Microsoft neglects South African Xbox 360 gamers due to lack of XBL access.

Share This October 14th, 2009 Antowan

A recent news article on MyGaming upset me so much that I felt obligated to write this blog post in response. It has been how long now since the introduction of the Xbox 360 to South Africa and still we do not have access to Xbox Live…

It is unacceptable that Microsoft can neglect its South African Xbox gaming community by STILL not offering them access to the Xbox Live gaming service. In fact there are only two countries in the Southern Hemisphere that have an official Xbox Live offering from Microsoft and they are Australia and New Zealand. The entire South America and the entire Africa is devoid of any access apart from hacked and cheated accounts overseas.

Microsoft President, Steve Ballmer should hang his head in shame at this blatant insult to their consumers on these two continents. Sure only 26 countries around the globe have access, but the way that access to XBL is structures smacks of a form of economic discrimination that leaves me upset to say the least. South Africa is the largest and most powerful economy in Africa! It is simply not acceptable, especially with the recent developments on the Internet delivery capacity front in South Africa for Microsoft to drag their feet like this. It reflects badly on their corporate attitude towards servicing their customers in need if they are unwilling to provide a service to countries like South Africa and Brazil.

Sony PlayStation 3 customers have full and complete access to services from South Africa. If I had to recommend a console (remember that I am an Xbox 360 owner) to somebody from now on, I am afraid I would be forced to say buy PlayStation 3.

Entry Filed under: Gaming, General IT, Hardware, World Wide Web