Microsoft Revoking Free Fallout 4 Copies Grabbed Due to Xbox Store Error

[ffronw]

Microsoft Revoking Free Fallout 4 Copies Grabbed Due to Xbox Store Error

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1328/1328395.jpgIf you grabbed Fallout 4 for free on Xbox One yesterday, it will be disappearing from your account.

Yesterday afternoon, Fallout 4's Deluxe Edition Bundle showed up on the Xbox Store for a very attractive price - $0.00. As you can imagine, word of the error spread quickly, and while no numbers are available, you can bet that many people took advantage of the deal to grab a copy for their Xbox One. That version of the game typically runs $109.99, and includes the Season Pass for all the DLC.

Of course, a price like that is too good to be true, and Microsoft has confirmed that any copies obtained due to the error will have their license revoked, and the games will disappear from the user's Xbox One library. Speaking with Neowin [http://www.neowin.net/news/fallout-4-was-accidentally-free-to-download-but-licenses-are-being-revoked], Xbox Support confirmed the error, saying, "Earlier we had a short maintenance on the server, so it happens that some items on the marketplace have been affected. The issue has been fixed now." The support agent also confirmed that copies would be removed. "Those customers who were able to get the Fallout 4 Deluxe Edition for free will be removed under their licenses automatically."

While pricing errors are sometimes honored in cases like these, it's not surprising to see Microsoft revoking these licenses. After all, the mistake went viral, and there's no telling how people were able to take advantage before the error was corrected. Since Fallout 4 isn't a Microsoft product, they'd have to shell out whatever the agreed-upon price is to Bethesda for each copy "sold" like this. That's not a cost Microsoft is likely to eat.

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[lacktheknack]

inb4 people complaining that "a good company would have let me get away with taking $110 worth of stuff for free against their will".

 

[Bob_McMillan]

A good company would have let me get away with taking $110 worth of stuff for free against their will!

Can anyone give an example of when companies let the people keep the free shit?

 

[Covarr]

I'm just glad they're not calling hax and banning anyone who took advantage of this, like some companies might do.

P.S. Thanks

 

[-Dragmire-]

I may be remembering this wrong but isn't this the second time this has happened with Fallout 4?

EDIT:

Ah, this is what I was thinking of.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/166955-Free-PS4-Fallout-4-Season-Passes-Revoked-by-Sony-Due-to-EU-Pricing-Error

 

[Amaror]

A good company would have let me get away with taking $110 worth of stuff for free against their will!

Can anyone give an example of when companies let the people keep the free shit?

Back when some of the grey market Far Cry 4 keys turned out to be stolen and Ubisoft revoked them, they reactivated them a few days later.

 

[Solkard]

A good company would have let me get away with taking $110 worth of stuff for free against their will!

Can anyone give an example of when companies let the people keep the free shit?

Maybe not free, but I remember several times when Steam left off a 0 in a price listing of a game, and Valve let people who bought it at an extreme discount, keep it.

 

[Erttheking]

A good company would have let me get away with taking $110 worth of stuff for free against their will!

Can anyone give an example of when companies let the people keep the free shit?

Microsoft let players keep the Halo 4 map packs when they released them early by accident.

 

[mysecondlife]

Its Microsoft's right to do so but it makes me think twice before buying digital goods from both Microsoft and Sony.

 

[irish286]

If only it was a lower price instead of free. Then they would have had to honor the error.

 

[anonymity88]

A good company would have let me get away with taking $110 worth of stuff for free against their will!

Can anyone give an example of when companies let the people keep the free shit?

Microsoft let players keep the Halo 4 map packs when they released them early by accident.

Did players still pay for them, or were they free to dl anyway? Because if either is the case then there's not a real correlation as the firm won't have lost out.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

A good company would have let me get away with taking $110 worth of stuff for free against their will!

Can anyone give an example of when companies let the people keep the free shit?

In my country they have to do that. If the price was X on the shelf when you got it legally, they must, by law, give you the product for that price.

EDIT: Or I might be mixing something up. Maybe not when it's "free" but only when the wrong price is listed. But then again, making the price "free" is still a price. Dunno.

 

[Erttheking]

A good company would have let me get away with taking $110 worth of stuff for free against their will!

Can anyone give an example of when companies let the people keep the free shit?

Microsoft let players keep the Halo 4 map packs when they released them early by accident.

Did players still pay for them, or were they free to dl anyway? Because if either is the case then there's not a real correlation as the firm won't have lost out.

