If you've been following us here at Pure Xbox for a couple of years, you'll probably recall something called Insignia. It was announced back in 2020 as a replacement for the original Xbox Live, which sadly shut down in 2010.
The team has been slowly chipping away at Insignia since then, and plenty of progress has been made. The service, which will reportedly be accessible on any original Xbox console, is slowly preparing for its public beta, during which time it will support 13 titles — with more to come in the future. Here's the list of launch games:
- Counter-Strike
- Crimson Skies, and its Live-enabled demo.
- Dead or Alive Ultimate
- MechAssault, and its Live-enabled demo.
- Midtown Madness 3
- MotoGP: Online Demo
- Phantasy Star Online: Episode I & II
- Star Wars Jedi Academy
- Street Fighter Anniversary Collection
- Unreal Championship
- Whacked! (and it's XBL Starter Kit Demo)
- Xbox Live Arcade
- XIII
The Insignia team has been very active on Twitter recently, constantly posting screenshots of the Xbox Live replacement in action, including tests of countless original Xbox games to try and get them working online in 2022.
At the moment, there's no scheduled release date for Insignia and its public beta, as the team wants to wait until the service is fully ready to unleash it. That said, YouTuber MVG recently got a chance to take part in a closed alpha, and came away extremely impressed with what it had to offer. You can check out that footage down below.
Exciting stuff if you're an OG Xbox fan, then! We'll keep you updated on Insignia as we get more details.
Interested in trying this when it finally arrives? Let us know down in the comments below.
Comments (29)
The only game i would play is 1 vs 100 if they brought it back to live service.
How does this differ from say, XLinkKai, which has been around since the OG Xbox days?
@InterceptorAlpha My understanding is that it's intended to be a complete replacement for Xbox Live, with friends lists and leaderboards and all the other bells and whistles that you don't get with XLinkKai.
@InterceptorAlpha Xlink Kai I believe needs a PC, you connect your Xbox to your PC and it uses the PC's internet connection to connect to other PC's that have Xbox's attached to them. It also only works for games which supported System Link/LAN, it doesn't work with Xbox Live games. It essentially creates an LAN between PC's that the Xbox's can use, like Hamachi or other private networks I guess.
This connects your Xbox directly to a server which all Xbox's will connect to, like how XBox LIVE works now.
Ah, Midtown Madness I loved that series.
@SoulChimera did it come to BC?!? I’d completely forgotten about that gem!
Awww damn, I thought this was an official MS effort. Still sounds cool though. Also, how could they not have Timesplitters 2/3 as an initially supported title? 😭
@Xeno_Aura @FraserG
Interesting! This is something I'd use for sure. Especially seeing Mech Assault being one of the first supported.
Reviving the MP for PSO 1 is pretty dope.
OMG! MechAssault!?! Hellz yeah!
So nice that Microsoft is apparently letting this slide. Anybody else would send out a cease & desist.
Watch prices of original Xbox consoles skyrocket once this service is up and running.
Midtown Madness 3 and Unreal Championship, though? Yes please.
PGR2, Rainbow Six 3, Ghost Recon 2 Summit Strike would be a dream come true.
What about halo 2?
@OliverOwen That was on 360, wasn't it? I do miss that one...
Would be cool if we could get public servers for older games that have shut down there online I've just bought burnout revenge on my Xbox one & really want to play online on it
@InterceptorAlpha I remember using that to get around having to pay for gold lol
I dont have my beast of a machine, the OG Xbox ever since the 360 came out. The MVG video was excellent, but in the long run wont effect me at all unless you can play those games online on the Series X
@SecretSciFi Halo 2... It gets mentioned in the video. Short answer, not yet. That game, among a few others, had additional connections up that the team hasn't cracked... yet.
@Would_you_kindly I used it back in the day a lot for playing mods for different games. Especially Halo 2. Was always a good time.
Wait?! Phantasy Star Online: Episode 1 & 2 will be playable again online?
I might invest in an OG Xbox just for this.
Considering that an OG Xbox is my next console I intend to purchase, this is welcome news indeed!
@Stocksy Unfortunately not, there is only a small selection of original Xbox games in the backwards compatibility program. It would've been an excellent addition as well.
@Auglicious Yes i believe it was, but it was a Live game and i miss it.
@SoulChimera it had licensed cars I guess, so many of my fave OG Xbox games were driving games or licensed. I’m glad we got the Star Wars ones.
Project Gotham, Rallisport 1&2 and Midtown would all have brilliant….
And buffy. I loved that game.
@OliverOwen I loved that game!
DOA Ultimate huh. Interesting.
How do I get into the beta?
@Auglicious can still be played on original Xbox
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