XBOX Live in SA

[MrDickens]

Hay guys :D

Whaddup? I'm the features ed at ZOO Weekly (high fives all round). Now that's out the way, I'm also in charge of our gadgety technophile side of things. Busy writing an article on XBOX Live and the SA market. Since I cannot be omniscient and since MS is not complying fast enough with more info, I thought I'd take it to the trenches. So, fill me in and fire away.

[alternate]

Sweet! High Five! Wawaweeewa!

I really like ur guys mag!

Ive got an xbox 360 and im busy playing on Xbox live with it now. It's not "supported" in South Africa yet as you need to setup an account with an overseas address and you also need to try and buy your live subscription from overseas.

I'm waaay to lazy to explain everything, but I'm sure you can get all the info you like from http://www.xbox-360.co.za . I'ts a local site dedicated to South African Xbox 360 fans!

\:D/

[sybawoods]

Alternate's right. I have been on Xbox Live with the original Xbox more than 3 years ago, and also now with the Xbox 360. You have 2 choices: you can either purchase a pre-paid subscription from places like e-Bay, or even some local on-line retailers like Take 2 (http://www.take2.co.za/product.php?id=1491118), and enter your registration code activate your subscription to Live. Alternatively, and much easier, enter your credit card details and elect to pay a monthly or annual subscription. Either way, you will need to enter a little white lie about your address, because the system will not allow you to register with an address where Xbox Live is not... erm... live :) . I have used a US adress (google's your friend) for more than 3 years now, without any problems. Most people choose a UK adress, but you could also enter an Australian, New Zealand, Hong Kong etc adress - it's all good.

It's best to go on-line with at least a 384k ADSL account. There are literally 100's of South African's online, so once you add them to your adress book, and play with locals only, latency is really not a problem. It's like you're playing with a person in the same room. Playing against internationals is only really a problem if you play predominantly twitch-based first person shooters where latency is really very important... however, games like on-line golf, soccer, and racing games like Project Gotham Racing have very minimal impact. For the best experience for international gaming though, it's best to use an unshaped ADSL account (it is optimised for low latency to international destinations). Personally, I use a pay-as-you-go type prepaid unshaped account from Web Africa. It allows you to top-up in installments of 1 gig, which can be rolled over from month to month. For the odd international game, this can easily last you 3 or 4 months, at a cost of R125. If playing against locals, just stick to your normal el-cheapo unshaped Telkomsa account.

Even if you don't plan on playing real-time against human opponents, all Xbox 360's ship with free "Silver (http://srebrne.w.interia.pl)" Xbox Live accounts. This allows you to download from the market-place, and compare your high scores to global leaderboards, or just to compare to your friends high scores... all for free.

My advice to your readers - get with the programme already. On-line console gaming adds a whole different dimension to the gaming experience, even if it's only to measure your high scores and gaming achievements against the rest of the world.

[GavinMannion]

As you have been told already there is a lot to explain about Xbox Live! really.

Alternate has pointed your in the right direction and sybawoods has given you a nice breakdown as well so I won't go into it.

However having been a PC gamer for most of my gaming life and then playing games on the Original Xbox, PS and PS2 it is easy to say that the Xbox 360 is by far the best gaming machine I have ever used and is easily more entertaining than a PC.

My advice to you, go and get a Xbox 360 Premium and just spend a day playing on Live!. You can find a bunch of people to play against on www.xbox-360.co.za. I promise you the experience of actually playing is going to be much better than anything anyone can explain to you.

Games I recommend you try online

Gears of War
Rainbow 6: Vegas
Tiger Woods Golf
Table Tennis
Project Gotham Racing
and Dead or Alive 4.

That should give you a nice breakdown of the different types of Games for an informed decision.

[MrDickens]

That's everything I needed. You guys want your names published? Send me a PM.:)

[MrDickens]

As you have been told already there is a lot to explain about Xbox Live! really.

Alternate has pointed your in the right direction and sybawoods has given you a nice breakdown as well so I won't go into it.

However having been a PC gamer for most of my gaming life and then playing games on the Original Xbox, PS and PS2 it is easy to say that the Xbox 360 is by far the best gaming machine I have ever used and is easily more entertaining than a PC.

My advice to you, go and get a Xbox 360 Premium and just spend a day playing on Live!. You can find a bunch of people to play against on www.xbox-360.co.za. I promise you the experience of actually playing is going to be much better than anything anyone can explain to you.

Games I recommend you try online

Gears of War
Rainbow 6: Vegas
Tiger Woods Golf
Table Tennis
Project Gotham Racing
and Dead or Alive 4.

That should give you a nice breakdown of the different types of Games for an informed decision.

Thanks bud. We've got a console in the office and all the latest games, but haven't set up a Live account.

MS seems miffed about the reaction they're getting from their overseas counterparts, who regard the SA market as a little backwater, so they aren't helping.

Thanks for the info.

GoW is a kickass game, gave it five stars ;)

[Fudzy]

I hope your going to give this forum a free plug in your article, its the least you can do seeing as we're helping you with your job :D

[GavinMannion]

Thanks bud. We've got a console in the office and all the latest games, but haven't set up a Live account.

MS seems miffed about the reaction they're getting from their overseas counterparts, who regard the SA market as a little backwater, so they aren't helping.

Thanks for the info.

GoW is a kickass game, gave it five stars ;)

It's a pity our Bandwidth is not up to taking on international challenges else we could show them that we are not a backwater.... Well I couldn't but the other guys are good :)

But now stop chatting and setup your Live! account and join the people online for some GoW action..... It's a whole different ballgame online...

If you want some friends to play against take a look here http://www.xbox-360.co.za/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=145

There are over 100 south africans up for a game on that list...

Looking forward to reading your article....

[MrDickens]

I hope your going to give this forum a free plug in your article, its the least you can do seeing as we're helping you with your job :D

Sure thing... will do :)

[Electrra]

my biggest problem is that you do not have real account management.

I had a live account that I created while playing on a friends machine.
When I got a machine of my own I re-created my profile and played a number of games getting achievements and gamerscore in each of them. I eventually got my xbox connected to the internet and went through the process of retrieving my gamertag from live. Unfortunately it did not merge my off line profile and live account (both are under the same name) and now I have two accounts.

THe live one is now totally useless as my offline account has more achievments and gamerscore but I cannot simply delete my gamertag or merge it with my off line account without calling an international support number - as the servers and accounts are managed outside of sa.

[MrDickens]

Once again, thanks guys, was a bit short notice and will only end up as a sidebar, but I'm all over next-gen consoles etc. Going to PS tomorrow to test drive the PS3. w00t! And speaking to Wii today, but they're a tad clueless at the moment.

I'll keep posting questions etc in here, since this is the best spot in SA for this kind of advice. :)

[MrDickens]

my biggest problem is that you do not have real account management.

I had a live account that I created while playing on a friends machine.
When I got a machine of my own I re-created my profile and played a number of games getting achievements and gamerscore in each of them. I eventually got my xbox connected to the internet and went through the process of retrieving my gamertag from live. Unfortunately it did not merge my off line profile and live account (both are under the same name) and now I have two accounts.

THe live one is now totally useless as my offline account has more achievments and gamerscore but I cannot simply delete my gamertag or merge it with my off line account without calling an international support number - as the servers and accounts are managed outside of sa.

Well, that'd be one of the biggest problems without support in SA. Have you contacted Miscrosoft Xbox here in SA to see if they could help you out anyway? I'm sure it can't be such a tough thing for them to facilitate.

[GavinMannion]

my biggest problem is that you do not have real account management.

I had a live account that I created while playing on a friends machine.
When I got a machine of my own I re-created my profile and played a number of games getting achievements and gamerscore in each of them. I eventually got my xbox connected to the internet and went through the process of retrieving my gamertag from live. Unfortunately it did not merge my off line profile and live account (both are under the same name) and now I have two accounts.

Maybe this will help

http://www.xbox.com/en-AU/support/xbox360/live/account/mergeoflineprofile.htm

I had the same problem and ended up ignoring it, basically if you sign up properly it works 100% but if you make a mistake signing up you lose everything... NOw I have a lot of work to do in GOW and Tiger Woods Golf to get my gamerscore back up.

[useless]

Best practice is to create your XBL account before you purchase/connect your X360. This way you can have a proper gamertag without loosing any achievements.

Did that way back when the X360 was first launched in 2005. :)

[doobiwan]

Once again, thanks guys, was a bit short notice and will only end up as a sidebar, but I'm all over next-gen consoles etc. Going to PS tomorrow to test drive the PS3. w00t! And speaking to Wii today, but they're a tad clueless at the moment.

I'll keep posting questions etc in here, since this is the best spot in SA for this kind of advice. :)

So how'd it go? There's a lot of speculation as to the state of Nintendo in South Africa. Well actually most people have written them off as dead, can you comment? Want to do a full articles on the state on Nintendo ZA? :)

On the 360, my 2c is just that Live is awesome, it's not just consoles online, but the whole matchmaking, integrated VoIP, friends and game integration, it's just better than even PC's can handle at the moment.

