Xbox owners - I've had an idea...

[Treblaine]

If Microsoft want to make more money they need to copy the Steam model.

Let people link their credit-card DIRECTLY to their account and make it literally a 2-set process to buy a game. But more than that, COMBINE it with huge sales. I mean things like 33% off, 50% off, even 75% off. When valve cut 75% off the cost of the game, sales increase so much they rake in 15 times as much money!!! That's not 15x as much sales, that is 15 times as much money, actual cold hard cash in the bank!

Also Microsoft needs to give you more reason to be logged in all the time.

Right now XBL Gold Membership is too expensive for what it offers. Twitter and facebook integration are not enough, EVERYTHING does that now, it needs to draw on what only it has: a community of gamers.

Microsoft gets $60 per user per year, they need to invest at least half of that in the INFRASTRUCTURE of XBL to hope in growing much more.

Because integration of twitter/Facebook/netflix and so on cost nothing for Microsoft to run and are available on any PC anyway, why pay $60 per year for that privilege?!?

They need something basically beyond what the likes of Steam offers and beyond what Steam even could offer due to the infrastructure costs. I don't know what they can do, TBH, when so many other companies offer so much more for zero fee:
-unlimited uploads/downloads via Youtube
-deep player network (PSN though Steam may be a better example)
-Content delivery already provided via Hulu, Netflix, iPlayer, etc

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Never ever going to happen. If they thought they would make more money with a different system they would already be using it. Big companies like Microsoft are much better at making obscene amounts of money than you. Although I don't like the MS business model. 60 a year is too much for just social networking and gaming online since neither incur any real costs to Microsoft.

 

[Hamster at Dawn]

How about, instead of EVERYTHING being bought wih Gamerscore, only avatar items were. They serve no real purpose, they're purely cosmetic. And as far as I know, they're created by Microsoft, so developers aren't losing out.

This is actually a good idea. I personally think that paying for avatar items is just stupid but unlocking the avatar awards is kind of cool. Making gamerscore the only currency for everything just wouldn't work, though. What could work is if Microsoft gave out bonus MS points at certain gamerscore milestones. Like say when you get to 10,000G you get 400MSP to spend and then maybe 800MSP when you get to 25,000G. Fairly small rewards that can only be earned once and require a fair amount of dedication as well as purchasing of games (more money for MS, everyone wins!). Or we could go back to the avatar items and maybe you get some special item that can only be unlocked with so much gamerscore; any sort of reward would be a nice incentive that gives some meaning to that arbitrary number.

i suggest this: people with gold membership could use their score to get discounts, while free members--like myself--have to pay full price

This could also work: the higher your gamerscore, the higher the discount you get. They'd probably have to stick with fairly small discounts but you still have to invest money in games to get gamerscore so it could actually be quite profitable for MS to do something like this.

 

[Madman123456]

Games would take a long time to come out. People would test it thoroughly to determine if the end mission achievement is harder or easier to get then the end mission achievement of this other completely different game. Games would have to be patched to make this and that achievement harder or easier to get. Every single achievement in every single game would have to be patched.

The 100 pidgeons achievements in GTA4 is easier to get then the 300 nirnroot thingy in Oblivion. OMG!

All in all, i see some flaws in this idea.

 

[Les Awesome]

and we can pay for our college educations and mortgages with gamerscore
oh huzzah

 

[Naeo]

Doing this would require two possible changes to make it work:
1. Eliminate major DLCs that add more than minor new areas/items or DLCs that require a large amount of work from devs.

2. Jack the price of the game way up at purchase.

DLC is a way for both Microsoft and the devs to make money above and beyond the game itself, and neither group is willing to sacrifice an extra source of revenue because gamers don't want to pay for it. However, I do like the idea of gamerscore being something to use for minor DLC unlockables--a new gun, a new piece of armour, a new level, etc. I think that that could be used very well--it both lets gamers who can't or don't want to pay for larger DLC to still get free stuff that has a measurable effect in game beyond aesthetics, it wouldn't require a lot of work from the devs to add small things like a new gun or whatnot compared to adding a larger DLC package and so money wouldn't be as much an issue, and on the dev side it acts as a bait of sorts for people to see what kind of things might be available in DLC and potentially get more people to buy it.

 

[Phoenix Arrow]

What you're proposing is stupid, wouldn't work and would piss off people who want something but don't play Xbox as much as some, like myself. I basically only play it when a game doesn't come out on PC.

What would be a neat idea is if you got a percentage, 10% say, of your gamerscore as MS points. Think about it, you complete a game, get 100 MS points and can use that to buy the DLC.

 

[pretentiousname01]

I already work for my money

I don't want to have to start sifting through shitty games to make money to buy dlc.

