Microsoft addresses UFC’s disastrous debut on Xbox Live

Of all of the video content Microsoft introduced to Xbox Live back in December, the UFC app was perhaps one of the most highly anticipated of the bunch. Its big debut was last Friday with UFC 141, but the debut didn’t quite go as well as Microsoft was hoping for.

Actually, that’s probably too much of an understatement–it was a complete disaster. Microsoft was banking on its debut being a success, so much so that they handed out 30,000 free passes for the UFC 141 event on Xbox Live in an attempt to get people excited for the app.

As it turned out, those 30,000 extra heads on top of the paid subscribers was too much for the service to handle, and anyone trying to watch the event on Xbox Live was met with crashes, excessive stuttering, erratic picture quality, and even a reset of the broadcast back to an earlier point, according to BitMob’s Dan Hsu.

Following the disastrous debut, Hsu reached out to Microsoft for comment on the myriad problems users were faced with when trying to watch UFC 141. Here’s what a Microsoft spokesperson had to say:

“The broadcast of UFC 141 through the UFC for Xbox LIVE application was hampered by technical issues appearing in the hours leading up to the fight. Despite restoring service to some users during the course of UFC 141, there is a great deal of room for improvement. All 30,00 users who registered to view UFC 141 for free will be provided access to a future fight at no cost.

“We want to ensure that the 30,000 giveaway recipients for UFC 141 have an optimal experience with UFC on Xbox LIVE, and we are currently working with our partners at the UFC to ensure we deliver just that. The gamertags of the 30,000 users who registered for UFC 141 are being safely kept on file for free access to a future UFC event, and we will have more updates to share in the near future.”

Did you (attempt to) watch UFC 141 on Xbox Live? Let us know in the comments.

Source: BitMob