" And nothing of value was lost.  Aside from a select few games, most servers are empty.  And if these empty servers are holding back stuff for new games get rid of them. Halo 2/Splinter Cell/Starwars BF are small prices to pay for new stuff. Out with the old in with the new. "

i think its stupid why dont we email or call microsoft so we can keep the internet the xbox is no good without the internet i guess im going to have to sell it if we dont get microsoft to not do it

" You know what this means? No Halo 2, meaning friends lists limit will go up.  *Edit*  Might help if I read the article all the way before I post. Sorry, cool though  *Edit 2* Could you guys at Giantbomb do a server shutdown party like you did for the matrix and other MMOs? Everyone bust out your Xbox! "

Well, there goes my idea on buying an Xbox. -__-

It's funny how these original xbox games had a longer run than some current gen games. It's also weird to consider that in 10 years, it'll still be easier to find old genesis and NES games than it would be to buy and play some XBLA games and DLC. Many games now won't even run right without patches, which could be impossible to get if MS or Sony decides to cut off support on future consoles. 

 As for Halo 2, maybe MS can even port over Halo 1 and 2 as XBLA titles with modern Live support and achievements. People would buy those..I would.

WTF ORIGINAL XBOX STILL WORKS?

And nothing of value was lost.
 
Aside from a select few games, most servers are empty.
 
And if these empty servers are holding back stuff for new games get rid of them. Halo 2/Splinter Cell/Starwars BF are small prices to pay for new stuff. Out with the old in with the new.

Them dropping service for a service I've paid for since that service launched = no $50/year for them.
 
The fact that I can't play Phantom Dust online with friends come April is enough for me to not support their services. 
 
At least if Steam/PSN/Wii shut-down servers, I didn't pay a dime for them. It's a fact of life, sun-rise/sun-set. But on XBL, I expect my $50/year to go to maintaining previous generations services. Too bad to find out that's wrong and I've given them $300 for nothing.

Now they just need to add support for the Timesplitters games so I can actually care when they remove online support for them in April.

After getting my 360 in 9/08, I tested the backwards compatibility by popping in Burnout 3.  After playing around and going, "Yup, that's Burnout 3 alright," I put it back and never touched it again.  Gave my console and old games to a friend in exchange for my current gaming PC.

I haven't played an XBOX game in a long time. One of the reasons was the lack of support from Microsoft. I bought a few of those games and would of bought more had they come out with more titles.

I hate how they are s*** canning backwards compatibility support these days. There were a lot of great and unique games on the original system (besides Halo 2). Bad move imo.

I always meant to fire up Star Wars Battlefront 2. I even bought the DLC for it. Oh well. I had a quick feeling of outrage at this announcement, but it subsided faster than I thought. XBox 1 has to be, at least for me and my friends, the most quickly abandoned console of our lives. We still play PS2, PS1, Gamecube, Dreamcast, and even SNES and NES titles on occasion, but I really can't remember the last XBOX 1 game I had a passing interest in, other than the one I previously mentioned, and that one more because of love of Star Wars than Xbox.

Good riddance. The two people who were playing Halo 2 will be upset, but if it means that the service will improve, then I am all for it.
 
Oh, and it doesn't take long to get 100 friends. You would be surprised how many co-workers, friends, and family have an Xbox 360 and XBL. Maybe it is because of where I live, but it isn't difficult to get 100 friends if you are social. Plus it is made up of a lot of my old "gaming" friends back when I played WOW, and competitive Counter-Strike.

" brb oh no! no xbox live? how will i meet 13 year old racists who insult my mother? "

Thank you jeff for reassuring me about hearing that Halo 2 online support was the only reason that the XBL friends list stays at 100...I thought i may have gone crazy.... 
 
I hope this is the case and the friends list will be increased

Considering they are dropping online features for the original, could they also be removing all online connectivity to Xbox 1? 
 
I ask as that could mean when you put an Xbox 1 game into a 360, it will not retreive online infomation to download the relevant emulator.  If so, that will end all backwards compatability for new 360's.

