Microsoft’s Xbox Live service is down again for the second time this week. Issues first began popping up some time after 7PM ET on Friday, with Down Detector indicating sharp spikes in user-reported connection problems and Microsoft later confirming Twitter that it’s “experiencing issues” with matchmaking, Party Chat, and Looking for Groups.”

On Sunday, Xbox Live experienced a similar outage that lasted more than two hours. That was slightly more serious, with users reporting issues signing into Xbox One devices. This time around, Microsoft’s Xbox Live Status page doesn’t seem to be indicating any problems yet, although the company is acknowledging that it’s working on a fix.

We are aware that users are experiencing issues with matchmaking, Party Chat, and Looking For Groups. Our engineers are working on fixing this now. We will keep you posted here when we have updates!

— Xbox Support (@XboxSupport) March 20, 2020

Unfortunately for Microsoft, this is a rather inopportune time to for its multiplayer gaming service to suffer another outage. There are millions of people in the US right now practicing social distancing and being asked by local governments to stay away from public spaces now that bars, restaurants, and other core social institutions have ceased operating in response to the coronavirus crisis. That means there are quite a few people playing video games and staying in touch with friends online in the process, or at least in the case of Xbox users, trying to do so.



Posted: Mar 20, 2020 9:35 pm
Last Updated: Mar 20, 2020 9:37 pm
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/20/21188972/microsoft-xbox-live-outage-down-second-time-multiplayer-service-disruption