Aaron Greenberg: MS “never intended to mislead people” with MS Points

I don’t even have 10 friends, let alone 100.

It was great… until it fell apart when they launched games on demand and titles started having different point prices everywhere. There was something really good about seeing x amount of points in a news story or press release and knowing that’s how much you’d be paying for it (vs seeing it in dollars and having to go hunting for the other prices).

As for misleading people… you should always assume that people are dumb as bricks and can’t work out the value of things for themselves.

Might seem a bit much but it would be nice to be able use points or cash when making a purchase. For xmass we recieved a lot of MS point cards, but the kids can’t use em to buy a game from games on demand.

I’ll be your friend Steph. Oh wait, I don’t have a 360…

They can, OlderGamer. Select a GOD title and you should see an on screen prompt to change your payment method between a credit card and points.

We looked into that, almost bought the Bioshock game on accident. Is this avalible in the US? Something we missed somehow?

Plus we noticed that this year they added a MS points cap. I believe it was 10,000 points. Like I said we got em for xmass. Everyone asks what the kids want, and instead of crap they won’t use, we say MS points. Got a ton of em.

Who wants to have more than 100 friends? You couldnt play a game properly anymore with all these popups all the time…but getting rid of ms points finally would be great…

Hmm, well I am assuming it’s the same for the US because, well, why wouldn’t it be?

In any case, you pick your game, click Buy, then when the confirmation box pops up you can press Y to switch between credit card and points.

I will be relooking into this Aimless. I’ll let ya know.

You should be able to set an option to whether or not notices of pals coming online popped up or not. Esp when watching a damn Netflix movie. >:(

You can Steph, lest you used to be able to. I think you still can somewhere. I am going to have to sit down with my xbox and give a looking at.

He is right you know. 1600 points cost $20 in the US and €20 in Europe. Exactly the same!

Oh wait…

Where did he say anything that contradicts that?

I’m just saying that even if the points are the same the value is still different which is misleading.

Greenberg is talking complete shit, the points system is entirely based on taking more of your money than necessary. If that wasn’t the case then why is it not possible to buy the exact number of points you need?

For example, if you want to buy Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD it’s 1200 points on XBLAh. So you have to buy 1000 points and then another 500, which costs £12.75. On the PSN, Sony just charge £11.99 for the game. Obviously MS are happily earning interest off all the extra cash…

I think Nintendo are doing the same with the Wii, but it’s ages since I’ve bought anything for the Virtual Machine.

“I’m just saying that even if the points are the same the value is still different which is misleading.”

Until we operate on a one world currency and tax rate that’s always going to be the case… all people need to know is what they pay for the points (and by extension what they pay for the games).

Which why I’m all for a world currency. Never going to happen.
UK could start by joining the Euro though.

MS and Nintendo really do need to fix this stuff. It so stinks to have just under or even just over the amount you need. Because either way your going to be buying more points to even things out.

“Which why I’m all for a world currency. Never going to happen.”

Only after the Europe vs US war.

The one advantage of Microsoft Points is that you can often buy them quite a bit cheaper than the RRP, essentially giving you a discount on products which are otherwise a fixed price.

Luckily you can purchase PSN credit in card form now, meaning PS3/PSP owners get the best of both worlds. For instance you can buy £20 of credit for £15.73 from The Hut.

@17 – if that happens while I am still living, I am going to live off the land holed up in a cave up in the Rockies.

@Bulk Slash: Last time I used it, Sony still charged a minimum of £5 to your wallet. It’s a bit better as it’ll only add what you need, but I frankly prefer points.

The raised prices on PSN after the £ shat itself being a prime example of why.

/Buys points, PSN cards cheaper than RRP

I believe the £5 minimum charge is so that Sony don’t lose out due to the service charges involved in transactions.

For PSN titles it isn’t much of an issue as they’re generally £5 or more anyway, but things like Rock Band songs or Home items are more problematic: if people are buying a bit of virtual tat for 50p, Sony might have to use 5-10p of that just to cover service charges with the banks. That transaction fee is a flat number, so by having a minimum charge Sony don’t lose out as much on those people buying multiple small items. (Those aren’t accurate figures, if you were wondering.)

I’m not in favour of the system, but I can see why it is the way it is.

Lol, I’ll be your friend Steph. L4D2 anyone?

@Retroid

Thanks for pointing that out. I’ve only recently got a PS3 and my purchases have all been a fair bit over the £5 mark!

‘Thanks for POINTING that out’

Ohhh onlineatron you kidder, you really get right to the POINT

Thanks Yoshi, I fear our puns may get to the POINT of no return.

(God that was awful)

Dont worry onlineatron… the POINT is that you tried.

I’m sort of torn on points. On the one hand I like how you can buy them more cheaply from other places. On the other hand I don’t like how you’re forced to buy more than you actually need.

Then again, I think if buying stuff was easier I’d buy a lot more. Which sort of makes it a good thing that it isn’t.