Let's hope Microsoft continue to offer the option to download the emulator when you put in an Xbox 1 disc...

So I guess I'll never get around to the Ninja Gaiden Hurricane packs after all. I always wanted to exploit my way through such a hard game with the counter they decided unbalanced it. Farewell sweet Prince.

While i don't like the fact they are shutting down service (mainly because of steel battalion) it's understandable if the number  of current users playing are that low. I just figured since it is all the same service that even with the low numbers that since they are still maintaining for the 18 million people (or however many people it is) on  the 360 that it was just something that wasn't going to go away.   

   What i'm worried about is the future in  like 5-10 years with the xbox 360. I'm assuming that this might make any orginal xbox live arcade games unplayable.

 
I'd really like to have more details as to why they are doing this.

" Kinda sucks, because I planned on getting Morrowind sometime in the future. "

For some reason I decided to play some Forza 1 a few months back on my original Xbox. And I think the last Xbox game I played on my 360 was JSRF... lol.

As a huge Halo fan I'll be unhappy to know that the Halo 2 online multiplayer will be gone forever. I much prefer the Halo 3 multiplayer but Halo 2 still offers different maps and custom matches and overall brings back different memories for me.

Good, who wants tobe trapped in the past.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein...that game pretty much convinced me that I need to shell out $50 for XBL. I think PGR2, and RTCW were the only two games that I played more online than the single player; dont think I even got past the second level on RTCW.

Thanks for reminding me that I still have a copy of Tao Feng: Fist of the Regretful Purchase

That sucks, my cousin wanted to go back to Halo 2 soon too.

This is the problem of having part of or all of our games being handle by the publisher. 
In the future, we can no longer break out our games from 20 years ago like what we are doing now and still enjoy 100% of it.  All the multiplayer we enjoy so much online (Modern Warfare, Left4Dead etc) will be gone someday and we can no longer experience it anytime we want.

I'm not surprised that they're doing this since the new service is much better.
 
I'm upset that Halo 2 is going away forever. It was the best game out of the Halo series by far and that includes being the best online one too.

Well if it leads to a better 360 experience than I'm all for it. It still wont effect my Single player games like Shenmue II and Jet Set Radio Future. When I think of xbox classics it makes me wonder why there is no new Crimson Skies. That game was so great and its something the 360 could use...

DUDE! I was just at gamestop the other day thinking about buying Halo 2. good thing I didnt 

Hmm I bought Breakdown, Rallisport Challenge 2 (for online play) and Shenmue 2 since the 360 launched. Got Shenmue like 2 weeks ago. The other two games one ore two years ago...

" For now I'll give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt, but I bet that there has to be a reason for this. "

Honestly if the old architecture of the original Xbox live is holding back an improved Xbox live I have no problem with that. I'd like to see some changes to Xbox live if that means sacrificing a small community of gamers. For now I'll give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt, but I bet that there has to be a reason for this.

I play halo 2 alot, it's sad that it has to go.

Kinda sucks, because I planned on getting Morrowind sometime in the future.

/care

" It sounds ridiculous & utterly stupid. They have to eliminate network gaming in order to increase friends lists??  That doesn't even make sense!   One deals with networking & passing data back & forth to multiplayer servers, the other is stored values of a list on a hard drive or network.  Where is the connection?  Sounds like BS to me."

The only game I can even remotely consider feeling bummed about losing is (of course) Halo 2, but I think Halo 3 is way better anyways. OH WAIT!! No more Burnout 3: Takedown!! NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
 
But in all honesty, I don't really see this as a huge deal. We all knew this would happen eventually.

Man, no more halo 2

I was going to say, "Oh well" and just ignore this, but then I remembered that Street Fighter III Third Strike,  Capcom Vs Snk 2, and Guilty Gear XX are online playable over this service....now I'm sad.

Oh man!!! I still play Conker's Live and Reloaded every so often on my 360 through Live. This is so lame!

I don't have a huge problem with this since I never play original xbox games online but it's still a bummer that it's going to be dropped. 

I pop in Conker once in a while. But that's about it.