While I do own an Xbox 360, I almost never buy games on Xbox Live. There are several reasons for that, the most basic being that I have enough problems with people trying to jack my accounts already and I don’t need to invite more of that into my life.
But the biggest reason is Microsoft Points. Microsoft raised a lot of hopes by revealing you could buy movies and music with an actual credit card, like a human being, in Windows 8, only to turn around and crush those hopes by saying that this wouldn’t apply to games.
It’s time to reconsider, Redmond. Here are five reasons Points need to go.
Just Pay The Swipe Fees Like Everyone Else, Microsoft
If you’ve ever wondered why Microsoft instituted points, the answer is simple. Every time you buy a song on your iTunes account, Apple pays a swipe fee. Always has. But if you’re forced to buy Microsoft Points, Microsoft only has to pay one swipe fee!
Yes, a major multibillionaire corporation has decided that it makes more sense to inconvenience you to save a few nickels than it does to just eat the swipe fees, like every other multibillionaire corporation selling crap to you directly in the entire world.
There’s Always Points Left Over
One of the problems in buying points is, as any 360 owner can tell you, the “hot dogs and buns” effect. Just like hot dogs come in packages of seven and buns come in packages of eight, game prices are set by the open market, but points and their value are set by Microsoft. And Microsoft has chosen 80 points on the dollar, for reasons I’ll get into a bit later. The net result is that there’s really no way to buy just the points you need. You’ll wind up either overspending, or underspending.
True, the PlayStation Network has the “wallet”, but the system has been fairly streamlined and we’re talking about pennies at best. I have friends who always have 50 or 60 points left over from purchases.
Once You Buy The Points, There They Stay
I wouldn’t find this so objectionable, honestly, if I could just cash in my damn points. But I can’t. Once I give Microsoft twenty bucks, those twenty bucks are there forever. I can’t get them back. All I can do is spend them on a game. True, this is what I want to do, but the fact that this arbitrary decision has been made and that there is no way to do this.
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But they often work out cheaper. I usually wait to get points in sales, or as pre-order incentives – the conversion is similar here (about 80msp to the pound at retail) But I don’t think I’ve ever paid more than £15 for 2100 points cards. It’s a decent saving and ultimately as a consumer that’s all I care about.
I know you can game the system (sort of, actually with exchange rates you’re kind of getting screwed), but man, I have a job and responsibilities and shit. I don’t want to become an extreme couponer just to buy a video game.
I suppose it’s how you value your time to an extent, but I’m not going out of my way to scrounge a deal on points. If I see them, I know I’ll need them, I pick ‘em up. Fact is Microsoft aren’t going to be offering you any huge savings on digital content, I’ll take what I can get. I’ll actually be sorry to see them go.
I just buy the points cards when they go on sale. Which is frequently, sometimes as much as 25% off on the 4000 point cards. Same with Live. It automatically invalidates any of the points made about paying full retail for either the service or the points when they’re on sale somewhere at least once a month.
Who hasn’t heard of Amazon.com? They run sales more than anybody. I’ve never paid full price for either option. The PSN makes you load a wallet, which I find equally as annoying as points, but there’s never any discount. $10 is $10, and unless you wait for the games to go on sale, you never catch a break. Buying discounted points cards, and using those points to buy discounted games on XBL is a huge savings for the customer.
I’m also happy to pay for Live and the features it offers for the price. XBL has never experienced the problems that the PSN has from time to time.
I semi-agree that points need to go, but it will suck that I won’t be able to game the system anymore. It means I just won’t buy anything on XBL that isn’t on sale.
Yea, I got a year of Live for like $20 on Amazon.
Also, I agree with it being so much better than PSN
Though one time I was playing MW3 and some douchebag kids “hacked” into my account and shut off the internet in my entire house for like an hour. Like how the fuck does that even happen. I’m still confused about it. I guess they got my IP address or some shit.
They need to either get rid of points, or provide them in smaller increments.
I very rarely buy anything on XBL, but I can tell you there have been a few times where I’ve been deterred because I don’t feel like shelling out $20 for points to buy a $5 XBL Arcade game, knowing that the remaining points are going to sit in there for God only knows how long before I find something else to buy.
From a marketing/money perspective, it makes sense, but as a consumer, it needs to change.
“Just like hot dogs come in packages of seven and buns come in packages of eight”
Where in the FUCK are you buying your groceries?
I like the Xbox controllers much better then the Playstations. That is all the reason I need to stay.