Update, 4:10 p.m.: The service is now back, Microsoft says. Here’s the updated message on the Xbox Live status page: “If you were one of the members who was having issues signing in to Xbox LIVE, good news! This issue has been fixed! Thank you so much for your patience during this time, feel free to go enjoy your favorite games and content!”

Original post follows.

If you’re looking to play some multiplayer Halo or watch Netflix movies on your Xbox 360 right now, you’re out of luck.

Microsoft is reporting a significant Xbox Live outage, rendering the service unavailable since earlier this afternoon, smack in the middle of the peak weekend usage period. The outage is preventing users from signing in to Xbox Live, blocking access to the online services normally available through the console.

As of 3:30 Pacific time, the company said on its service status dashboard, “There is still an issue members are having signing in to Xbox LIVE, we greatly appreciate you sticking it out with us while we work as hard as we can to get this problem fixed. Keep checking back here every 30 minutes for another update on our progress.”

I’ve contacted Microsoft to see if there’s any explanation beyond that. In the meantime, in our house, we’ve plugged the Mac into the TV via the HDMI port to get our weekend fix of Thomas and Friends.

Follow-up: Xbox Live outage caused by network configuration problem