today and then played it on the cloud service just fine. Might be limited to certain subscriptions but it's a functional workaround.
ReplyDeleteNo game with multi-player on it will work. Only legit single player game will work
ReplyDeleteThere has been ongoing issues with parties for over a month that they dont communicate. Xbox are rubbish for informing you when things happen. How about compensation we pay enough for the gamepass
ReplyDeleteIm playing digital and physical on different xbox consoles. This guy is lying about a few things
ReplyDeleteBecause people love to leave out that they account share. Both consoles in setup have set as home console to allow offline play
DeleteI can’t play any, I’ve tried NBA2k26 and Forza horizon 6. And obv Fortnite
DeleteAnything that has multi-player won't work. I can play tomb Raider but that's it so far
DeleteThis makes sense I can play Skyrim so I get it
DeleteFor part of that window, Microsoft's status page warned that players might have trouble launching disc-based games, leaving a physical copy sitting in the tray no more useful than a digital one. Discs on Xbox One and Series consoles carry encrypted XVC packages with attached licenses, rather than acting as bootable media, per Microsoft's documentation.
ReplyDeletePirates (fully digital!) unaffected.
The gaming and media industries need some serious reforms. We need to move away from the concept of licenses that require remote checks and in which can be invalidated on the whims of the issuer.
ReplyDeleteThe gaming and media industries need some serious reforms. We need to move away from the concept of licenses that require remote checks and in which can be invalidated on the whims of the issuer.
ReplyDeleteEspecially for anyone that has a physical disc that's DRM-protected. If these checks are going to exist, they should be only to specifically disallow invalidated physical and digital instances, not as a walled garden who's gate is closed and gatekeeper away while its network is down.
Worst-case, fail-open; this isn't something that should fail-close.
Punishing legit buyers is going to bring some real backlash before long, and it should.
Punishing legit buyers is going to bring some real backlash before long, and it should.
ReplyDeletePeople are saying that ever since TV stations put their logos on the screen to prevent people from making flawless copies...waaaay back in the 1980's
"before long" is taking its sweet time.
It is interesting to read that physical games went offline as well. Seems like those who are adamant about keeping physical media (as opposed to digital) won't be better off.
ReplyDeleteWhat @DS426 mentioned was spot on though. Like - any failure of that verification service should be on Microsoft, not on the owner.
I wonder if part of that though is MS worried about people blocking access to the verification servers through their router, and then never getting verified. Perhaps that's why it's set up the way it is. Maybe the bigger problem is the fact there are these checks to begin with.
Reply
People are saying that ever since TV stations put their logos on the screen to prevent people from making flawless copies...waaaay back in the 1980's
ReplyDelete"before long" is taking its sweet time.
Oh I know, unfortunately you're completely right. What's worse is that the current vector has all this heading in the wrong direction, so "before long" is really just fantasy-land speak.
I don't really have an issue with Digital Games but I sure do hate how expensive SSD's are especially for installing my entire library onto. Instead there is a lot of installing and deleting and sometimes a game not showing up in the library.
ReplyDeleteAnd it’s only getting worse… Xbox even canceled the 2TB Galaxy Special Edition because it became too expensive to produce after the AI boom drove memory prices through the roof!!!
DeleteI have a lot of Xbox play anywhere games that don't show up on pc and thats why I stopped using Xbox Launcher and buying Xbox games. I hope they fix it.
ReplyDeleteThat’s so fucked up, hope they fixed for you!
DeleteYou "own" digital game if you buy it on GOG. Xbox outage shows you don't even own games you buy on disc if they require connection to internet services.
ReplyDeleteExactly… we’re cooked!
DeleteApparently some people couldn’t even launch their physical games. Was there any true reports of this? If so, this is really really bad.
ReplyDeleteThe comments suggest some people don’t even realize how bad it is… It was even mentioned by the Chief Technology Officer, Scott Van Vliet.
Deletewild thing is my xbox said everything was down but everything worked fine at the same time
ReplyDeleteThe only one working on mine was COD, all the single player ones were down, lol, weird af
Delete100%......they literally can turn it off at will.
ReplyDeleteTotally, we’re cooked!
DeleteToday the devs and owners of xbox are upset of this outage, 5 years from now they might decide "you know what, why not revoke licenses every 5 years and make players repay for stuff full price? we make more this way" Why? Well nobody can stop them, if the precedent keeps getting pushed they can just normalize whatever the hell they want.
ReplyDeleteUnless players start to opt out its only getting to get worse and worse and worse to the point physical systems won't be a thing and the only AAA games developed are on cloud services you have to pay a daily subscription for and if you want better speed almost like a theme park fast lane pass that costs even more.
The madness will continue until the greater masses start to push back.
True!
