![Xbox Live Party Chat is Down Right Now [UPDATE]](http://img.opencritic.com/article/sVU3SaSEP4K60mBmNbONOZitpK7ApCyecpSWoXRAWJvAs0IoQu6tteCSd4m37s.jpg)
UPDATE: Xbox Live party chat and related services have now been restored.
Original story follows.
Unfortunately for Xbox gamers, the platform's online features are currently experiencing major issues, with many users unable to use party chat at all. One of the most important Xbox Live features is the ability to talk with friends in party chat. This way, Xbox friends can communicate without having to worry about dealing with random players in game chat.
Xbox Live party chats are easy to use and typically work flawlessly. Rarely are there ever any problems with party chats specifically, but that's exactly what's happening right now. There are enough people experiencing problems with Xbox Live party chat that Xbox itself has acknowledged the problem on social media. Xbox has said that its engineers are working to resolve the issues with party chat, though there is no clear timetable as to when the problems will be solved.
Microsoft creates a new way for console gamers to remember Xbox Live Gold after the service ended its operations earlier this month.
In my own testing, I have been completely unable to use Xbox Live party chats for the past 20 minutes (as of 9:41pm CT). The...
