An Xbox Network outage is preventing players from launching games

Source: Matt Brown | Windows Central

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.