Xbox Live Switches to Real Money Today

[Andy Chalk]

Xbox Live Switches to Real Money Today

Today is the day that Xbox Live begins using local currency for online purchases.

Following through on a promise made back in May [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/124042-Report-Microsoft-Ditches-Points-For-Next-Xbox], Microsoft has announced that today's Xbox Live update will flip the switch on real-money purchases. "Today, we're announcing the release of the Fall (or Spring depending on where you are from) 2013 Xbox Live Update for Xbox 360," Major Nelson revealed on his blog. "It brings several features for Xbox Live members, chief among them the ability to buy content on Xbox 360 using local currency."

You'll be prompted to download the patch the next time you log into Xbox Live and the impression I get is that you don't have a choice in the matter, so it's not exactly brain surgery. "After that, when you go to initiate a purchase or redeem a Microsoft points card through your Xbox 360, we'll add to your Microsoft account an amount of currency equal to or greater than the Xbox Marketplace value of your Microsoft points," the Major wrote. "We'll also continue to accept purchased Microsoft points cards and codes until further notice."

An FAQ [http://support.xbox.com/en-US/billing-and-subscriptions/account-management/microsoft-points-retire-faq] on the Xbox support site breaks the transition down in detail and notes that some DLC is still priced in Microsoft points, which will be translated into local currency during the purchase process (but before the purchase is actually made). It also states that while Xbox Live accounts can be moved between regions once every three months, currency in the account will not move with it, so use it or lose it.

Source: Major Nelson [http://majornelson.com/2013/08/26/the-next-xbox-live-update-for-xbox-360-is-here/]


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[Ghonzor]

Can I be the first to say "Finally"?
Why Xbox Live wasn't using real money in the first place never ceases to amaze me.

 

[MCerberus]

Let's just hope they won't sell the credit in fixed sums. You know, the iTunes $10, $20 ect. codes.

Otherwise this would be utterly pointless.

Except that fun bucks screw with your brain on the subconscious level to obscure how much money you're actually spending. Plus they currently had a lot of items that you couldn't buy with fun bucks, making the whole thing several levels of stupid.

 

[synobal]

Let's just hope they won't sell the credit in fixed sums. You know, the iTunes $10, $20 ect. codes.

Otherwise this would be utterly pointless.

Ya that is what annoys me about the Steam Wallet but I guess it isn't a big deal since you can always directly pay for stuff and avoid the wallet all together.

 

[Kinitawowi]

My 7460 points (I had a lot stacked up from the Microsoft ExpertZone) became £63.58. My cousin's girlfriends 100 points became £1.02.

Tell me again how this is better?

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Yeah, downloaded the new update this morning. Seems ok, apart from one thing - in a two hour play session my 360 had to be rebooted five times as a result of repeated system freezes. Don't know if this is related to the new update but before the update I'd maybe, maybe, get one freeze from an entire week of usage. Hopefully this is just an unlucky coincidence, but if it's not then Microsoft have some patching to do.

EDIT - Make that six in two and a half hours.

EDIT 2 - ************! Make that seven in three and a half hours! This is getting really annoying.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Let's just hope they won't sell the credit in fixed sums. You know, the iTunes $10, $20 ect. codes.

Otherwise this would be utterly pointless.

Except that fun bucks screw with your brain on the subconscious level to obscure how much money you're actually spending. Plus they currently had a lot of items that you couldn't buy with fun bucks, making the whole thing several levels of stupid.

This is why when I did buy something on there, I always did the math to know how much it actually cost. When I got tired of that and some other things, I stopped paying for live and quit buying things on PS3, Wii, and Xbox.

I hate how they all hold your own money ransom in an online wallet after you buy something that wasn't the total cost of the play money you bought, to give you the feeling that you need to spend that spend more money so you can use what is left in your online wallet. (The term for this escapes me at the moment, but it is the same principle as dumping money into a cheap junk car that needs thousands put into the cost of parts to keep it running.)

 

[Quiet Stranger]

My question is about this is will they ever change out from point cards and just go the way of (what I think everyone else does) money cards?

 

[thehorror2]

It's nice they stopped using the carney system: Sell stuff that costs 10 of something, offer the necessary somethings in packs of 4. Now you've got to buy 3 packs and deal with the extra 2 somethings left over. It's wasted money unless you buy another 2 packs and spend them on something you might not even want.

Yeah. It was a transparent screwing over of their customers when they based the XBLA off of points in the first place, but I'm happy they repealed it.

 

[Strazdas]

SO now regional differences in pricing wil lbe easier to see. yay i guess.

 

[Elijin]

As an Australian, this is great. In the change over to real money, we gained price parity on most of the available items. Its hard to understand why thats great unless you're Australian. (But it is, trust me)

 

[FoolKiller]

Well this just sucked in a sneaky bastard sort of way. While I gained more currency than I technically should have had marginally, MS is stealing it back again thanks to some bad logic.

I bought a points card for $20 plus tax.
The items with point values never needed tax because we paid it upfront on the card.
Now the new system charges me tax on the purchase.
In the end, I lost over 250 points of value due to the double taxation.

 

[Evonisia]

I'm going to miss the Microsoft Points in all honesty, and I'm also unsure on whether I prefer the 360's shade of green or the One's shade of green.

 

[Elijin]

Well this just sucked in a sneaky bastard sort of way. While I gained more currency than I technically should have had marginally, MS is stealing it back again thanks to some bad logic.

I bought a points card for $20 plus tax.
The items with point values never needed tax because we paid it upfront on the card.
Now the new system charges me tax on the purchase.
In the end, I lost over 250 points of value due to the double taxation.

Apparently this makes being an Australian doubly awesome for once, since we get price parity without getting double taxed, so we get....better prices?