Xbox One owners across the globe are facing mysterious black screens upon turning on their consoles. All Xbox One consoles we've tested at Windows Central present the issue, preventing them from accessing menus, games… and essentially anything. Similarly, Microsoft's Xbox Live gaming network appears to be down, signaling a widespread issue across its gaming platform.

While details on the black screen are scarce, the bug appears to stem from a recent Xbox service update. As detailed by Xbox Insider Program head, Brad Rosetti, via Twitter, Microsoft plans to roll back the service change, aiming to correct the fault spanning Xbox One consoles worldwide. Microsoft's official Xbox Support Twitter account has also acknowledged reports, with the team "continuing to address" the issue.

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

Our teams have identified the cause for our earlier issues and are continuing to address these now. Thank you for your patience, we'll update again when we know of any other changes. — Xbox Support (@XboxSupport) January 30, 2019

We are aware of reports of Xbox One console startup, title update and sign-in errors. We will keep everyone informed once we have more information to share. Thank you all for your patience. — Xbox Support (@XboxSupport) January 30, 2019

As of publication, no formal workaround has surfaced for the black screen bug. Equally, there's no estimated time for when Microsoft will issue a fix. However, it highlights a clear dilemma in the world of internet-connected consoles, where a single misstep can render millions of consoles unusable. We'll be sure to update this post as new details surface.