Major Nelson has announced that Xbox Live services for the original Xbox will be completely shut down come April 15. The decision will impact all Live-enabled Xbox titles, whether purchased at retail or digitally as an Xbox Original.

The first step of the move is to shut off all auto-renewal subscription services for those that only use Live on an original Xbox. For the few people out there still kicking it online on their Xbox, we have sympathy for you, we really do.

On the bright side of things, Microsoft says this change will allow them “to continue evolving the LIVE service with new features and experiences that fully harness the power of Xbox 360 and the Xbox LIVE community.” That, coupled with increased “flexibility for future features.” Perhaps the long-standing friends list size limit will finally be increased.

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