The one idea of merit out of it was avatar awards. I wouldn't mind seeing a gs threshold for items. However they would be items specifically made for it. Like 10,000 gs get a hat, 15000 get a shirt etc.

This already happens to an extent. Avatar awards.
Meed certain requirements in game = free avatar items.

truth, however much to my dismay they don't happen often enough

 

[Professor James]

I don't think it would work. Mainly because you'd be using Gamerscore to pay for DLC, and developers wouldn't want that, so they come up with some other form of currency. But ALL developers would create a different currency, so the whole thing becomes a shambles.

How about, instead of EVERYTHING being bought wih Gamerscore, only avatar items were. They serve no real purpose, they're purely cosmetic. And as far as I know, they're created by Microsoft, so developers aren't losing out.

This

Avatar stuff are the only thing that should be bought with Microsoft points. Who the hell buys virtual clothes using real money anyway.

 

[Dango]

I don't see how developers would profit, and this would suck for anyone isn't a hardcore gamer.

 

[chunkeymonke]

snip

Actually that was done because of credit card fees, $.99 purchase on a credit card MS would not get any money but would actually lose money due to fees at $5 a credit card purchase they pretty much break even on cost anything above that is where MS makes its money on points.

Again, while that motivation might be true, it doesn't change the facts. Customers are still getting screwed over to maximise company profit. Other online stores like Steam, iTunes or GoG sell goods at low prices per purchase without forcing customers to pay in 5$ brackets.

sorry nope =/ Steam makes you get it in 5$ minimum purchases.

 

[Moriarty]

snip

Actually that was done because of credit card fees, $.99 purchase on a credit card MS would not get any money but would actually lose money due to fees at $5 a credit card purchase they pretty much break even on cost anything above that is where MS makes its money on points.

Again, while that motivation might be true, it doesn't change the facts. Customers are still getting screwed over to maximise company profit. Other online stores like Steam, iTunes or GoG sell goods at low prices per purchase without forcing customers to pay in 5$ brackets.

sorry nope =/ Steam makes you get it in 5$ minimum purchases.

source? I already made purchases under 1?

 

[stormcrow5]

The big problem i see with that, is gamerscore is limited, and in order to say get some DLC for a game u may be forced to go out and buy some crappy game with easy achevemtns just to get the DLC for the game u like. Yea i say no to this idea

 

[PettingZOOPONY]

snip

Actually that was done because of credit card fees, $.99 purchase on a credit card MS would not get any money but would actually lose money due to fees at $5 a credit card purchase they pretty much break even on cost anything above that is where MS makes its money on points.

Again, while that motivation might be true, it doesn't change the facts. Customers are still getting screwed over to maximise company profit. Other online stores like Steam, iTunes or GoG sell goods at low prices per purchase without forcing customers to pay in 5$ brackets.

sorry nope =/ Steam makes you get it in 5$ minimum purchases.

source? I already made purchases under 1?

You can still make any size purchase on steam, just steam wallet is $5 min. But it does cost them more money to do it compared to the $5 purchases.

 

[zehydra]

What? To replace MS points with gamerscore is pretty much the exact same thing as getting rid of MS points altogether.

And why do we need an incentive to get a gamerscore? What is the purpose of trying to incentivise(spelling) these?

 

[TheHappySquid]

What if you really wanted a download, but had 100% on all your games, or couldn't get the achievements to buy it. Seems kind of unfair that to get dlc, you'd have to buy a whole new game to get the achievements.

The current system's fine. Don't see why they need the monthly charge though, aside from greed. Sony manage without it.

 

[Haydyn]

I like the idea. However, I have been working hard to stop being an achievement whore, and this would not help me. If this were to go through, the first thing I would do is go out and buy Avatar for 1000 Achievement points in the matter of seconds.

 

[qeinar]

so if i wanted to buy something i would have to first buy a game, then play to get the achievements to buy the thing i want? seems like a stupid idea.. also won't happen, gamerscore is just for epeen.

 

[General BrEeZy]

Funny story, when i originally bought a Xbox I thought use could use the gamer points to buy stuff.

Me too! i was disappointed when i learned the truth...sad day but thats how it is. i wont count on something like that but i like the idea, but with the early comment that said they shouldnt get rid of it altogether. it should just be based on gamerscore i think with optional pay-for-points with the MS points...

 

[Above]

Yeah,Using Gamerscore would be great as currency,but the fact is,If say i MODDED gamerscore to 500k,What would be the point? :/ If they do this,it would be great,but they'll have to focus on Stopping GS Modding.

And yes,when i was young and foolish,(3 years back) i had the highest Gamerscore on this Website (502,115),thats why it would be unfair,if you guys were working legit to get it all,and only getting 1-2 Things,i would be able to Get nearly everything,So the whole idea would be unfair.