I didn´t plan on writing from a blank slate tonight, but today I stumbled upon an interesting case over the internets.
A bit of context first, I was delving into my X360 in order to move few saves from my dying disk to the cloud, and, interestingly, I booted my console with my profile disconnected. Interestingly too, I was not able to log in anymore. Due to some 8-digit hex random error code that only Microsoft has secrecy.
A bit disappointed, I replaced the network cable, disabled my ad-blocking DNS... still nothing. Then I started searching online for this error code : namely the dreaded 8015D086
https://x.com/search?q=8015D086&src=typed_query
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=8015D086&atb=v380-1&ia=web
Apparently, XBox Login has evolved at Microsoft's, and end of October has been a rough ride concluded by a resolution on how to create accounts and login on Xbox One/Series. The problem is that, 360 also uses the same login as its successors, but now it is FUBAR.
Users are angry, and guess what I am too. Not because of this bug (bugs happen all the time) but because of two hints that drive me towards real anguish:
- No statement from Microsoft
- It's been 3 Weeks since the first reports
Some users have successfully worked around the problem, by (sic) disabling 2FA and returning to dumb, pre-2010, 8 character, alphanumeric passwords. Albeit the problem seem to be solved at first, it tends to comeback without any kind of reason after few reboots.
I'm quite unsure MS will eventually fix that, for many reasons : first, backcatalog is for one major part (US-Army games, action, AAAs) available as backwards compatibility on One/Series. However, they RIPed the online services (store) this summer, which smells good the end-of-life for the console.
I'm really not against end-of-life, of course, companies need to let go their old products and focus on their new ones. However, I feel that we have a major problem here.
Currently, the LATEST system update for X360 systems is 5 years old :
https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/xbox-360/console/system-update-operating-system
OS Version 2.0.17559.0/DASHBOARD 2.0.17559.0
Release date
11/12/2019
Minor bug fixes and improvements
Previous System Updates Release number OS version: 2.0.17544.0
Which means that, system does not receive regular updates anymore, and is not likely to get more.
The problem is that some of the API will start to not match anymore the online services, and thus, incidents like the login issues that will come back, sooner than later, and possibly with dire consequences.
The real problem is here : without online, X360 consoles cannot connect users, cloud saves are stuck in the cloud, downloads and PD1s are gone, forever.
Speaking of PatchDay1's, many games were shipping in a state that was totally way better than the FUBAR shape we ship games on BluRay nowadays. However, some have valuable patches that benefit the games.
What happens when the X360 will not be able to connect itself to the internet ?
Will we be able to even run the games we bought? With the patches still installed? Will our console become unplayable junk?
I am really serious about this one.
Recently, the Ubisoft shitstorm revolving around decommisionning The Crew was a serious issue that made quite a ruckus online, but I think the issue about X360 looms as degrees of magnitude higher than TC.
The fear about having a system, with many games, not all being backwards compatible (I'm thinking of my collection of CAVE Shooters), being locked into a state where it is not playable anymore will create an unprecedented incident in the gaming industry. It is not a question of a company that went bankrupt and did not have time to put its server code public and make a patch for their game so it becomes "open past end of life" (high-five Proletariat!) : it is a question of one of the biggest companies in the world, letting go one of its products.
This company has a choice of the end of life of the X360:
- Either it will let it die, with no updates, making the hardware an unplayable piece of junk that will never play any game, anymore. Hardware and DVDs will rot on shelves or end up in dumpsters.
- Or the company performs a last round of update, where it patches it so it can run offline, and let thousands of players enjoy games they bought in the past.
It is a matter of choice, and people will look at them as they make this choice. Because either raising the middle finger to the face of thousands, or just ignore them, will have consequences, for the image of what represents Xbox to the players, and also be an example of what can be done for other game console publishers, and probably be the first of a series of game consoles going into oblivion without any kind of legal preservation.
I do hope they will honor their responsibility.
PS: These are random words going through my head tonight, I'll probably need to think that more thoroughly, and hope they will help bring some debate about our industry. I really do hope we could come up with some end-of-life ethics and guidelines so community can still enjoy their games and consoles even though these have entered the age of death.