Xbox LIVE Marketplace Black Friday Sale

re: Xbox LIVE Marketplace Black Friday Sale

asdf — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:06:14 GMT

CrossyX: Main market? How do you define that? Latest numbers that I have seen say xbox360 has sold 23,4M worldwide and 13,5M in US. This means ~10M consoles sold outside US. And since rest of the world pays about 35% extra for everything (console, points, games) and get crappy service (no expenses) we are the ones making profit for MS and therefore the main market.

re: Xbox LIVE Marketplace Black Friday Sale

CrossyX — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:05:15 GMT

Lol, man why dont MS understand that this sort of thing totally naffs off everybody who cannot get it. It happens alot even with games Like COD4 when it was released free content (US only). It already hurts we have to pay so much more for everything like the console, games etc and for most servers be US based. It would be nice to be thrown something for a change, i would like to see the reaction of US players if the rest of the world get exclusive content, but that wont happen because MS will not want to upset there main market...

re: Xbox LIVE Marketplace Black Friday Sale

Morpheus414 — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:53:29 GMT

I JUST. Not kidding JUST. Bought the Sonic Unleashed Theme for full price. I feel sick.

re: Xbox LIVE Marketplace Black Friday Sale

lj081206 — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:46:37 GMT

@Bryces

Good catch, and I remove my previous statement. My bad, I was doing it backwards. That's how I used to calculate how much an item would cost if I bought something in the states. Seeing how much x item would cost me after sales tax is included in a price. Not figuring out what the sales tax is when it's already included in an item. I have and will always agree about how we don't get as much content in the UK. I won't ever think we pay more for xbox items in the UK then in the states. Since we pay for all our stuff in pounds. Most will not agree, and go as far as to attitude with me about it. That's how it is, and so be it. I don't really care about it.

re: Xbox LIVE Marketplace Black Friday Sale

D Day44 — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:33:52 GMT

Major, could you please let the LIVE team know that the Crackdown Getting' Busy Bonus Pack that was offered on this sale is BROKEN. Me and my brother have tried downloading it numerous times and each time it finishes in seconds and then DOESN'T appear on either hard drive or in game for use. Obviously we BOTH have NXE and BOTH have the most RECENT Live title update for the game. Please try and get this resolved a quickly as possible, we purchased the content 3 to 4 days ago and STILL haven't been able to try it out. Thanks for your help

re: Xbox LIVE Marketplace Black Friday Sale

KILL3R B — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:10:32 GMT

....SCREW U(SA).....

re: Xbox LIVE Marketplace Black Friday Sale

The Phazer — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:49:44 GMT

"So when comparing like for like, even after the recent dramatic crash in exchange rates, we still pay 7% more than our US cousins for a service without a decent Video service, no netflix (or equivalent, such as XBox implementations of the BBC iPLayer and 4OD), no Major's Minute, erratic promotions, fewer gamerpics and themes, etc., etc."

Exactly.

We understand that international copyright licencing is difficult (heck, I certainly do - it's what I do for a living). HOWEVER, local licencing is easy. That's why the US gets content from US broadcasters fairly easily. Microsoft could get the UK content from UK broadcasters fairly easily if they chose too, but they don't. That's either because it's badly managed, because Microsoft don't let the teams in their areas do their jobs (remember the 300 HD debacle, where it wasn't available but the US marketplace team were asleep so no one could fix it before the 24 hour promotion ran out?), or because the UK team are starved of resources despite us already paying a significant extra supplement.

As I understand on a professional level, TWO major UK broadcasters have offered Microsoft an online broadcast catchup service, and Microsoft has turned both down, basically citing that they couldn't be arsed.

That's what people are complaining about, and quite rightly IMO. It's something that Microsoft need to seriously address.

Phazer

re: Xbox LIVE Marketplace Black Friday Sale

HFC — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:00:51 GMT

@CheekyLeeth

I hear you mate. There was a time when I used to buy (dare I say it impulsively) from XBLA on a regular basis. Not any more and it's to do with the fact that finances are tightening up. Like you, I won't buy themes. Neither will I buy picture packs and the soon-to-be-turning-up Avatar clothes (seems to me like jumping on the Second Life bandwagon) Some people will and I am cool with that but me personally, I think not.

What I would buy however is some of those tired arcade ports that I would consider 'first gen' content. I bought some of them already and would be reluctant to pay 400-800 for any more like that. Stuff like PacMan CE was worth it but some of the early arcade ports were just that and I bought a few. Reduce the price to 100 points and everyone wins. I'd give Centipede a go at that, MSFT would get more revenue for stuff they wouldn't normally sell and the develpers would make a bit more coin. XBLA has some great stuff on it but also has some average stuff and the revenue stream for content like that could be extended if these were discounted.

re: Xbox LIVE Marketplace Black Friday Sale

gfhdfhfd — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:15:57 GMT

US and Gold only? You fail MS.

re: Xbox LIVE Marketplace Black Friday Sale

viney007 — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:22:13 GMT

oh my days, right at this moment i feel like tea bagging someones unlucky body!!! greedy that is. not triyng to have a rant but cmon, thats just mean. UK rocks!! love bungie!!!

re: Xbox LIVE Marketplace Black Friday Sale

sapin killer — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:03:31 GMT

c est nul ça pourquoi les américain ils sont avantager et pas nous les français pfffffff

re: Xbox LIVE Marketplace Black Friday Sale

Exu — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:38:32 GMT

@ BryceS: Yeah, that had ocurred to me earlier today. Damn, that's such a dickmove.

re: Xbox LIVE Marketplace Black Friday Sale

BryceS — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:37:19 GMT

@lj081206

Minor point, but you don't subtract 15% of 40 from 40 to remove the VAT. You divide by 115 then times by 100.

Just for pedantic accuracy's sake:

UK price for 1 year XBox Live Gold subscription = £39.99 including VAT = £34.77 before 15% VAT (I think that we pay the VAT in Luxembourg, but their VAT is 15% too, so it makes no difference to the calculation)

£34.77 at the current exchange rate = $53.48

US price for 1 year Xbox Live Gold subscription (without sales taxes) = $49.99

So when comparing like for like, even after the recent dramatic crash in exchange rates, we still pay 7% more than our US cousins for a service without a decent Video service, no netflix (or equivalent, such as XBox implementations of the BBC iPLayer and 4OD), no Major's Minute, erratic promotions, fewer gamerpics and themes, etc., etc.

Having said that, we probably get the third best service, after the US and Canada - I do feel sorry for others in Europe or around the world who sometimes pay even more and get even less.

re: Xbox LIVE Marketplace Black Friday Sale

HFC — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:06:28 GMT

@Real Xebec

Mate - I'm sure you can construct a better argument than that. It's such a generalisation it doesn't warrant debate.

re: Xbox LIVE Marketplace Black Friday Sale

toxin455 — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:01:17 GMT

L337

re: Xbox LIVE Marketplace Black Friday Sale

toxin455 — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:00:35 GMT

L337