XBOX LIVE DOWN FOR MAINTENANCE THIS MORNING

Just a quick note here – according to Xbox Live Director of Programming Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb, Xbox Live (and Xbox.com) will be down for maintenance in the early hours of this morning (11/13) and should be back online some time after 5:00am EST.

"On Tuesday November 13th from 0000-0200 PT our engineering team will be performing server maintenance. 

Specifically, Xbox.com maintenance will begin at 0000 while the Xbox LIVE service maintenance will begin at 0100.

That means you can stay on LIVE until approximately 0100.

Click this link to find out what time the maintenance will begin in your time zone

Both Xbox.com and Xbox LIVE will be available again at 0200.

This is for maintenance only, there will be no new features that will appear on Xbox.com, your dashboard or Xbox Live when we return to service. It’s not time for the dashboard update…yet." – Major Nelson

I'll keep my fingers crossed that everything goes as planned for those of you who happen to have the day off and were hoping to get some online gaming in today.

• Xbox Live Maintenance (11/13) – Major Nelson 

SNK TO END SUPPORT FOR NEO GEO CONSOLES

I remember the first time I saw a Neo Geo AES at retail. It was back in 1992 or 1993 – I was in my local Software Etc looking for some new games to purchase and I noticed that large black Neo Geo box on the wall. Now, I had heard about SNK’s system, but until that day I had never actually seen one out in the wild. I recall looking over the packaging and being really impressed by the quality of the arcade style controllers as well as being intrigued by the idea of a console that could provide the exact same experience one would get in the arcade.

Ultimately, two things stopped me from buying the AES that day… the fact that SNK didn’t exactly have the deepest catalog of games and more importantly, the fact that each game for the system cost $199.99 apiece. Needless to say, I never purchased an AES, though I search Ebay listings for a deal on them from time to time.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about the AES is just how long SNK has continued to support the console. Call it loyalty, or maybe the fact that the cartridges were pretty much the same as the ones they used in the arcade, virtually eliminating conversion costs, but since the AES’ inception, most of SNK”s arcade releases though 2004 were brought over to the console – including ones sold directly by SNK following the console’s discontinuation in 1997. In addition, the company still offers repair and maintenance services on the console as well as all the other systems and accessories in the Neo Geo line (such as the Neo Geo CD, Neo Geo Pocket, etc.) – or at least they will until the end of August.

According to Insert Credit, a notice on SNK Playmore’s Japanese website has announced that effective August 31st, 2007 they will cease all support for the Neo Geo line of consoles, handhelds and accessories. Apparently it’s becoming harder and harder for the company to obtain replacement parts for the consoles and as such, they’ve decided to finally end all support for the consoles.

• SNK Playmore – Official U.S. website
• Neo Geo (Console) – Wikipedia entry
• SNK Playmore to stop maintenance support for Neo Geo – Insert Credit

XBOX LIVE SCHEDULED DOWNTIME – 3/27/07

I apologize for the lateness (and lack of) today’s updates, however it would appear that one of the hard drives on my PC has finally kicked the bucket, and I’ve been dealing with that situation for most of the day. Hopefully things will be a bit more normal by tomorrow and we’ll be back with out regularly scheduled updates.

Problems aside, Microsoft has announced that the Xbox Live service, Xbox.com and the Xbox.com forums will be taken down for maintenance on Tuesday, March 27th 2007. The maintenance period is scheduled to being at 3am EST and run through 5pm EST, though given the nature of server maintenance, don’t be surprised if it runs longer than that. Microsoft is also wants to state that this is not a dashboard update, so don’t expect to see anything new when the service comes back online.

• Xbox Live Server Maintenance – Major Nelson

XBOX LIVE DOWNTIME ANNOUNCED – 6/27/06

Major Nelson is reporting that Xbox Live will be down today for routine maintenance starting at approximately 5am EST and running through 9am EST. The Major stresses that the downtime is only for routine maintenance and no new features will be debuting. The full text of the Major’s message is as follows;

“On Tuesday June 27th from 0200-0600 PT Xbox Live will be offline for maintenance. As a result, the ‘My Xbox’ section of Xbox.com will be unavailable, and the Xbox forums will be in read only mode (you won’t be able to post.) The remainder of Xbox.com will be available.

Click this link to find out what time the maintenance will begin in your time zone

This is for maintenance, there are no new features that will appear when the service comes back online. This is all for server maintenance…nothing more, nothing less. “ -Major Nelson

Don’t believe me? Fine, check out the posting at Major Nelson’s blog here. Harumph.