What you need to know
The Xbox Network, previously known as Xbox Live, is currently experiencing a major outage affecting many players.
The outage includes players being unable to make any purchases, use Xbox Cloud Gaming, or even launch their digital games.
Xbox is currently investigating the issue, but there's no word on potential solutions, yet.
The Xbox Network is the infrastructure that powers most of the Xbox gaming experience, and outages affecting that network can drastically reduce the capabilities of the entire Xbox ecosystem. It's not often the service experiences major outages that affect huge swathes of players, but months of solid service is being interrupted today by a new breakdown in the Xbox Network.
The Xbox Network is down, with many players across the Xbox family of consoles and services reporting a variety of issues affecting the Microsoft Store, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and even launching and playing digital games. The Xbox Network team is currently investigating the outage and potential solutions, but the situation hasn't improved, yet.
The issues currently affecting the Xbox Network include:
The inability to make purchases from the Microsoft Store, including any games, DLC, in-game purchases, and accessories, regardless of the payment method used
The inability to manage or make subscription purchases, including for Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Live Gold, and others
The inability to launch Xbox Cloud Gaming sessions, regardless of your device
The inability to launch and play many digital games, especially those included as part of a subscription like Xbox Game Pass
There appears to be little players can do to avoid these issues, aside from resorting to playing games from physical discs (if that's an option for you) or, potentially, disconnecting from the internet and playing offline. At least for now, the Xbox Network outage isn't affecting anything related to Xbox Accounts, multiplayer gaming, social features, or other connected services and features. If you're able to launch a game, it should function like normal, including cloud saves, Achievements, and more.
Hopefully, the Xbox Network outage won't last long, and players will quickly be able to return to their favorite Xbox games without any issues. We'll continue to monitor the situation, and update this space as we hear more.
The Xbox team has reported that Xbox Network issues preventing players from making purchases in the Microsoft Store should be resolved. Unfortunately, other issues preventing Xbox Cloud Gaming sessions or digital games from launching are still plaguing players, and the Xbox team is continuing to investigate them. We'll continue to monitor the situation and update this space.
Update
Xbox Network still down over seven hours later
Over seven hours after Xbox Network was first reported as experiencing issues, players are still encountering problems starting or maintaining Xbox Cloud Gaming sessions, launching or playing digital games, and more. Xbox Support has listed the latter issue with "We're close to resolving the issue" for several hours, now, with no significant improvement. Some players are able to play games like normal at this point, but many more are still affected by this long-running Xbox Network outage.
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