Attention Xbox acolytes,

[shadowprophet]

During the holiday season most of us experienced Xbox live problems due to increased holiday traffic. To many this was a small issue. But to some, losing hard earned matches and rankings in leader boards due to lag was unacceptable.

MS made an announcement some weeks ago that they would be giving an xbox live arcade game to all gold and silver members as a method of amends to what microsoft called unacceptable performance.

The time has come and Microsoft has made its announcement on what XBLA game we will be getting for free.

Here is the full article followed by the update.

An Open Letter from Marc Whitten about Xbox LIVE this Holiday

Published January 3, 2008

Dear Xbox LIVE Members:

During this past holiday season you helped us break a number of Xbox LIVE records. This included our largest sign-up of new members to Xbox LIVE in our 5 year history and just yesterday you broke the record for the single biggest day of concurrent members ever on the service.

As a result of this massive increase in usage we know that some of you experienced intermittent Xbox LIVE issues over the holiday break. While the service was not completely offline at any given time, we are disappointed in our performance. I would like to take this moment to thank each and every one of you for your patience and understanding as our team has worked around the clock to return the service to a stable state.

At the same time we would like to offer a token of our appreciation to all of you in celebration of record success for the service. And as a thank you for your loyalty during this holiday period, we will be offering all of our Xbox LIVE members around the world access to a full Xbox LIVE Arcade game that will be available to download free of charge. In the coming weeks we will be sharing the specific details of this offer with you.

Thank you again for helping make Xbox LIVE everything that it is today!

Sincerely,

Marc Whitten
General Manager, Xbox LIVE
Gamertag: Notwen



Updated January 18, 2008

We’re pleased to announce that from 2:00 a.m. PST Wednesday, January 23, 2008 through 11:59 p.m. PST, Sunday, January 27, 2008 you can download the full version of the recent Xbox LIVE Arcade game, Undertow free of charge.



undertow.. I've never played it, I know nothing about it. But free cant be a bad deal or can it?.

What are your opinions guys?
Is undertow worth the nearly full month of lag problems a lot of us experienced?

Lets hear it.

Here is your chance to defend microsoft. Or let them have a swift kick "go department" Undertow. Does it make up for all the problems ?

[DPyro]

Most users yada yada...must have something to do with this (http://www.boingboing.net/2006/08/10/if-your-xbox-is-defe.html)

[shadowprophet]

Pay no to the sniper behind the curtain folks,

He is the very model of the modern major ps3 fanboy :p

[DPyro]

It's a lesser known fact that if your 360 breaks, you'll have to access your marketplace games in a round about way. This in a sense, has increased the amount of xbox live accounts and might possibly have helped cause xbox live to have problems.

Of course, Shadowpro doesn't believe his 360 would ever break down so he just ignores facts :p

[shadowprophet]

My 360 is immortal like me, It will never break down :cool:

[DarthPaul]

The game they're offering is Undertow and it will be available next week to download for free.

[VampDude]

My 360 isn't online! :(

[Shadowblind]

Undertow is a great game for the free XBL game. If I had to choose, it would easily be Undertow.

I freaking love how MS has humility when it comes to their job. :) they admit it, they know it was stupid, and they fixed it. Plus = Free XBLA game; and I haven't even SEEN any of these problems :D

And since these new refurbished 'boxes I don't think I've heard of a 360 breaking down yet. Plus, 3 year warranty guarantees no charge!

[DPyro]

It's very easy to find complaints about Microsoft. They seem to make it easy for people.

[Shadowblind]

It's very easy to find complaints about Microsoft. They seem to make it easy for people.

Its also very easy to find complaints about DCEmu. But like DCEmu, the good far outweighs the bad.

[pibs]

MS live was unbearable in the first days of january for me. It would take forever to load up the Marketplace blade and the Games blade because it was trying soo hard to connect to the live service.

They should of made it a game of our choice by offering a redeeming coupon :) instead of this Undertow game ive never heard of.

[shadowprophet]

meaningless post. Brought about by snipers mischiviousness. *nods

[DPyro]

LoL :D

[Napalm-Death]

I should get a free download of some sort from MS as well. My PC fits the specs yet I can't freakin' play Portal properly thanks to Vista and its shitty DX10.

[shadowprophet]

By the time anyone reads this post undertow will be free :cool:

on the finishing of this very hour in fact
Make sure to pick it up guys :cool:

[Dr._Zoidberg]

Cool, that game looks good.

I'll grab it later & then tomorrow or Friday I'll send my 360 off to MS so they can fix the thing. :(

[shadowprophet]

Cool, that game looks good.

I'll grab it later & then tomorrow or Friday I'll send my 360 off to MS so they can fix the thing. :(
Did your box red ring ?

Was it one of the falcon units?

[Dr._Zoidberg]

Yep, RROD. It wasn't a falcon.