MS Offers Free Game for Xbox Live Outage
Fri Jan 4, 2008 9:24AM EST
See Comments (10)
After nearly two weeks of spotty Xbox Live service, Microsoft finally apologizes and offers a free Xbox Live Arcade game to members for their trouble.
Anyway, here's the deal: To compensate for the downtime, Microsoft is offering all Live members a free Xbox Live Arcade game; details of how and when we'll get the free games will arrive "in the coming weeks." Given that a month's worth of Xbox Live Gold service costs $8 and the average Arcade games goes for $10, that's a reasonably fair exchange.
That said, I have a few bones to pick. First of all, I'm not quite sure why Microsoft can't just immediately give all Live members 800 Microsoft Points (worth $10) and be done with it; that way, we can spend our points as we choose (on videos, gamer pics, Rock Band song packs, or what have you) rather than waiting for weeks to get a free Arcade game. Or, even better, just comp the month's Live fee. Do that, and all (or most) is forgiven.
Also, couldn't Microsoft have anticipated a jump in Live usage, given that it was probably a good guess (as well as a fond hope for Microsoft) that thousands of people would be unwrapping new Xbox 360s over the holidays? It's frustrating to hear a company crow about the massive growth in its service and then buckle under the strain.
So what do you think: Is a free Arcade game fair compensation for your lost Live service over the holiday?
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2 Posted by sjulien2 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:25PM EDT Report Abuse
Yeah why not just reimburse me the $10 I spent on the darn Halo3 map pack I haven't been able to use!
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3 Posted by bri3783 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:13PM EDT Report Abuse
Given that they don't have to do anything at all... not a bad deal. What do they really care that there was a messed up month of gaming? Say they didn't reimburse, would people still be playing live? Definitely. I'm just happy a corporation is actually trying to make things right for its customers. That being said, it is a lame remuneration.
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4 Posted by matt_archbold2002 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:11PM EDT Report Abuse
To bri3783: If Microsoft's LIVE service was free to play online matches, i would not expect anything for this. BUT since I am paying 60.00 a year for this service, i expect to be reimbursed for not getting that service for an extended lengh of time. I'll tell you one thing. This might not get people to drop their live accounts, but if this become a pattern for a PAID service, i (and i'm sure others) would drop the service and go somewhere else.
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5 Posted by bkmc916 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:08PM EDT Report Abuse
The service was only down for a couple of days. Your lucky to get anything, stop crying and try going outside.
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1 Posted by matt_archbold2002 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:11PM EDT Report Abuse
A free arcade game? Give me a break. Like you said i was hoping for some microsoft points, a free month of service, or something along those lines. A free arcade game is useless to me. Also, using the excuse that their service was never completely down is crap. if you can log on but not play any games (which is the only worth while perk with the live pay service) makes it completely down in my eye. I was unable to get a game started on a regular basis, and of those games, it was lagging and horrible. And i still cant believe they werent ready for the rush of new live members this christmas. That is pathetic and VERY poor planning on the part of anyone involved with the Live system.