Microsoft will kill Xbox Live support for original Xbox games. Rumor has is that this is being done to increase the numbers of friends you can have on Xbox (360) Live. Right now it’s at 100 people—a limit imposed by old Xbox architecture—, but clearly you need more.
The switch will be flipped on April 15—Tax Day here in the U.S.—and from then on, no Xbox Live for your orignial Xbox.
The move will also affect Xbox Live Originals played on Xbox 360.
Let’s be clear: you can still play your original Xbox games, you just can’t use them on Xbox Live.
The biggest original Xbox game still being played on Xbox Live is Halo 2, where some 3,500 people still play the game regularly, according to some place I forget.
Xbox Live launched in November, 2002. I was 16 at the time, and picked up Xbox Live on day one—I wisely predicted that it would be sold out at Best Buy, so I picked it up from Circuit City— and played Unreal Championship online like it was my job for a while there. I was pretty good! Oh, memories.