I bet Microsoft is happy to see 2007 disappear into the ether. It wasn't a great year for the corporate juggernaut, what with Windows Vista sucking wind, Games for Windows falling flat and the PR nightmare involved in selling a poorly designed game system that malfunctions if you happen to look at it wrong. Hell, in 2007 I went through three Xbox 360s and am now so paranoid that I can't even play the machine without cringing.

Any hope Microsoft had of escaping the final week of 2007 unscathed came to a screeching halt on Christmas morning, shining a blinding spotlight on their collective inadequacies that begs for a corporate shakeup of epic proportions.

Or, to put it another way: Microsoft needs to pull their head out of their ass.

On Christmas Eve I was playing multiplayer Call of Duty 4 with my brother and we were yapping about the general instability of Xbox Live that had been going on for months, ever since the release of Halo 3, followed by the knockout punch of Guitar Hero III and CoD4. We each agreed that the system would buckle on Christmas, thanks to a huge influx of new players who happened to find a shiny new Xbox under their Christmas tree. It wasn't a prediction. It was obvious.

Sure enough, Christmas arrives and, like clockwork, Xbox Live starts crumbling. Suddenly, no one can sign on, no one can connect to games and downloads don't work. The entire infrastructure collapsed. Without any immediate access to entertainment, I did the only natural thing: I followed Major Nelson's Twitter, which represents the only semblance of official Microsoft Xbox statements. Though the problems clearly manifested on December 25th, it wasn't until the 28th that Major Nelson began addressing the problem: Here's what went down: