Microsoft alter Xbox Live service due to Coronavirus

With more and more people being instructed to stay at home, indoors, and avoid leaving, the consumption of digital goods has grown massively. Among those goods is the use of Xbox Live, Microsoft’s online service for the Xbox console family. Which is why something needs to be done to preserve the experience for everyone.

In a recent article The Verge, Microsoft explained that they saw a 775 percent jump in demand for their cloud services such as Microsoft Teams over the weekend. In addition, Windows Virtual Desktops were being used a lot more, as workforces strive to keep things operational whilst observing social distancing rules.

Due to the increased demand for services across the board, Microsoft is limiting Xbox Live in order to maintain a sustainable experience for all of their users.

The company explained that they’re actively monitoring performance and usage over the course of days and weeks, optimizing Xbox Live for gamers around the globe when they need it most. The company added that they’re making plans for peak usage times that they’re seeing, such as putting measures into place with publishing partners to ensure there’s more bandwidth when it will be needed.

Apparently a record number of users are trying to use Xbox Live, Mixer, and Xbox Game Pass, which is growing as time goes on.

As a result of the increased demand, the company has temporarily disabled the ability to upload custom gamerpics, club pics, and club backgrounds. This is helping them streamline user experience, and moderate it as they move forward.

Sony recently implemented similar measures for the PlayStation Network. Right now users will be experiencing slower download times for their games and updates, helping Sony spread the strain on their services.

While Nintendo hasn’t said anything on this matter, they’re most likely seeing a similar issue. With Animal Crossing: New Horizons being so popular, there have probably been a huge number of digital versions of the game purchased, particularly due to the lack of Switch hardware on the market currently. No doubt Nintendo will be putting similar measures into place to ensure that their online services don’t suffer either.