[MrDickens]

So how'd it go? There's a lot of speculation as to the state of Nintendo in South Africa. Well actually most people have written them off as dead, can you comment? Want to do a full articles on the state on Nintendo ZA? :)

On the 360, my 2c is just that Live is awesome, it's not just consoles online, but the whole matchmaking, integrated VoIP, friends and game integration, it's just better than even PC's can handle at the moment.

Nintendo still clueless. Overseas stuffing them around. Maybe an answer by the end of the month... but I'm not holding my breath. I'm thinking with the build up to PS3 launch they're probably going to hold back even longer and only launch post PS3 hype has died down.

That's just speculation though, but from a marketing perspective it makes sense. If they haven't launched yet, then it would be stupid to go head to head with PS3.

[ToxicBunny]

I dunno hey... They've gone head to head with ps3 in the states and beaten them hands down....

[MrDickens]

I dunno hey... They've gone head to head with ps3 in the states and beaten them hands down....

Yeah, but that's in a market they actually care about.

[GavinMannion]

This was asked in another thread so I thought I would post it here as well.

The first time you connect your Xbox to Live! it will download an update for the Xbox 360 itself. This can take between 5 - 30 minutes depending on your connection.

Everytime you buy put in a game it will check if there is an update for that game on Live!. If it does have an update you will be asked to download the patch. If you decline you will be disconnected from Live!. This is done for many reasons one being cheating. If someone finds a way to get an advantage in a game they will patch it and force you to download it if you want to play online.

It can be frustrating when you have just connected to Live! because every game will most probably have an update available. However once you have downloaded the patch which is generally small (not sure on exact sizes though) you normally won't need to download a new one for a long time.

[lord_spaceman]

Personally, I love patches and don't get annoyed at all. My eyes light up when I see "update available". This means the developers care enough to fix their game.

And if you've just said: "well, there game shouldn't be broken from the start" clearly you're not in IT or a programmer. Every bit of software has bugs, it's just certain or good developers that choose to correct their mistakes. Kudos to them !

[Fudzy]

Wow, I thought the updates were just for the dashboard. It obviously cant make permanent updates to the games. (ie. if you loan the disc to your mate, he will have to download all the patches as well).

[GavinMannion]

Yeah it loads the patch on your HDD.... So your mate will also have to suffer through the 2 minute download. I think they will survive :).

Oh I forgot to mention in the previous post. You can play the game without downloading the patch. You just can't be connected to Live! at the same time so it's not like it stops you playing.

[bwana]

I see gold membership is r450 online - is that all it's going to take to play against people online?

[GavinMannion]

I see gold membership is r450 online - is that all it's going to take to play against people online?

yes.

[bwana]

yes.and it's the only way I'm going to be able to do it right?

Is r450 a fair price or do you know of cheaper?

[GavinMannion]

and it's the only way I'm going to be able to do it right?

Is r450 a fair price or do you know of cheaper?

You get 2 types of Xbox Live! memberships.

Silver: Free --> Everything except Multiplayer gaming and movies (that we can't get here anyway and it might be free to Silver... :confused: )

Gold: Free + online gaming. You can buy cards from retailers or straight of Xbox Live!. You can also pick them up off eBay which is normally the cheapest.

you can get 1 month, 3 month or 12 month tickets so the price changes accordingly.

Make sure you buy the one that is for the region you registered for on Xbox Live!. I think most ppl in SA register on the UK servers.

Amazon.co.uk is selling the 12 month one for 33 Pounds (R470) eBay seems to be the same price so R450 is a good price.....

[bwana]

@GM - Thanks - I'll give it some consideration then. :) It's pretty close to the price of a new game so I'm not 100% sold yet.

[GavinMannion]

@GM - Thanks - I'll give it some consideration then. :) It's pretty close to the price of a new game so I'm not 100% sold yet.

If you have the premium version you got a free months Gold Access with your box for testing the service out. Use that first.

If you buy GOW or Rainbow 6 you get free 48 hour vouchers in the box as well for testing. Else just buy a 30 day voucher which is a lot cheaper. I personally think it is well worth it but if you are not really a fan of multiplayer then it is obviously a waste of money :D

[z3r0]

also if u have a game with new multiplayer maps its advisable to download the files....usually quite big...because you wont be able to join games with ppl who have the new maps...GoW multiplayer maps were 109MB when I downloaded it last night...had to wait 30mins GRRRR!

