Want To Go On Live With Your Xbox? You Have Less Than 24 Hours

Quick, what’s tomorrow? If you answered that it’s the last day to file your federal income tax return, congratulations, you’re a grownup. For the rest of us, it marks a bittersweet milestone: April 15 is the day that Microsoft pulls the proverbial plug on Xbox Live support for the original Xbox.

Sure, Microsoft told everyone about it back in February, but that was a long time ago in gaming terms. It’s not too late, though. Tonight’s a great time to fire up the system, dig out and untangle your old headset, and play some old-school Halo. If you don’t do it soon, you won’t be able to ever again.

As Microsoft spokesman Larry Hryb said on his Major Nelson blog, supporting the legacy Xbox Live functionality was holding the 360 back in a number of ways. For one, maintaining compatibility between the platforms meant Xbox 360 users had a friends-list cap of 100. "While I can’t comment on the specifics, this change will allow us to continue evolving the Live service with new features and experiences that fully harness the power of Xbox 360 and the Xbox Live community," he wrote. "We did not make this decision lightly, but after careful consideration and review we realize that this decision will allow us unprecedented flexibility for future features."

We’ll always have LAN parties, Master Chief.