...LIVE was never completely offline. We did have some spotty issues over the weekend, but the XOC (Xbox Operations Center) was fully staffed (as it always is 24/7/365) and they addressed the issue as quickly as they could.

*In case my blatant sarcasm was unclear to anyone, Kotaku has no proof that Hryb was actually thinking this.
LIVE failed help [via maxconsole]

Sunday at 7:00pm, my Xbox 360 made its way back from the Microsoft repair center in Fukushima, Japan after it crapped out earlier this month. That makes roughly 13 days it took to tune up my 360 and get it back to me. Since I didn't get any sort of email/phone call/etc from Microsoft, I called up support on Friday afternoon. The man I spoke with said it took about ten days to service the console. It did take a little longer, but to Microsoft's credit, the machine was messengered to me on the weekend. Not to beat a dead horse, but what I'm wondering: How does that correspond with repair service elsewhere? Interested to know, really. So hit us up in the comments. Brian Ashcraft

I convinced my dad to buy my older brother an Xbox 360 earlier this year for his birthday.

Drew loves gaming, but wasn't decided on whether he wanted the Playstation 3, Wii or 360, so I decided for him. I was pretty sure I had made the right call after he received it and started playing the games. He had an Xbox and loved a lot of the titles on that system, so it seemed like a natural fit.

Then he called me last night to tell my his system, his three week old system that he had played exactly one game on had crapped out on him. He was getting the red ring of death. So I told him to call customer service.

"They'll handle everything, they're great. They'll even pay for shipping and Fed-Ex it for you. That's what they did for my systems (yes, plural) when they died."

He emailed back a little more than unhappy:

Brian Crecente

I was annoyed and disappointed when I saw my three-week old 360 wasn't working. I looked up the info about the blinking red circle on the Internet and found out that it was apparently toast. I called Microsoft and was relieved that I didn't have to wait very long to speak with "Vishay." What are the odds that Vishay is housed at Microsoft's campus in sunny California?

After going through the requisite questions Vishay stated (nearly enthusiastically) that my 360 needed to be repaired. He sounded as if he was doing me a favor when he said that all repairs and having the 360 shipped back to me was going to be covered by Microsoft.

When he said that I'd have to pay to ship it to Microsoft, annoyed went to pissed immediately.

I explained that there was absolutely no way that I was going to pay a penny for what was apparently a "shoddy product." Three weeks and it's already a paperweight? No sir.

I told Vishay that if he was unable to handle this situation that a supervisor would be required. After waiting nearly ten minutes Vishay returned to say that I was being transferred to a supervisor. Another five minutes of listening to some very static-filled on-hold music and Vishay came back to say that a supervisor had "approved" free shipment of the 360 to Microsoft.

Microsoft: if you're selling a product that goes belly-up in less than a month never suggest that I should pay anything to get said product fixed. You've blown the customer experience (and not in a good way). Instead of annoyed and disappointed I'm now pissed and unfortunately will stay so for a while. That sucks for me ... so thanks for that.

Unfortunately, these reports of shoddy costumer service on Microsoft's part seem on the rise lately. And what's with a console manufactured in August (I had Drew check) dying after a few weeks? I thought this was an issue with just the early batch of consoles. Come on Microsoft, don't fumble now. Brian Crecente

It's funny, despite all of the newer titles hitting the service, Pac-Man and Galaga were numbers two and three in their top ten.

January s Top 10 Most Played List:

1. Virtua Racing Deluxe
2. Galaga
3. Pac-Man
4. Toy Commander
5. Dig Dug
6. Golden Axe
7. Heroes of Might and Magic IV
8. Worms Armageddon
9. BurgerTime
10. Hydro Thunder

This month the game service will see the Lords of the Realm trilogy, Pitstop and three Might and Magic games.

I really need to check out this service and write up a review.

Gametap

Check out these screenies:

GameTap, the broadband entertainment network, will run $14.95 a month, according to Turner Broadcast System. The company also said they all of their subscribers will get a two-week free trial to check out the network.

GameTap will allow subscribers to access a bunch of games through a broadband-connected PC. According to the site, GameTap already has about 1,000 games from 17 publishers lined up for the service. Some of the publishers include Activision, Atari, Eidos Interactive, G-Mode, Intellivision Lives, Midway, Namco, SEGA, TAITO, Team 17, Ubisoft and Vivendi Universal Games.

The service is hoping to launch with 300 games including such classics as Pong, Pac-Man and Sonic as well as more modern games like Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2.

I m not quite clear exactly how up-to-date the games that hit the network will be. I can t imagine, for instance, that Ubi will be licensing Ghost Recon 2 anytime soon.

It s good to hear that the service isn t going to be insanely overpriced. At about $15 you re talking about the typical cost for an MMO. If Turner can manage to deliver some worthwhile games in a ping-free environment, this could make my list of must-haves.

I ll see what I can do about trying it out down the line and writing up a review.

GameTap [Official Site]