Xbox Live less stable than PS3 PSN?
By Mike Ferro
Users are reporting connection issues with their Xbox Live accounts. Apparently the accounts are being disconnected from the network. Microsoft has confirmed that there is an issue with Xbox Live at the moment. One would expect that Microsoft would have learned its lesson from last year’s spotty connection issues.
According to Major Nelson, the Xbox Operating Center have noticed that a large number of users are experiencing connection issues. We gave our Xbox 360 a whirl and noticed the disconnect issue as well. However, after waiting a few minutes and constantly retrying to connect, the account was able to establish a connection. Unfortunately, that connection did not last long and was soon disconnected.
If you recall, Microsoft was faced with a class action lawsuit last December, with the plaintiffs seeking over $5 million in damages for a breach of the Xbox Live service agreement. The Xbox Live was not so live last holiday season, but the question remains if it will be déjà vu all over again.
It is quite annoying to be disconnected while in the middle of an online match. You could say that it’s frustrating enough to throw your controller at the TV. If the problems continue to persist into the holiday, you can be rest assured that many gamers will be foaming at the mouth.
Back in May, Microsoft announced that Xbox Live reached a new milestone of 12 million Live subscribers consisting of both Gold and Silver members. Considering that the Silver members can’t actually play games online, they really don’t contribute to a great deal of stress on the network.
Also, Sony announced that the PSN reached a new milestone of about 10 million active PSN accounts back in June. So, theoretically Sony and Microsoft probably have around the same number of active online users.
It is quite unfortunate that users that have to pay for the online service on Live are experiencing connection issues while users playing on the free PSN service have had a relatively stable experience. Microsoft needs to get its act together this holiday. I don’t think users will stand for a repeat of what happened last holiday season.
Anyone up for a match of Horde mode in Gears of War 2 the day after Christmas? Lets hope that Xbox Live will be up and running then.
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Entry was posted
on Saturday, November 15th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
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Read more entries by Mike Ferro.
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November 16th, 2008
I don’t have any problems.
November 16th, 2008
that*
November 16th, 2008
PLAYSTATION®Network has always been better and more stable than any other service especially Xbox Live ripoff.
November 17th, 2008
With the huge amount of problems that have happened with the PS3 online service, I can’t believe your trying to knock the 360 when it has a issue which personally I have not experienced or know of until I read this and I have been playing all weekend. Just because PSN is unstable and free, because you can’t charge money for crap, don’t knock Microsoft because they actually compensate people for their issues something a free service won’t get you. LBP, Metal Gear and many others have had their problems so cut the crap Blorge. PSN issues are far greater then anyyhing going on on the 360.
November 17th, 2008
I don’t recall the psn service being out of commission for two weeks during the Holiday. I don’t think you could blame the psn for specific game issues. Issue that were cleared up very quickly.
November 17th, 2008
Both services run fine the majority of the time. The PSN has a bad rep, because a few bigger releases had some instability issues at launch. The problems are always fixed with in a day or so.
The difference is: When you pay all that money to be able to play your games, you expect the service to work 100% of the time. The PSN is free and works 99% of the time with out any issues. I don’t remember the network being down for an extended amount of time ever.
I finally played Left 4 Dead over the weekend. Being a survival horror fan, I was disappointed that it was exclusive to Xbox. Now that I played it I can honestly say it is a good game… but not great.
November 17th, 2008
I have only experienced online issues with hyped games at launch, and as said repeatedly above, they were all resolved withing a day or two.
As for PSN, outside of the launch day or weekend on big games, I have never experienced even a hickup. It hasn’t been down at all as far as I have noticed since I have owned my PS3s.
If I was paying for PSN I would still be happy with my experience. Poor Xbots.
November 17th, 2008
Jeez, what would the console would do if they ever had to use steam
(or direct2drive for that matter
)
You should try paying $50 for an 8gig game and downloading it at 100KB/s
November 17th, 2008
Can we be honest here? Neither service is perfect, both are very good. One is free, the other is cheap, decide for yourself which is the better value.
Pretending like something doesn’t have flaws just because you really really want it not to is kind of pathetic.
-Arvis
November 18th, 2008
I have encountered more errors on Live then on the PSN. Plus PS3’s are compatible with every router while 360 has its friendly routers and routers that have many issues connecting. And once the PSN becomes more like xbox live in terms of invites, voice chat, etc it will be more stable and better then 360 since its free.