When Microsoft first pitched the Xbox One to gamers, it sold them the idea of an always-connected game console. Now, the console's dedication to its online services are causing problems. After Core Xbox Live Services failed earlier today, thousands of Xbox One consoles failed to boot up, leaving hapless gamers staring at what looked like an foreboding black screen of death.

The good news? Those consoles weren't actually dead -- they just froze up when they failed to sign into Xbox Live. Unfortunately, that means those same consoles had to live in a state of limbo until Microsoft got Xbox Live back up and running. Microsoft says it's working on it, writing on Twitter that its engineers have identified the cause.

The issues surrounding Xbox One console startup, sign-in, title update errors, and our status page have now been resolved. Thank you for sticking with us while our teams addressed these issues and we appreciate the reports. As always, we're here and we're listening. — Xbox Support (@XboxSupport) January 30, 2019

Sure enough, most users on Twitter are reporting that the situation has been fixed for them, advising others to reboot the system to get past the black screen and log into their Xbox Live accounts -- but a few folks are still having trouble. If you're still having trouble, some have been able to coax the console into running offline if they disable their Wi-Fi router or disconnect the console from Ethernet.

Microsoft's relatively quick fix for the outage is reassuring, but it does raise some questions about how the Xbox One will fare in the future. Historically, consoles eventually see their online services shuttered, which effects them in various ways. The original Xbox lost access to online services years ago, and just this week, Nintendo shuttered the original Wii Shop. If anything, today's incident shows that the Xbox One might not be ready for a disconnected future.

CNET has reached out to Microsoft for a comment on the situation.