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TechRadar
Dashiell Wood

Why did Xbox Live go down and what does it mean for gamers?

Xbox Microsoft United States
Blue screen of death.

Xbox Live is officially back online after a substantial service outage that saw the functionality of everything from the Microsoft Store to online play drop for over three hours. If you unsuccessfully tried to game 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 of all, it's important to establish why this outage occurred. For context, thousands of businesses around the world are currently experiencing severe IT issues - not just those in the gaming space. This includes major US airlines like Delta and United, who have been cancelling flights in response, in addition to the likes of Sky News and even the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK.

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