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Microsoft has never issued a fully satisfying answer about why Xbox Live, almost four years after the launch of Xbox 360, cannot support more than 100 friends. The company has blamed it on technical obstacles related to the original Xbox Live architecture. It's simpler than that. The real reason you can't have more than 100 friends on Xbox Live is because of Bungie. Specifically, Halo 2.
The continued community support behind Halo 2 is the only reason Microsoft hasn't ditched the lingering ancient Xbox Live architecture, a high-level Microsoft source confirmed to me late last week.
The original Xbox Live was not designed to support more than 100 friends. That's no problem for the Xbox 360 incarnation. Allowing players to add more than 100 friends on Xbox 360 is not a real technical challenge for Microsoft, but it requires ending support for the still-popular shooter. It's not as simple as issuing a patch for Halo 2, or else Microsoft would have released one ages ago.
Looking at Major Nelson's weekly Xbox Live activity lists, the Halo 2 connection should have been obvious a long time ago. Halo 2 is always the most played original Xbox title, suggesting a healthy community still enjoying Master Chief's second adventure online, despite the existence of Halo 3 on Xbox 360. What's keeping them playing? It doesn't matter, it only matters that they are.
My source said Microsoft still does not know when it will disable support for the original Xbox Live, thus ending Halo 2's reign on the charts. It could happen after the release of Halo 3: ODST, since that would give Halo players two new Halo games to move over to on the new Xbox Live. If you want Microsoft to move in that direction, however, it requires your voiced opinion.
Microsoft will be reading this and comments elsewhere. If there's real vocal support for finally moving on from Halo 2, it could very well happen in the near future, I'm told.
But at least we know the hold up. It's a technical issue, but it's really not. It's about a community doing nothing more than enjoying their favorite game, while the rest of the world is prevented a seemingly simple interface feature. When to call it quits is a challenging issue for online games, but really, it's almost out of Microsoft's hands. Gamers have to make the decision.
I've contacted Microsoft for official comment. I'll update you if I hear anything.
What do you want Microsoft to do?
Comments are Closed
Comments
Displaying 41–60 of 149
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gl3bm
give me more than 100 friends god dang
Walsfer
Give the community a game that is better than halo 2.
Then you won't have to worry about it.
Walsfer
Give the community a game that is better than halo 2.
Then you won't have to worry about it.
SY_R3medy
Halo 3 and ODST have the same multiplayer and why is it that big of deal to keep Halo 2 running? No one talks to everyone on there friends list
nhpzoo90
just freakin end it. Im a huge halo fan, and i dont want it to get a bad rep because it is keeping us from having more friends. I had great times on halo 2 matchmaking, but it is really time to move on. Though I would like the maps that have not already been remade, like blood gulch, to be dlc on halo 3. I would love to forge on blood gulch or ascension.
btherrien
Microsoft should be smart and support they're WAY better shooter. HALO 3. Why hold back all of Microsofts paying users on an extremely outdated game when you have an excellent game that all of those Halo 2 users played and loved. I couldn't have a 100 friends, but for the people that want that, why not help em out!
Slymerz
PS3 only lets you have 100 friends too.
EA_Megaman
Yes I do need more than 100 friends. I competitively play (like, I fly/drive around the country to play in tournaments) fighting games, and it's always nice to have 10-20 friends for each game playing at any given time. I've been having to delete-to-add people for the past few months. So much so that I don't know who to remove anymore and I can't accept new friends. It's horrible.
Friends list improvements are much needed. So much so I'd say they should patch Halo 2, or find some way to special case old XBL. It's really a shame. It's great that things are going to be faster now, but that cap needs to go. Like now...
MoneysWorld
I'm 100% on Anthunyy's (94th comment) idea. That would be a great idea and would make everyone happy. I really don't see why XBOX wouldn't be able to do this.
Dakicus
can't this just be integrated, so the halo 2 users don't lose anything and the rest of us can get over 100 people. although i agree with BTF1318, who really needs more then 100 friends when you really only play with a few of them.
NISMOJOE
I'm tired of getting friend requests. I'm sure I've passed 20,000 incoming FRs. It's annoying and I would like some way to disable/limit them.
CrazyRory
@Anthunyy
Seconded. This idea solves pretty much everything, as long as they can somehow partition people to different sections of Xbox Live. If they could bar people with +100 from accessing "old xbox live", that'd pretty much solve everything.
jdoge13
I don't really care...I only have like 10 friends.
