UPDATE 4.30pm UK: “Full mitigation” of this weekend’s Xbox server issues is expected “in the coming days”, Microsoft has said, and will come as part of a new console update.
In the meantime, the Xbox Support Twitter account said there had been “significant improvement to the issue”.
Word of a forthcoming system update to address the issues is intriguing, however. Will this see Microsoft deactivate its digital rights management (DRM) which has blocked access to certain games over the weekend? It’s likely we’ll hear more when the update is announced.
We’ve seen significant improvement to the issue that has prevented some users from purchasing and launching games. We expect full mitigation in the coming days with the roll out of a new update.
— Xbox Support (@XboxSupport) May 9, 2022
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In the meantime, Eurogamer has contacted Microsoft for comment.
ORIGINAL STORY 11am UK:Xbox has been criticised for several periods of server downtime over the weekend, which left some players unable to boot games they own.
The Xbox Support Twitter account reported issues impacting the ability to launch Xbox games and play games via the Xbox Cloud on the evening of Friday 6th May, and then again on Saturday morning, and once more on Saturday night (UK times).
The outages have sparked a wave of complaints on social media, including from streamer and Xbox presenter Parris Lilly, who has called for greater transparency from Microsoft on how its digital rights management (DRM) policies work.
“The Xbox outages have made it clear that something needs to change with their DRM policy,” Lilly wrote, “games that are downloaded to my console should have a window to be offline and playable without checking in. Hopefully we get some clarity and a solution to avoid this issue again.”