Have you ever been hit with the, “Sorry, we can’t upload your picture right now. Try again in a little while.”; message while trying to upload a fresh gamerpic on Xbox Live? When you read it, do you imagine Dennis Nedry’s screen saver from Jurassic Park and start hearing the words, “ah ah ah, you didn’t say the magic word, ah ah ah.”
You’re not alone, this error message has been greeting Xbox Live users who are trying to upload custom gamerpics since earlier this year, when Microsoft disabled the ability to do so through Xbox Live. But Microsoft has announced that they are allowing people to upload custom gamerpics now.
So what was the hold up?
The temporary change came in part to an increase in users during the nation wide stay-at-home orders and Microsoft having to manually review every Xbox Live gamerpic to ensure that they meet community guidelines, the result was an error message that said to try again.
How many!?
To provide some sort of perspective to the increase in Xbox Live traffic during the pandemic, last quarter alone saw over 90 million active users, which comes to about a 42 percent growth in the active Xbox
Live population. If that wasn’t enough of an increase, Xbox Game Pass subscribers surpassed 10 million, and Microsoft has seen 270 million new people come together via friend relationships. (I love it when
people come together!)
Only short-term…
As stated, the change was a temporary one and Xbox Live users can now add those custom Xbox Live gamerpics to their profile pictures one again, pending an Xbox Live moderation team approval of course! Image files
can be uploaded as profile pictures across all Microsoft outlets including PCs operating Windows 10, Xbox One consoles, Xbox mobile apps, and other Xbox Live devices.
On the flip side, the ease of the restriction may indicate a reduction load in Xbox services as the nation slowly returns to normal and government restrictions gradually diminish.