Xbox is officially back online after a major service outage that caused functionality for everything from the Microsoft Store to online play to go down for over three hours. If you found yourself unsuccessfully attempting to play games on your Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, or Xbox One (not to mention Xbox Cloud Gaming or PC Game Pass) during that time, then you might very well be wondering what went wrong, and what this event could mean for the future.
First, it’s important to establish why this outage occurred. To put it into context, thousands of companies around the world are experiencing serious IT issues right now – not just those in the gaming sector. This includes major US airlines such as Delta and United, which have cancelled flights in response, as well as Sky News and even the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).
The root cause appears to be a faulty update released by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. You may not have heard of them, but they are a major player in the cybersecurity industry, providing software and systems that power many of the world’s largest companies, including Microsoft.
According to a statement released by the company, many customers are reporting multiple Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) error screens. This is possibly causing a recovery boot loop, a well-documented situation where a failing computer can get stuck on a recovery screen and be unable to boot up. It's like getting the dreaded red ring of death on your old Xbox 360, although instead of a console in your living room, it's affecting some of the most important computers in the world.
Now, it's unclear at the moment whether this is the issue that directly caused Xbox to go offline. Given the timing of it and the fact that it's affecting many other online services, it seems safe to assume that it's related in some way.
Analysis: What does it mean?
At the most basic level, the outage will undoubtedly cause some customers to feel quite annoyed. Nobody likes being left without being able to access their games, especially for hours. If you just got off work when the outage started and were eager to play a multiplayer game, I don't think you're going to be too happy.
All this happens at a particularly inopportune time, as the long-awaited… EA Sports College Football 25 It was released earlier today. Based on early sales figures, it looks like a huge success on the platform, and with thousands of players diving into its online matches, these technical issues have almost certainly disappointed many.
Since the outage also disrupted the ability to purchase digital games in many regions, it seems almost certain that some sales were lost in those few hours. We can't say how big the difference will be until we get our hands on some hard data, but this downtime could have been disastrous for any struggling indie titles.
There are also some consequences that are much harder to quantify. Will this affect the perception of Microsoft’s gaming offering? The Xbox brand has been under increased scrutiny in recent months, largely thanks to lackluster hardware sales and the inexplicable closure of several first-party game studios, including Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin. The general feeling that Xbox’s online services are becoming unreliable is the last thing Microsoft needs.