[SlappY]

If you doing an XBOX piece you should look at the satillite features of the XBOX too:

Media Center / Streaming media support
iPod Integration
XNA
Voip
MSN Integration
MSN Space integration - blogging
Leaderboards
TrueSkill matching
Background downloads - even when console is off.
XBLA
Parental control locks
Peripherals:
Media Remote (facilitates Media Center)
upcoming Controller Keyboard (facilitates MSN)
Wireless Headset (facilitates voip)
Market Place (limited support in this country)

Then also mention the ultimate setup (which happens to be mine :P )
40" LCD
Surround sound
Internet connectivity
XBOX
PC (with Vista / XP Media ed. for Media Center)

Now you have total integration from friends to media to gaming to TV.
Now I just gotta find a spot to plug in the coffee maker

[Slapdash]

Just on a side note...
You don't need Vista or Media Center if you don't have them.
If you have XP with Media Player 11 it will stream Music for you and WMA movies.
Or alternatively use a little app. called TVersity. ( http://www.tversity.com ).
It allows you to stream music and movies in various formats to your Xbox360 console.
i.e you can watch WMV, AVI, MPEG etc. Does conversions on the fly.
It also lets you add Podcasts, Images and Video Casts so you can stream and watch them from your Xbox360 if you have the bandwidth and speed.

[volcom5tone]

hey guys, I live in Namibia and I'm wondering if anyone has experienced by probs.

I set my local as Uk but my Debit card is Namibian so it detects that it isn't valid so I can't extend my GOLD. WTF???

[GavinMannion]

hey guys, I live in Namibia and I'm wondering if anyone has experienced by probs.

I set my local as Uk but my Debit card is Namibian so it detects that it isn't valid so I can't extend my GOLD. WTF???

Some people do experience these problems. IN SA there are quite a few shops that sell the subs but I don't know about Namibia..

You can always buy one from eBay.co.uk though

[IceCreamHearse]

Hey everyone

I created a xbox live account with a Hong Kong address and set my locale to Hong Kong SAR today.
I then downloaded the update and recovered my gamertag.
But When i go to marketplace in the dashboard, it displays the message "xbox live marketplace is currently unavailable".
I've tried to change my address to a UK one, but xbox.com wont allow me to change my country. :(

Can anyone supply me with a valid Hong Kong address or tell me what i'm doing wrong?

[GavinMannion]

Sometimes the marketplace can go down, I don't know anyone who is using a HK address to check though?

If you are using a hotmail address you can change your country in hotmail then and it works though.

[useless]

Why not go to a HK company's website, check their contact details and see if they have any address details? I think its the best way to find an addy like that.

[ernstn]

http://www.xbox-360.co.za/forum/showthread.php?t=5600 look for the posts by ernstn.

That fixed the problem for me. In my case the marketplace was unavailable for 5 days or something.

I had to delete a file to get it working again. My last post in the thread explains exactly what I had to do.

[IceCreamHearse]

Thanks for the help guys!

I found the problem, its my switch that's starting to give problems:o

[Dr Norris]

for the life of me I cannot but Live points anymore. My CC verifies fine and all, but when it come time for the points, It tells me my CC cannot be verified. Whats up with all of that?

[elroc]

Jip. If you check over at the www.xbox-360.co.za forums it seems everyone has that problem.

Seems that like Apple has done since day one with iTunes in confirming your billing details with you CC, MS has now flipped the switch and blocked us poor sods from buying points. (And i was just about to get Puzzle Quest)

In a country which does not officially have live yet, Microsoft has singlehandedly dealt itself a very bad blow by not allowing us to buy points from 'down south' anymore.

Personally I am very disgusted, and only way MS can redeem itself is if this 'blocking' is a pre-emptive move to activate Live in South Africa in which case I would be over the moon.

And if you take into account the petition a while ago, which was followed by a reply from MS SA that Live will come to SA, and thereafter another complete lack of information, MS is treating their SA Xbox customers VERY BADLY.

[Luke7777]

for the life of me I cannot but Live points anymore. My CC verifies fine and all, but when it come time for the points, It tells me my CC cannot be verified. Whats up with all of that?I could still buy (http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showpost.php?p=1292423&postcount=12) on Friday 26

/Update
but not anymore

[Lydon]

Why don't you just buy from a third party? Isn't it cheaper anyway?

[saffakanera]

nah no chance of xbl in sa, like 10 people here playing online compared to the mighty states and the uk, plus with our bandwidth freedom hijacked by telkom, its no wonder bandwidth orientated service providers avoid this country like the plague.

if they keep ignoring us, well just do the same and pirate their games. the only way to make them pay for turning their backs on a loving gaming community with alot of potential.

