Earlier this month, it was rumored that Microsoft might ditch the MS Point system for Xbox Live. In an interview with G4TV, Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg pointed out that it wasn't their intention to mislead people with using Microsoft Points as currency.
"We never intended to ever mislead people," said Greenberg. "We want to be transparent about it, and so it is something that we're looking at.
"How can we be more transparent and let people see it in actual dollars? You've got to think that we have one service that we’re offering around the world. The nice thing about Points is that no matter if you're on the JPY or the EUR or the USD – something that's 200 Points is 200 Points everywhere around the world.
"There's more technical complexities to being able to put local prices in. You have to do that for every product in every country and you then have to deal with currency fluctuations. So there's some challenges to that, but we absolutely did it with the Games on Demand, response has been good and absolutely it’s something we're looking at doing."
What do you think? Should Microsoft ditch MS Points for real currency or stay with the system?
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I personally love the points systems because I don’t believe in using credit cards. So buying points cards at the store for cash works great for me. I would definitely buy less online content if I had to use a credit card to do it.
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Tyler Treat Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 11:13 PM
Excellent point. A point system does allow a broader range of access to digital content since they can be bought with cash. That didn’t even come to mind when I posted this.
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Chino Reply:
January 21st, 2010 at 12:50 AM
They could just release cards in regular currency you could still get at the store. Instead of points. I don’t like the point system either.
Dallin Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 11:37 PM
Whoa! Getting rid of a points system doesn’t stop them from selling cards at stores! They just have to change the cards to say $20 xbox bucks instead of 2400 points. Simple! I guarentee you they won’t stop selling cards if they change.
And this is the best news I’ve heard! I hope they change this. I’ve actually not bought online content because of the points system because what I wanted was totally worth the $10, but i couldn’t buy $10 worth of points because the denominations were funky and I didn’t plan on buying anything else, so the game I wanted wasn’t worth $13.50 or whatever I had to pay. Then I have money in my account that I can’t use and didn’t want to just give to ms. That’s a total rip off – so I didn’t buy it. I don’t support scams anyway, and that’s what I feel the points system is because you can’t ever buy the perfect amount of points for what you want.
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MrCl3an Reply:
January 20th, 2010 at 11:41 PM
Well the denominations here seemed fine to me… $20 bucks got you 1600 MS points and most all live arcade games and add-ons are in multiples of 400 points, so unless I go off and buy a guitar for my avatar for 120 points it’s pretty straight forward.
If they talk about going to the way they do the Games on Demand, you have to use a credit card to buy that stuff. So that’s where my comment came from.
Dallin Reply:
January 21st, 2010 at 2:32 AM
I know quite a few people that have been upset with the denominations, since sometimes you don’t want to buy 1600 points to get something for 400 (if you’re only buying one thing). However, I didn’t know games on demand required a credit card – how stupid. You have a good point. I’m hoping they’d be smart enough to keep the cards because I know you’re not alone in disliking credit card purchases. I’ve bought my xbox live through cards myself and it allows for deals and gifts and such.
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JJ Reply:
January 21st, 2010 at 5:17 AM
You don’t need a credit card to buy Games on Demand. You can buy those using points. There is a button you press to convert the amount to points when buying it. Not sure if it’s Y or X. But I’ve seen it demonstrated in some XBOX360 video.
Right, as of now you need a credit card to purchase Games on Demand, however, if MS changes the entire system they will surely do what Sony does and sell cards in the form of cash instead of points.
I feel they should somehow do both so that they apply to everyone but at this point I feel that’s wishful thinking.
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I just don’t see Points being an effective system for digital content. I mean, it’s what MS uses for both Zune and Xbox 360, but I think using regular currency with the option of buying cash cards would be much more convenient.
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as long as they continue to sell the cards in stores im happy
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[...] Microsoft: ‘We never intended to ever mislead people’ with MS Points. I think I may have just fainted. Did I really just read that. What a LOAD OF ABSOLUTE CRAP. YES, they intended to mislead people, 100% INTENTIONAL. [...]