Xbox Live Sickly Again, Hackers to Blame for Extended Downtime?

Hey, guess what? Xbox Live is sorta puking again (maybe due to Windows Live Data Authentication says the Pirate King) after briefly recovering from its holiday cold. Nasty weather to blame for the long illness? Nope, rumor has it greasy hackers are the reason I’ve had problems getting online to snipe your face off in Team Fortress 2 lately.

Primotech says that according to a “source close to Microsoft,” Live was brought to its sputtering, coughing state by some assface(s) launching a systematic denial-of-service attack. Of course, no confirmation from Microsoft—or any details about the cause of the outage—but the whole ignorance-is-bliss-for-users approach is apparently funneling some flames into Major Nelson’s earbox, so hopefully they’ll give us some real info soon.

We’ve got other entertainment options, like Rock Band all by our lonesome, so we’re not too cheesed, but that late stocking stuffer should smooth over any lingering resentment. [Primotech via Kotaku]