Xbox Live having issues, hacker group claims responsibility for taking it offline [update]

Xbox owners are reporting difficulties connecting to Xbox Live and a hacker group with a history of targeting online gaming services is claiming responsibility for taking the network offline.

For the past hour, Xbox 360 and Xbox One owners have reported that they've been unable to connect to Xbox Live. Consoles are responding with the 80151909 error code — it warns that an Xbox Live profile has failed to download — when users attempt to sign in. Our own attempts to sign in to Xbox Live from consoles and through Xbox.com have been unsuccessful.

Microsoft's Xbox support site doesn't indicate their are any current issues with Xbox Live services or apps.

The hacker group Lizard Squad indicated on Twitter that it is responsible for taking Xbox Live offline. The group, which describes itself as "kings" of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, tweeted that it was preparing for a larger attack at Christmas on Xbox Live and that today was a "small dose of what's to come."

Earlier this year, the group claimed responsibility for a similar attack on Sony's PlayStation Network, as well as denial-of-service attacks on individual online games like Grand Theft Auto 5, League of Legends, Destiny and more.

We've reached out to Microsoft for more information on the status of Xbox Live.

Update: Xbox Live is back.