Celebrate 10 Years of Xbox Live With Free Stuff

[tippy2k2]

You know what?!?! This is bull-shit!

They're giving me a free game! The fucking nerve of these companies...

But I stopped and looked around and realized that a ton of businesses that are fucking us over. Open your eyes Sheeple!

Spoiler

Best buy gave me a pair of headphones: What am I going to do with these Best Buy? Now I have to buy an iPod to use them! The nerve!

Taco Bell gave me a coupon for a free burrito but get this! They expect me to buy a soft drink in order to use the coupon! Well I for one will never shop at Taco Bell again!

Oprah gave me a free car but you know what? She didn't pay the taxes on it and now I have to pay a couple of grand for it! Fucking *****....

The Escapist gave me a free 360 when I won one of their contests! You know what Escapist, I see what you're doing here...now that I have a 360, you expect me to pay for the electricity to run it! And I'm going to need somewhere to put it so now I have to buy/rent a place to live! Oh...and games aren't free! And a controller!?!?! I didn't realize The Escapist was giving me such a large bill when they gave me the 360!

Anyone else see the whining here and instantly thought of Principal Skinner on the Simpsons and his quote (not exact but you'll get the point):

Edna: We should ask for fine china!
Skinner: Mother's China works just fine.
Edna: I don't just want your mothers stuff!
Skinner: Oh, I suppose our wedding guests will also pay for heated water and soap in order to wash these new dishes?

All well, people can act like Microsoft has just murdered a school bus full of orphans. I for one will happily download my free game and pick up Bastion at half price since everyone raves so much about it...

 

[Akisa]

It's a bad thing because of the spirit of it. The only free game they're giving away is for the kinect, they are just trying to boost the sales. And the only games which are on sale are indie games or dated games which they don't lose much revenue for, which gives them better PR as it says "OMG MICRO$OFT $ALE!"

So a company trying to give away something free in order to boost sales is bad? Is there any company (except charities) who gives away free stuff just to see a few smiles?

Sure when a company tries to get good will of the customers. Also for situations when it's not for a smile they sometimes they give away free stuff as a tax right off. For example lets say your company bought 30 computers for about 800 each new, after few years they're not worth a dam. However you claim it as a loss when donating those computers to a school or something. Why do you think many school labs had crappy computers?

 

[Yopaz]

It's a bad thing because of the spirit of it. The only free game they're giving away is for the kinect, they are just trying to boost the sales. And the only games which are on sale are indie games or dated games which they don't lose much revenue for, which gives them better PR as it says "OMG MICRO$OFT $ALE!"

So a company trying to give away something free in order to boost sales is bad? Is there any company (except charities) who gives away free stuff just to see a few smiles?

Sure when a company tries to get good will of the customers. Also for situations when it's not for a smile they sometimes they give away free stuff as a tax right off. For example lets say your company bought 30 computers for about 800 each new, after few years they're not worth a dam. However you claim it as a loss when donating those computers to a school or something. Why do you think many school labs had crappy computers?

You wither quoted the wrong person or you misunderstood me completely.

You have only made my point more clear by naming examples. Giving away stuff for free is (almost) always about gain for the company and not for the smiles.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Way to take a happy occasion and trash it with your cynicism, guys. Really? You came here to complain, yet again, about Micro$oft's business practices that at this point is far beyond old news? How about talking about something else for a change?

Maybe if the promised gamerpic was indeed available as it claimed to be, one might have had less cause for complaint. As it is there's a gamerpic I can't get, a game I can't play, 4 games I won't buy to celebrate an overpriced service run by a company who are happy for hackers to steal their customers' money regularly and do nothing about it.

That's not cynicism, it's reality. They actually couldn't have come up with a more pathetic "celebration-offer" if they tried. Steam has sales of up to 75% daily and weekly. Summer, Xmas and Hallooween for 1-2 weeks for 10s of titles, AAA and Indie. Maybe if MS put 50 games on huge discounts, available to all members, worldwide, gave something free away every day for a week, one month of gold to get everyone using their chargeable service (remarkably for a paid service, also gives ads. Hmmm....) and things like that, there'll be something to talk about.

Yes, it's very happy. Happy 10th birthday you hacker filled, ad-supported, over-priced, elitist service.