This is quite a bad news for all Xbox Live players and Windows Azure users.

Per reports, a number of Microsoft online services were suffering from problems, with both Xbox Live and the Windows Azure cloud service in the middle of extensive outages.

Several Xbox users faced issues accessing data and saved games in the cloud. Also affected was SmartGlass, alongside Xbox Live Karaoke and ESPN apps. It was stated that the problem had been ongoing for quite some time (several hours, to be precise) and appeared to get even worse. The company later added Xbox Live functionality for ‘Halo 4’to the official site on the list of affected services.

In an update posted even later at 9:03PM ET, Microsoft stated: "We are still working as fast as we can to fix the issue." The company also added a bit later that Xbox Music and Video services were now affected as well, and that users may not be able to browse, stream, or buy audio and video content at the Xbox Music and Video Store (also known as Zune Marketplace).

The good news here is that Microsoft has now confirmed that all Xbox Live services including Music and Video are now back in order as usual, and have been listed as working normally. Also, it seems like Windows Azure is slowly coming back online, although according to Microsoft's status page, as many as 43 services are still affected by the outage.

As far as the issue is concerned, per The Verge, the problem “may be related to another service interruption, this one affecting the company's Windows Azure cloud platform.”

“At the time of this writing, 52 different services are currently listed as either offline or suffering from degraded performance. Microsoft explains that Azure's storage service is currently down worldwide ‘due to an expired certificate’.”

The company also stated that it was "validating the recovery options before implementing them," and would keep users informed with further updates.

“It's not specifically stated that the Azure outage is responsible for the Xbox Live problems, but given that both revolve around storage issues the timing is certainly suspect,” The Verge added.