[GavinMannion]

nah no chance of xbl in sa, like 10 people here playing online compared to the mighty states and the uk, plus with our bandwidth freedom hijacked by telkom, its no wonder bandwidth orientated service providers avoid this country like the plague.

if they keep ignoring us, well just do the same and pirate their games. the only way to make them pay for turning their backs on a loving gaming community with alot of potential.

? this is an old thread and your stats are way off...

We have over 2500 people actively playing on Live and the real figures are at least double that.

I also fail to see how pirating a game is in any way linked to Xbox live... Are you just trying to justify your theft?

[doobiwan]

For all your 'good' intentions saffa, you'd cut off your nose to spite your face, so to speak.

If you pirate, you'll never be able to connect to Live, while in the mean time, as Gav said, there are over 2000 SA 'honorary Poms" enjoying XBL quite happily.

[Digilus]

We have over 2500 people actively playing on Live and the real figures are at least double that.

I for one would be added to that number if we had Live in this country - since I got the Xbox (month or two ago) been a headache to get points , buy a subscription etc - so I wonder how many others are out there like me who simply don't bother trying Live cause we just can't buy/use it easily enough :( *sob* I would dig to buy xbox points but alas .. stupid Xbox says my CC address doesn't match my company in the UK's address where the Xbox thinks it lives hehe

[Luke7777]

Just go thru the "hassle" of registering with gamepointsnow (UK) once, setup Paypal ......and it can't get much easier after that

[ernstn]

Just go thru the "hassle" of registering with gamepointsnow (UK) once, setup Paypal ......and it can't get much easier after that
+1

[Mephisto_Helix]

A question .... I see take2 has a 12 month gold account for about R800 (UK one), is it worth getting or not? Info appreciated :)

[smb3]

HI PPL ...is there anyone that can tell me the latest about live! coming to SA...

is microsoft saying anything?

are there plans put into place to bring live! to SA?

are there ppl currently trying to do something about bringing live!to SA?

does microsoft have any good reasons not to bring live! to SA or would it do them good to bring it here to SA? (from microsofts point of view...not a gamers point of view:))

thx ppl

(would be so great if it finally happened)

[Fudzy]

I think Live! will only get here when MS realise it's to their benefit. Unfortunately there are a large number of South Africans who have registered using UK address details, this must make it difficult for the decision makers to get a proper picture of how many Live!ZA users there are. It seems petitions and letters have been pretty futile up till now :(

[GavinMannion]

@smb3, there are a lot of people working very hard in the effort to get South Africa given official live status.

Honestly the biggest problem seems to be our broadband penetration and cost of accessing the Internet.

In other countries it isn't an odd thing to download 3 gigs of games and a 4 gig movie. However Telkom would have a fit and charge the world for this 'honour'...

Until we have some decent competition, which in turn means better prices, I don't see Live coming to South Africa.

[doobiwan]

Well on the one good note, see my new thread ;)

https://www.gamepointsnow.com/

Now makes getting Live! points and subs as easy as ordering movie tickets online. It's even quicker and easier than points cards.

[smb3]

i just found this article...dino wat to tink bout it...wat are your ppls thoughts on the article? true ? not true?

http://www.lazygamer.co.za/xbox-360/no-xbox-live-for-south-africa/

[doobiwan]

I think it's just a matter of time. Live! is more than an ethernet port and a website, there's servers and such that needs to be deployed and with broadband as it is here there are more lucrative markets to address first...like 1billion people in India and the oil rich princes of the Middle East ;)

[AcidRaZor]

I was just thinking "since when is high fiving back in fashion?!"

[doobiwan]

Ke?

[Ghost02]

If we do get Live! in SA would it count as local bandwidth?

[doobiwan]

Depends on how they set it up, and where each game is hosted.

[sparticus]

Any update on this yet ? i am dying to play live

[maestro_za]

Still nothing new. Become an honorary Pommie or Yank like the rest of us :D

[Dolby]

We all are.

I've been waiting since November 2007 ;)

[sparticus]

That sucks !!!

[doobiwan]

Why?

It's cheap and easy, you do it all online.

[saffakanera]

I read somewhere Mcsoft xbox is planning some major expansion in EU, i really hope that includes Obscure Sports Quarterly types like us who hang around on the outer rims of the global society.

I have a good idea, lets raise a commuity fund, and FED-EX Bill Gates a big xbox shaped cake with a SA flag on it and the words "LIVE PLEASE?" on it, if we can just get that cake to him everything will be solved....