DeleteOutage shows why people still 🏴☠️ games
ReplyDelete“If buying isn’t owning, pirating isn’t stealing” - not my words, lol
DeleteIf you buy them from GoG.com, you do in fact own them. You can burn them to disc, and give them to your friends!
ReplyDeleteNice, never heard of it… gonna check it out. Tks!
DeleteSame parent company as CDProjektRed, the devs behind Cyberpunk 2077!
DeleteAwesome!
DeleteIt’s so annoying when it’s my only day off and I just wanted to do nothing but relax and play some games today. Seems like every time this has happened it’s been on my day off.
ReplyDeleteI have a full time job plus my own side business so I rarely get a full day to do what I want.
Same here, it’s my day off I just want to play my paid games Already fucking Bullshit
DeleteFrrr, i just purchased xbox ultimate and chill all day playing Flight simulador:/
Deleteprobably happens more often than you think, you just don't notice because you don't have the day off
DeleteThis is one of the longer outages I’ve seen
ReplyDeleteI currently have an outage on
ReplyDelete• Account and profile
• Store and subscriptions
• Games amd gaming
• Apps and mobile
Ive never had these issues before in my years and years of gaming. I was surprised to see the unusual error icon on the upper right corner of my home screen.
Same. The icon is new to me too.
DeleteIt's almost a bit like they're normalizing it with that icon. But maybe this outage is just much more severe than any I've experienced, and that's why the icon is there.
The icon was added with one of the recent feature updates, it wasn't there before.
DeleteWhich is fantastic, since it means I won't have to Google the issue when it happens. But it seems like it only updates when Microsoft decides to acknowledge the issue? I don't recall it being there when I couldn't originally open a game.
DeleteYeah, it is just basically a mirror of the online status page (https://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-live-status) and that often seems to be... conservative about reporting outages.
DeleteAnd when I start my cloud gaming, the buttons won't work and/or game sounds disappear. But this has been an ongoing problem for a little while now.
DeleteAlso other problems that I don't just understand.
Reach out to your elected representatives and tell them to write laws to protect you from this shit. There’s no reason they can’t design systems to deal with this issue, they just don’t because no one is requiring it. Tell your congressmen and senators that you want digital rights laws enacted to protect us from specifically this bullshit.
ReplyDeleteSooooooo YOUR shit isn't working, Microsoft, and as a result I can't play a game I bought a year ago?
ReplyDeleteCool, I’ll make sure to check the internet for further info about when I’ll be able to see and play my locally installed games on my pc. Thanks Microsoft you’re the best!
ReplyDeleteCrazy.
DeleteI am trying to play Oblivion Remastered. 100% offline singleplayer game. And it will not work without internet and this server outage is stopping that from working. What a joke
ReplyDeleteIs it your home xbox?
DeleteYes
DeleteAnd which one of your friends is set to to home Xbox instead of you???
DeleteIt is my home and only xbox and I am the only one with access to it. It says it is because it is a digital copy and not a physical disk
DeleteApparently you need to have set your xbox as ‘primary’. I have had xbox since launch. Never once was this asked and I had no idea that was something I needed to do.
DeleteThat makes sense. Glad we are all slowly figuring this out lmao.
DeleteCrazy idea, how about we can play the games we bought without an Internet connection so when this shit happens, we can still play our games?
ReplyDeleteI got up at 4 this morning and I was allowed to get on my account and watch YouTube while getting ready
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't until I was trying to launch a game did I see there's been an outage for over 8 hours by that time, I hadn't even tried to play yesterday so I had no idea.
Hopefully they get it fixed before I get home.
Otherwise I guess I can watch movies or play my SNES
Roleplay like you're living in the sweet era before everything digital became horse shit.
DeleteExactly why I still own all my stuff lol
DeleteThat SNES and most of the game I have had since 93/94~
When the digital world collapses and the internet ceases to exist you're gonna be the Immortan Joe of physical games 🤣
DeleteAnalog media is making a comeback
Never left for me lol
DeleteFunnily enough I was playing planet crafter up until 8pm newfoundland time last night and it was working fine
Deletea quick read of the EULA shows that you don’t really own ANY games
ReplyDeleteI’m furious. I have limited time to play. An outage at Xbox shouldn’t block me from playing games I paid for to own and have installed on my physical Xbox I also paid for. Microsoft and Xbox are thieves. If purchase is not ownership, then piracy isn’t theft.
ReplyDeleteKind of seems weird to me. Playstion just had this problem and xbox came following from behind soon after
ReplyDeleteSounds like a perfect time for a class action lawsuit
ReplyDeleteABSURD! Did you even think about how far up your ass you can squeeze Microsoft's boot first? It's like you aren't even worried about licking it greedily and apologizing to them for many people being rightfully upset about their endless stream of anti-consumer-purely-for-corporate-greed monopolistic tactics that no government on Earth is doing anything noteworthy about beyond helping them shove the boot further up your ass. Better to call all people with basic critical thinking skills a regarded sheep and say they're wrong for noticing being treated like dog shit year after year after year while a bunch of children born 10 years ago show they have no understanding of why Capitalism is a full blown problem now.