CrazyRory
@DHarry
I like this idea a lot. Like releasing Halo 2 as an xbox original, or at least through a similar process. Verification could prove to be very difficult, but this is probably the most practical idea that's been posted here.
It really just boils down to how much effort Bungie and Microsoft are willing to put in. Would they want to spend the time basically remaking an existing game with a solid playerbase if people on Xbox Live would be able to have larger friends lists? The friends list is a fairly intangible quantity when it comes to profit.
Side note: I wonder how many people would download Halo 2: Multiplayer if it was available for purchase on Xbox Live?
Anthunyy
Why can't MS give us a choice on our F/L number limit? And have it set so that it gives you a warning saying "If you choose a number over the default 100 LIVE members, you may lose access to online multiplayer of former Xbox titles (Such as Halo 2)"?
For as many people who want to EXPAND their friends list, I know at least one for every 3 who wants to LIMIT their friends list. We should honestly be able to choose anywhere from say, 10-300 LIVE members. It would make everyone happy, and the people who want to still play Halo 2 just have to keep their list max set to 100.
I don't see how it would be "impossible" to implement this, it could easily work as a "Preferences" setting or "Account Management" option. If they did this, Halo 2 people would get to play Halo 2, people who need a little more room on their F/L would get it, and people who don't want to be harassed by a ton of people for being considered "popular" over the internet (In whatever way that may be) would get what they want.
DHarry
They should make an arcade version of Halo 2's multiplayer mode, exactly as it is. Give it a price, but send a free download code to every gamertag who's ever been recorded playing Halo 2 online.
CrazyRory
@DCBronco
That's actually a really good idea, but what incentive does Microsoft have to go through all that effort? Certainly producing whatever disc/code/token required would cost them time and money. What return would they get from it?
I'd like to see this happen but what they probably could do instead would be to introduce some sort of DLC for Halo 2, however I'm pretty sure it's just a problem with the framework of the game itself, meaning an update of that magnitude would be fairly impossible. So really we're stuck with the same problem as before: Microsoft doesn't want to lose a massive moneymaking playerbase. Which makes perfect sense, I'm not disagreeing with that decision, I'm just saying that the only way they'd pull Halo 2 support is if they somehow got an equal amount of potential, consistent income in return, and therein lies the problem.
DCBronco
Why don't they allow people with Halo 2 to turn in the disc at retailers for a token that allows them to download a updated version. Then they can make a complete changeover.
CrazyRory
Alright, I've read over all of the comments. For the most part, there really isn't a debate here, like people have said before me. There are still tons of Halo 2 players. Most of them do it because the "cool" thing to do is to hate Halo 3 because the Battle Rifle isn't a god weapon anymore (i.e., hitscan). A select few of them do it because they prefer the level design of Halo 2. Both are valid reasons from their point of view. Whatever, I couldn't care less. The point is, you wont stop them from playing, and you really shouldn't have the right to either.
On the other hand, the 100 friend limit might not interest most people, but it does interest me, and I doubt I'm the only person with Xbox Live who thinks this way. I create a fair deal of custom content, including but not limited to maps for Halo and Farcry. People take an interest in my work. I tend to only friend request people who actively play Xbox Live. Many of them are loyal testers of my content. On top of that, I host various games, and use dedicated hosting when I can, because sometimes I'd rather see a ton of people enjoy themselves in a lag-free match on a custom map than I would want to play myself. More recently, I started an organization similar to the Community Playdate group, where I host various multiplayer games from the popular to the more obscure.
Surprisingly, there's just a few more than 100 people online who are interested in someone who consistently hosts custom games with custom content, and also someone who is willing to host their content for 16 players at a time, something which they might not be able to do as easily. Having 100 friends on your list with a good 40-50 of them online at any given time makes it very easy to test my maps, as well as help out other mappers with their testing. So yes, having a friends list with more that 100 as the limit would certainly be nice.
Am I the majority? Certainly not. But for people to just assume that no one needs a friends list with more than 100 gametags is kind of narrow-minded. I doubt that Microsoft will up the friends list cap, but I'll certainly throw my vote in if it'd make a difference.
PetraeusAurelius
There really is no debate here. People were mad when Amazon removed 1984 off of peoples' Kindles. Imagine how pissed gamers would get over this. People still play it, right, so let them play.
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