They say there are only two things for sure in life: death and taxes. In the US, Tax day is April 15 and for original Xbox games, death comes the same day.

Microsoft has announced they’ll be shutting down online gameplay servers for all original Xbox games, including ones that are compatible with XBox 360. Star Wars Battlefront, Counter Strike, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Conker Live & Reloaded, and Halo 2 will no longer have online gameplay available.

Marc Whitten from the Xbox Live team posted an open letter to the community this morning detailing the closure and vague promises that shifting resources will allow new features in the future.

Those who don’t want to give up the original Xbox games or its community should check out XboxConnect, which has run unofficial servers for years.

Until that day comes, Powet will likely plan at least one last outing for Halo 2 so keep an eye out for a future game night.

In a week with scheduling problems and technical difficulties, the last thing we wanted to do was let you down with out something to listen to.

So we did some crate digging and put together a synthesizer powered podcast of 15 songs to get your weekend off right.

EDIT: This podcast is no longer available via our home page.

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