by I was using Xbox Live one evening and when I tried to invite my friends to an Xbox Live Party, it did not work. I knew they were already online because they had just told me via text, but yet the Xbox said they were offline and I could not hear them talking when they joined the party.
I restarted the Xbox, checked my Internet connection (both on the Xbox and using my phone) and asked my friends if they were having any similar issues, which they were. Once I discovered that, I knew the fault wasn’t on just my Xbox or on my home Internet connection.
As I quickly ran out of ideas for what else to try, I decided to ask my Dad for help. This is sometimes a risky strategy as his answers tend to go into some detail, especially when it comes to technology and the Internet 🙂
He told me about something called a “status website” (which I had never heard of before) where companies publish up-to-date information about any issues they are having on their systems or networks. To my surprise (and relief), we found one for the Xbox Live service and it turned out they were, in fact, having a problem at that very moment, so I duly called off the search for the mystery problems I was having.
We then went in search of other status websites and found some for other games I play too. It looks like some companies also use a dedicated Twitter account to publish status updates. Here are some of the others that we found:
So, if you’re having issues playing online games or using any other gaming console apps, have a look and see if the company has a status website and you might save yourself some time and stress thinking there’s a problem elsewhere.