The Seattle Times has reported a class action lawsuit against Microsoft over Xbox Live downtime during the holidays.

It’s interesting to note that Microsoft’s response was to salve the wound with a free Xbox Live Arcade download rather than by granting a free extension to the Live contracts commensurate with time lost. Even if different gamers lost variable amounts of time, it seems that awarding all Live users a service extension of a week or two would be unlikely to wreck the Microsoft financial dreadnaught.