DeleteWhat's confusing me is my Xbox is unable to play anything, even offline, but my husband's Xbox logged in and booted up Space Marine 2 just fine
ReplyDeleteMy nephew can log on currently and play all his games ( we don’t game share). But my entire system is still down and I can’t load anything.
DeleteMy husband and I each have an Xbox, his was fine mine was not. It's so weird.
DeleteSame
DeleteThanks for the idea to try that. My serie X ain’t working but my son’s serie S is. What’s even crazier : I can play my games with my profile on his console. I’m officially so confused
DeleteCant even play my disc version of Fallout 4. It wants to reinstall.
ReplyDeleteThe funniest part of it is that it''s likely due to a hacking assault of their gaming servers. With all the people that has been layed off in the industry, no wonder if servers are victim of hackers, Microsoft especially deserved this.
ReplyDeleteComment has been removed
DeleteIt doesnt seem you own the physical games either. There are reports of people unable to play their physical disk copies during this same outage.
ReplyDeleteIf purchasing isn't ownership, then piracy isn't theft.
ReplyDeleteAwesome argument. Be sure to tell the judge that.
DeleteAll these people freaking out about physical media dying. It's not dying. It's dead. This battle ended a very long time ago.
ReplyDeleteYou know that saying about keeping silent, goes something like "they came for this group and I said nothing, they came from my neighbor and I said nothing, so when they finally came for me there was no way left to speak up for me?" Now this saying is about much more serious stuff, but the basic concept still applies here, music went all digital and we said nothing, PC gaming went all digital and we said nothing, the movie ancillary market went all digital and we said nothing, and now that the my niche console market is going all digital there is no one left to speak up for us. It's over and has been for a decade or more.
Needing to have a online connection now all digitalised "owned" games. Shit just keeps getting worse and worse
ReplyDeleteits physicals as well
DeletePeople can’t even play their physical games with the outage, people are reporting.
ReplyDeleteSo we don’t own our physical games either lol
I hope everyone with a game pass subscription gets some kind of compensation for the game time lost, paid for in advance, due to this outage. I know that's laughable, but it should have reimbursement of some kind. This is some bs 💩💩💩
ReplyDeleteYup we pay for 30days but the whole day today it hasn’t worked. I need atleast $2-3 back and everyday I can’t play it needs to refund me $2-3 a day
DeleteThat would be cool if we did but in the recent past, I don’t remember them ever compensating us for an outage sadly.
DeleteThe don't, but they should. Even if it was store or rewards credit, it would be something demonstrating good faith that subscribers get what they pay for.
DeleteI agree. It doesn’t even have to be super huge but something maybe like $5-$10 credit and I’d be more understanding. This outage was much longer than the others for sure and just proved like so many have said that we don’t truly own the games fully.
DeleteStill down at 11:00 EST. But trust us bro. Digital only games is the way to go.
ReplyDeletephysical discs ain’t working either
DeleteBecause it's just a piece of shiny plastic with a graphic printed on it.
DeleteWith the way these consoles are set up, none of it is yours. Not even the xbox, that can be a brickbox if they decide to stop support.
You’ll own nothing and be happy.
ReplyDeleteMy N64 would never. For real tho my one day off I just wanted to rot and play games 😭
ReplyDeleteI can play fortnite but not Division 2
ReplyDeleteI think that's because Fortnite is free to play. I don't know how this affects STW
DeleteEdit: forgot STW is now free
It might technically count as a dlc though I have no clue
DeleteI think it's an optional download on PC
It’s not letting me play Fortnite.
DeleteI it a outage on the network just updated say online play working just the store dlc content and all still down and you know who to blame damn bitches aka PC players and damn hacking they shouldn't have been apart of the merge.
ReplyDeleteI paid 20 dollars extra to play campaign evolved early, today is my day off also.
ReplyDeleteMy severs have been down sins 04:10. It’s now 17:27 and they are still down.
ReplyDeleteEngineers are currently working since the 27th of July at 4:10am this morning and it still isn't fixed! I hope to christ Miceosoft refund everyone that is affected since we can't play any downloaded gamepass games that we are all still paying for and subscribing too with our gamepass ultimate or premium subscriptions 🤬
ReplyDeleteImagine trying to play a offline game made in 2003 but cant because theres been a 14 hour outage and the game company responsible has layed off everyone that knew how to fix it.
ReplyDeleteI can't even play disc games. The incompetence is astounding
ReplyDeleteIs anyone else having issues downloading games? Nothing I “install” is being sent to my queue
ReplyDeleteIt’s down you can’t install anything rn
Delete