Vole gives away games as Xbox Unlive penance

MICROSOFT will be giving away Xbox games to disgruntled holiday customers.

The Vole counts on its Xbox Live interactive online gaming service to differentiate its console from the competing standalone game boxes from Nintendo and Sony.

But Xbox Live seems to have stumbled badly over the holidays. Gaming websites and forums have been clogged up with complaints from Xbox owners finding that they cannot sign up for the online service or manage to play interactively online.

Xbox Live General Manager Marc Whitten said the problems were the result of a "massive increase" in new users over the holiday season. Microsoft apparently didn't anticipate that Xbox sales would be so high this year, so the Vole found its Xbox Live gaming servers overwhelmed by its unexpected retail sales success.

"While the service was not completely offline at any given time, we are disappointed in our performance," Whitten said in a statement. He added that the number of simultaneously signed on users set a record Wednesday.

Whitten said that as a gesture of thanks to customers, Microsoft will allow all Xbox Live members around the world to download one game over the service for free. Xbox Live games typically sell for $5 to $20.

Whitten said details of the offer would come in the coming weeks. µ

L'INQ
Yahoo