Old school Xboxers offered Halo incentives

Impending excommunication

Just weeks before  for the original Xbox is permanently removed from Microsoft's Live online service, the company has announced a raft of measures to keep angry Halo 2 players happy.

As compensation for being deprived of their favourite game, Master Chief fans will have the pain of excommunication eased with the offer of a guaranteed place on the beta programme for Halo Reach, the company's much-anticipated multi player arena shooter, a three month extension of their Gold Live membership, and 400 free Microsoft points which are worth about four quid and can be spent in the Live Marketplace.

The original Xbox is being disconnected from the online community because of a major update to the Xbox Live service. After April 15th original Xbox games will no longer work online.