Update: Xbox (A)Live

At least Major Nelson was told he was banned

After spending hours on the phone with Microsoft "customer service," Hikari Japan has finally gotten back on line with Xbox Live. On a whim, we decided to test our old forcibly canceled gamertag to see if we could sign up for a 3-month Gold Membership. To our joy, we discovered that our "Kurairyu" gamertag has been granted permission to go Gold by the powers that be at Microsoft. Though this new discovery was a welcome one, we are still puzzled as to why we were not contacted by a representative as promised. However, if we consider that they never informed us when we were canceled, it shouldn't really be too surprising.

Perhaps this is in line with protocol over at Microsoft or part of a new marketing campaign. "Xbox 360, so next generation you won't know what's coming! Always keep 'em guessing!" We won't complain too much though. At least the problem has been resolved. So much for customer service.