Xbox Live suffers downtime for the second time in a week

• For the second time this week, a significant number of Xbox Live users are unable to use the service as intended.
• Players are reporting difficulties logging into Xbox Live and have been left unable to use games and content they've already paid for.
• Xbox Live routinely goes down for maintenance, but it's rarely down unexpectedly, let alone twice in a week.

Microsoft was forced to repair Xbox Live core services for the second time in a week as users report being unable to sign-in or access content they've already paid for.

On Wednesday, multiple Xbox users reported seeing an all-black screen when they booted up their consoles, leading some to believe their video game system was broken. Today's issues seem to be limited to logging in to the service, and Microsoft has not commented on whether the two outages are related.

On Twitter, Xbox support staff said they were investigating the problems once again.

Xbox Live is a necessity for playing Xbox games online, and some games require a connection to Xbox Live to be played at all. Live is also essential for several non-gaming apps, like Netflix and Twitch.

Read more: Xbox Live went down, and the outage nearly convinced gamers that their consoles were broken

Xbox Live undergoes regular maintenance but is rarely down unexpectedly. Most outages last a few hours; Xbox Live's longest outage, during the 2007-08 holiday season, lasted 11 days.

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