MS explains Xbox Live downtime

Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb has explained that Xbox Live was taken down earlier to pave the way for new social features like Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm.

We thought you might have been worried.

Those features arrive in full later this year, and mean socialites like Eurogamer TV's Johnny Minkley can keep the world abreast of their movements from the safety of their sofas. Fascinating. Put the Twitter down.

The update should only take a few minutes if you are yet to be prompted to patch.