Other players still had to pay for it. It was a ten dollar pack and some people got it for free.

 

[Janaschi]

I am glad that Bethesda/Microsoft did this. Unless a pricing error is on purpose, as a publicity stunt, opportunistic assholes should be called out for being exactly what they are: opportunistic assholes.

Personally, I would go further than that, and penalize the offending accounts, too. Parasites just would not appeal to me as customers that I would care about keeping.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Its Microsoft's right to do so but it makes me think twice before buying digital goods from both Microsoft and Sony.

Why? It isn't exactly unknown that companies like Valve, Sony, and Microsoft have the ability revoke access to your games on a whim. However, we don't see them abusing it. This case was clearly a response to a serious, costly error. They aren't revoking access among customers who paid for the game fairly, so nothing has really changed for 99.999999999999% of the times we get games digitally from Valve, Sony, Microsoft, or anyone else.

 

[Quellist]

I think Microsoft missed an opportunity here. Announce a 24 hour free period for those 'buyers' and any of them that purchase the game properly in that time get 20% discount.

Goodwill plus more sales might have resulted.

Still, can't fault them for taking back what's theirs.

 

[Zydrate]

A good company would have let me get away with taking $110 worth of stuff for free against their will!

Can anyone give an example of when companies let the people keep the free shit?

Maybe not free, but I remember several times when Steam left off a 0 in a price listing of a game, and Valve let people who bought it at an extreme discount, keep it.

I got something, I think it was Tropico 3 for a glitched 99% off. I still have it.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

It's perfectly in Microsoft's right to do this, but the move is a scary reminder of what could happen to paying customer's licenses if a company ever went off the deep end. (It would have been an awesome shitstorm if Konami had their own online store and revoked old game licenses just to spite everyone. They would be the top candidate for such a super bad business move, if they ran an online market.)

Can anyone give an example of when companies let the people keep the free shit?

In my country they have to do that. If the price was X on the shelf when you got it legally, they must, by law, give you the product for that price.

I've heard of different mail order companies letting customers keep some extra merchandise shipped to them by accident, even when the items' worth is well over the cost of return shipping. Of course, that may have to do with consumer protection laws preventing sellers from offloading unwanted surplus merchandise on their consumers or trying to get extra money from the transaction.

I wonder how MS (or any other store) would have reacted if it was the physical copies that was listed for free or a very low price, and the copies were actually shipped? Companies have the right to cancel in-progress orders for reasons like pricing errors (but can't charge more that the amount the buyer ordered the merchandise at, without the buyer's consent). Although once the item reaches the buyer's door, I think most jurisdictions around the world say that item is the buyer's. Anyone, feel free to chime in on their local laws about that.

EDIT: Or I might be mixing something up. Maybe not when it's "free" but only when the wrong price is listed. But then again, making the price "free" is still a price. Dunno.

I believe, in most (or all) of the US, paying the agreed upon price at the register and getting the receipt that lists all of the items you bought means anything on that receipt are now yours. Maybe there are laws about "gross errors" on pricing in some places, but the cashier would (should) probably notice a giant TV ringing up for way less than common sense would say it's worth. I guess, if something was missed by the cashier but noticed on your way out, the store could ask for it back or payment.

Now messing with the stickers to pay less for something is big no no. I'm pretty sure most jurisdictions label that as plain theft. [small]So, kid's, don't try this at home... err in the store.[/small]

 

[votemarvel]

Reminds me of the time they accidentally game away the full version of Fable II instead of the Demo (or Episode 1 as they called it.)

They did revoke the license for the full version but it would still play fine. However if you deleted the game for some reason, only the demo would be listed. The 360 seems to handle DRM much better than the One.

 

[JayRPG]

This close to E3? If I were Microsoft I would have just wore the losses.

No matter which side of the argument you are on (I'm sure most of us sane people are on the side that revoking the licenses is absolutely fine), there's no denying that there will be a large vocal group shouting about how they should have been able to keep it for whatever reason.

MS look likely to be announcing 2 new Xbox One consoles at E3.. which will likely be met with anything but good press, the last thing they need is more bad press right now.

It may have a $110 listing price but that wouldn't be anywhere near close to what MS pays Bethesda, and if they really didn't want to wear the losses they could have opened up a discussion with Bethesda, they could have offered discounts if people were willing to purchase it etc. At the end of the day I would have thought that MS could afford to take the hit in exchange for some extremely positive press ahead of E3, rather than do this and likely face some sort of backlash.