Xbox – LIVE and Let Die
The opinions expressed in this column are the writer’s alone, and do not reflect those of MyGaming.
Back when I was inducted into the secret MyGaming cabal of international jewel thieves, extraterrestrial fugitives, and gaming journalists (it’s a cooperative enterprise, it’s just not widely reported), one of the very first articles I wrote was about the sorry state of Xbox LIVE in South Africa. More specifically, its complete failure to exist.
From the local launch of the Xbox 360 in October 2006 until this week, we simply had no official Xbox LIVE support at all, and anyone wanting to use the service had to employ all sorts of subterfuge and – in same cases – exceedingly inconvenient methods to do so. Since Xbox LIVE is kind of a huge part of the whole Xbox 360 package, the lack of local support was kind of a huge problem, and kind of a huge disgrace on Microsoft’s part.
On Wednesday 10 November 2010, after some four years of waiting around and doing whatever it is they do over in Redmond HQ when they’re not providing Xbox LIVE to half the planet, someone at Microsoft finally pushed the big green “XBOX LIVE GO GO GO” button on the company’s South African control panel.
They’ve even offered users the opportunity to freely migrate their accounts over to the new South African region, which had been a point of some worrisome speculation until recently. And there was much rejoicing.
Except, not really. For one thing – and it’s a big one – Xbox LIVE subscription and space-cash MS Points costs are significantly more expensive in South Africa, both coming in at a frankly extortionate 33% markup. Why’s that? According to local Microsoft rep Yvette van Rooyen: “The pricing is higher than UK or US pricing because it is not as easy as a direct conversion from ZAR to [US dollars] or pounds. We have very high import duties and taxes in SA and then over and above that the channel margins are in most cases higher than countries in Europe.”
Because, buying an Xbox LIVE subscription or MS Points – online – incurs import duties and taxes? My mind; it’s in wet, soggy chunks all over the back of my seat.
Then there’s the issue of limited service – in South Africa, certain Xbox LIVE features are not currently available, including the Twitter, Facebook, and Zune dashboard apps, and a lot of XBLA content (although this is apparently in the process of being added). And, as far as I’m aware, we don’t have a local CDN either, so downloaded content is routed in from overseas somewhere. And if you forget to re-download any deleted premium content before migrating, it’s gone forever, just because. But we’re paying more for this stuff anyway? Wait, what?
Oh, but they’re bribing us to migrate with a 1600 MSP voucher. You know, saving you that R200 for your R200-extra Xbox LIVE subscription. WHAT A DEAL!
Needless to say perhaps, but I’m not migrating my Xbox LIVE account any time soon, and anybody who does is surely some flavour of mad. Moreover, anybody falling for the “local community” angle of local marketing propaganda is similarly deluding themselves. Thousands of South Africans have been on Xbox LIVE for four years already, and local community sites, bringing local gamers together, have been around for just as long.
In terms of online gaming, the overwhelming majority of Xbox games use p2p connectivity for matchmaking – playing games on Xbox LIVE has almost always meant playing games with other South Africans, because it’s so easy to maintain a friend list of local players.
While it’s still possible – just for the moment, mind you – to purchase Xbox LIVE subscriptions and MSP codes from international third party suppliers at reasonable rates on a local account, swapping over to the South African service regardless means endorsing Microsoft’s agenda of shameless profiteering.
It means saying, “Hey, it’s totally cool that you’re charging us 33% more for less, and I love the way it feels in my bum.”
I like my Xbox, and I like Xbox LIVE. I’d like to support Microsoft’s long overdue decision to finally introduce the service locally, but until they also decide to bring the pricing in line with everywhere else – which hardly seems an unreasonable expectation – there’s simply no way I’m going to do so.
Xbox – LIVE and Let Die << Comments and views
Article courtesy of MyGaming – Xbox LIVE or die – Part II
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