Microsoft offers freebies to address Xbox live issues

If you unwrapped a shiny new Xbox 360 this holiday season, you weren’t alone. And according to Microsoft, that influx of new users helped Xbox Live break a few records—the largest number of new users in the service’s five-year history and the single biggest day of simultaneous members online. Records weren’t the only thing that got broken, though. That flood of new users brought a host of problems for some users, including troubles signing into the service and a variety of performance issues.

Microsoft’s general manager of Xbox Live, Marc Whitten, has a few things to say to users about those problems, and is also extending a peace offering: “As a result of this massive increase in usage we know that some of you experienced intermittent Xbox LIVE issues over the holiday break. While the service was not completely offline at any given time, we are disappointed in our performance. I would like to take this moment to thank you each and every one of you for your patience and understanding as our team has worked around the clock to return the service to a stable state.

“At the same time we would like to offer a token of our appreciation to all of you in celebration of record success for the service. And as a thank you for your loyalty during this holiday period, we will be offering all of our Xbox LIVE members around the world access to a full Xbox LIVE Arcade game that will be available to download free of charge. In the coming weeks we will be sharing the specific details of this offer with you.”

Free is good, right? Let’s just hope it’s free and good.