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Microsoft: MS Points not to mislead people about prices

Posted Jan 21, 2010 at 12:46AM EST by Mabie A.

Listed in: Xbox 360 Tags: Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft, ms points, xbox 360 titles

mspoints2 After years of employing the Microsoft Points system, the company now feels the need to explain why they went for the MS Points instead of just putting the actual prices. This comes just after the rumor earlier this month that Microsoft will soon be ditching this system for the Xbox Live.

Explained Aaron Greenberg, "We never intended to ever mislead people. We want to be transparent about it, and so it is something that we're looking at."

This transparency he is talking about can be achieved through a singular system of pricing that is embodied by the MS Points system. He further expounds:

"How can we be more transparent and let people see it in actual dollars? You've got to think that we have one service that we're offering around the world. The nice thing about Points is that no matter if you're on the JPY, the EUR or the USD - something that's 200 Points is 200 Points everywhere around the world.

There's more technical complexities to being able to put local prices in. You have to do that for every product in every country and then you have to deal with currency fluctuations. So there's some challenges to that, but we absolutely did it with Games on Demand, response hase been good and absolutely it's something we're looking at doing."

Via [Brave New Gamer]

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It's just for ripping people off. Being mislead and being ripped off are not the same thing. I so love having to buy 500 points when I only need 20...

You can keep your points system, but let people buy any amount they want. It would satisfy everyone, and would be far easier than pricing everything in all the different world currencies, and constantly changing the prices with inflation.

But I'd say the fact that MS hasn't done that by now is proof enough the system is meant to rip people off...

# ... — Shatterdome 2010-01-22 18:04

I don't see it as anyway other than miss-leading. It is forcing people to do math, memorize conversions or have a chart handy in order to tell how much real money an item is worth.

PSN manages to but a dollar amount on all their items, an because of that if you want to buy something that is $5.36 after tax, you can add that directly to your "wallet"....works great for cc's but you get ripped off if you buy a PSN card, because they double tax you.

Also, inflation does not effect the price after it's been set, or else even MS point prices would fluctuate, as they are ultimately tied to a dollar value.

# asdasd — Guest 2010-01-21 07:57

It is made to rip people off. 1000 points would logically be 10€, but it's atually 12€. Nobody thinks of this.

# bull — hush404 2010-01-21 10:03

It's so made to rip people off. It's set up in such odd intervals that of course people are going to have a tough time getting around that 1000pts are nearly $15 in real money.

Exactly why I love the real dollar value set in PSN.

# It could at least use change — SaintHobson 2010-01-21 10:25

My biggest problem with the microsoft points is like what the second post mentioned, having to buy more than you need to make a purchase. I have no problem with them keeping the points if I could just buy the amount that is needed.

# Yeah? — Navani 2010-01-21 11:44

This is Microsoft, they have teams of people dedicated to specific things, I'm sure. Why can't they assume a team of, let's say, 50 people to analyze the currencies of foreign countries and determine the rates? Is it that expensive? They made a fortune off the 360. It's hard to put local prices in? I'm sure it's hard to develop game code and an OS, but people do it..

# Toast them! — Diablith 2010-01-21 13:08

I feel they should get rid of the points system. Or if anything else, even the points out like on the Wii. When I look on XBL and see they're something I want, but it's 240MSP, I kind of feel that it's expensive. But 240MSP is really just 2 dollars. I don't think 2 dollars is bad at all, but the points make it seem expensive.

# RE: Microsoft: MS Points not to mislead people about prices — Guest 2010-01-21 22:16

me and my bros bought 2 of the 20 dollar MS point cards to buy the "lost & Damned" and "the ballad of gay tony" addons for GTA 4 which wer 40 no tax total (they were both bought the same day the addons came out, at different times) all the points wer gone ass soon as we bought it ,and when the disc came out with both addons on it, it was 40 bucks also. so ur not really getting ripped off MS points are just a way for people with no (or that dont want to use) credit card to get stuff, like me n my bros. so i dont think they should take away MS points

# Fuddy duddys — Guest 2010-01-22 00:27

or you could be an adult and just do the math in your head, having extra points isn't a bad thing, that's like complaining about having 3.50 in your wallet when there used to be a 20 in there. Buy a tv show with your extra points, or just hold on to them (like you would to change irl) and save for a bigger xbla game or dlc.

A paying the difference scheme like on psn would help (you have 80 points, the game costs 400, so you only pay for 320 points) but it's not like you're losing money, the points remain on your account. Is having that +$1.75 extra on your account really going to break the bank?

# Not the same — Guest 2010-01-23 02:48

It's more like breaking a 20 and getting 3.50 in Canadian and not being able to exchange it

# RE: Microsoft: MS Points not to mislead people about prices — Guest 2010-01-22 01:48

actually every 100 points is $1.25

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