Microsoft Azure outage prevents users from playing Minecraft and Xbox Game Pass

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Many players experienced issues logging into Minecraft or playing Xbox games today. This is part of a bigger problem impacting numerous Microsoft services, including Minecraft and Microsoft 365. This outage comes shortly after similar issues with Amazon Web Services, Roblox, and Fortnite. It also raises concerns about owning games that require a constant internet connection – when servers go down, it’s like you can’t play the games you’ve purchased.

Massive Microsoft outage impacts many services, including Minecraft and Xbox

As of now, it looks like services are starting to come back online. Xbox Support announced on social media that users should be able to access the Xbox Store and manage their accounts again, and that they’re continuing to work on full recovery. They’ll share updates on their social media and at support.xbox.com when available. However, the outage caused some confusion, as illustrated by a post on the Minecraft subreddit asking why an offline game requires an online launcher. The most popular response highlighted that the issue stems from the game needing authorization to run.

A Reddit user named Mlakuss explained the problem simply, and their comment received over 5,500 upvotes. They stated that the game could connect to the internet, but not to the servers that verify a player’s license. Earlier today, when Microsoft’s servers went down, Minecraft couldn’t confirm that players had a valid license. The game kept trying to connect for authorization, but didn’t receive a response. Luckily, some players were able to continue playing offline by disconnecting from the internet entirely. However, users who rely on Xbox services may have had trouble.

I was scrolling through the Xbox subreddit and saw someone really frustrated! They said they hadn’t even powered on their Xbox in a month, decided to give Ninja Gaiden 4 a try because it’s on Game Pass, but it wouldn’t download – it was broken! Then someone else chimed in saying they were having trouble too, trying to get The Outer Worlds 2. Apparently, it was supposed to be fully available today after being in early access, but they couldn’t download it either.

It’s frustrating when digital games and online services have issues, and it highlights the downsides of relying solely on them. Xbox is experiencing problems now, but PlayStation users faced similar issues recently. Moments like these make you appreciate having a physical copy of a game – being able to just pop a disc like Ninja Gaiden 4 or The Outer Worlds 2 into the console and play. While occasional disruptions are inevitable, the more we depend on digital access, the more likely these problems become. Essentially, we trade control for convenience. Luckily, this outage didn’t happen over the weekend when more people would have been trying to play, but it definitely won’t be the last time this happens, and it’s not even the only time it’s happened recently.

The BBC reports the problem was likely caused by a mistake in how the system was set up. This means it probably wasn’t related to the recent DDoS attacks that caused issues for services like Steam last month.

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2025-10-30 03:32