Major Nelson has confirmed that the Xbox Live service will cease to support the original Xbox and it's games from April

Writing on his blog the Xbox Live programming director said: "I wanted to let you know that on April 15, 2010, Microsoft will discontinue Xbox LIVE service for original Xbox consoles and games, including Xbox 1 games playable on Xbox 360."

"Our first step in this process will be to turn off auto-renewals for those members who only use Xbox LIVE on a v1 Xbox. While I can’t comment on the specifics, this change will allow us to continue evolving the LIVE service with new features and experiences that fully harness the power of Xbox 360 and the Xbox LIVE community."

Major Nelson added that the decision was not taken lightly, and should make Live more flexible for future features. The 20 most-played online original Xbox titles of 2009 are listed below:

1    Halo 2
2    Star Wars: Battlfront 2
3    Fable
4    Counter-Strike
5    Conker: Live Reloaded
6    Doom 3
7    Splinter Cell Chaos
8    SW: KOTOR
9    Star Wars: Battlefront
10    SW: Republic Commando
11    Burnout 3
12    Fable: Lost Chapters
13    Call of Duty 2
14    Call of Duty 3
15    Call of Duty Finest
16    MechAssault 2
17    Crimson Skies
18    Guilty Gear XX
19    Rainbow Six 3
20    Gauntlet Seven Sorrows