Newsflash:

Xbox LIVE, Xbox.com Offline March 27, 2007

We've got some scheduled maintenance coming up and want to let all of you know that both the Xbox LIVE service and Xbox.com will be offline and unavailable starting at midnight Pacific Daylight Time on Tuesday March 27, 2007 for approximately fourteen hours. We know you've got some questions, so here are some answers:

Q: Why? Why? Why?

A: Because we're giving the hamsters the day off. Seriously we just need to do some regular maintenance on the servers. We're not doing it to make you mad … really.

Q: Is this a Dashboard update?

A: Nope.

Q: So what's going to happen exactly? What's it going to look like for me?

A: You will see a "We're down for maintenance" page on Xbox.com and a similar message on your Xbox console.

Q: Fourteen hours? But that's a long time.

A: Yes it is. It's also 50,400 seconds. Count fifty thousand "Mississippis" and we'll be back up and running.

Q: What the heck am I going to do for 14 hours if I can't troll the forums, pwn my rivals, download stuff on Marketplace, and video chat with my friends?

A: We're glad you asked. We hereby submit our Top Ten Things to Do on March 27 2007:

1. Boost your gamerscore. That's right; you can still earn achievements when you're offline. Your achievements will be uploaded to the Xbox LIVE service when it becomes available.
2. Cruise Pacific City. Have you found all 500 Crackdown™ Agility Orbs? Yeah? How about all 300 Hidden Orbs then? Check out tips on how to find 'em all.
3. Go shopping! Meet the Robinsons will be in stores on March 27. Check out the cool Xbox 360 accessories while you're there. Psst, don't forget to pre-order the Guitar Hero II™ bundle with the controller—it's coming April 3!
4. Nominate a friend for the Gamer Spotlight. TriXie's e-mail will still be working, so drop her a line at xlmail@microsoft.com and tell her who you think needs some attention on Xbox.com.
5. Listen to Xbox podcasts. Don't miss Gamertag Radio, XBLRadio, Gamer Girls Radio and Unscripted360, just to name a few. We'd suggest Major Nelson's 'cast, but we know everyone's already listened to all of his!
6. Study up on March 27 history. Here are some examples of momentous events that occurred on 3/27:
• 1884: The first long-distance telephone call was made, between Boston and New York.
• 1958: Nikita Khrushchev became Soviet premier and first secretary of the Communist Party.
• 1964: A 9.2 magnitude earthquake hit 80 miles east of Anchorage, Alaska, killing 117 and producing a 50-foot tsunami that traveled over 8,000 miles.
• 1973: Marlon Brando refuses his Oscar for The Godfather in protest of Hollywood's treatment of Native Americans.
7. It's Quentin Tarantino's birthday! It's a great opportunity to use Xbox 360™ for more than games: watch Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and Sin City. Mom won't let you watch stuff like that? Then you can listen to the collected works of Mariah Carey. It's her birthday too.
8. Have some family time. Get ready for Family Game Night. It's a perfect opportunity to gather the whole family together for some quality game time.
9. Talk to your significant other. Remember them? You last spoke about 16 months ago when you got your Xbox 360. Just don't say anything like, "Have you gained weight?"
10. Get experienced. Register for the Old Spice Experience Challenge. It's part of the Xbox Rewards program, and there are still cool prizes to be won! After you've done that, go check out the redesign at Bungie.net!