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Microsoft Launches Xbox Live Rewards Programme
Microsoft has launched its previously rumoured Xbox Live Rewards programme in the US.
Designed to encourage use of Xbox Live services, the pilot scheme rewards active users selected to participate with free Microsoft Points.
"For the next six months, the Rewards Squad will hook you up with Microsoft Points just for doing the stuff Xbox Live members do all the time," says the company. "You'll score points not only for renewing your Gold subscriptions; you'll get a reward on what you spend on the Xbox Live Marketplace. The best part is, the more you spend, the more you get, and for each month you stay on Gold, the higher your monthly reward up to five per cent of your Marketplace spend."
The majority of rewards are only available to Xbox Live Gold members. 200 MS Points are awarded for renewing a 12 month Gold subscription and for subscribing to movie streaming service Netflix, while both Xbox Live Gold and Silver members can receive 100 MS Points for participating in a survey and making their first purchase on Xbox Live.
Microsoft has yet to announce whether the rewards programme will be rolled out in Europe.
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Don't you guys ever get tired of saying the same things every day?
PSN has a reward mechanism, you get an extra £39.99 a year that XBOX Gold members don't get to spend on anything you want- games on PSN, physical disk based games, food, cinema, DVD's, Blurays, drugs, whores, penis enlargement tablets that don't work but just gave me a rash.... oh.
I've got a better idea MS, why don't you just give the service for free! Like another known firm.
Because the other known firm doesn't have standard voice chat, party system, or even online awareness across its entire library. Because the other service doesn't have demo's for every downloadable game (because it charges bandwidth fees, which those smaller developers can't afford). And because the other service hardly has anyone ever talking since a mic isn't bundled with the system which pretty much makes online pointless.
On the contrary i really enjoyed how quiet PSN was in comparison to LIVE. At least i didn't have non-sensical insults thrown at me constantly.
Apparently being bad at a game makes you black or homosexual, which apparently are both terrible things to be, at least thats according to 90% of vocal LIVE users.
I realize we've drifted away from the subject of the rewards program, but this is an excellent point.
To be fair, the other known firm did build a console which works with bluetooth headsets, which almost everybody already has, rather than some proprietary MS headset, so it's hardly an issue. The other known firm also don't charge you for a wireless adaptor because they know that nobody uses wired internet connections anymore. And while the other known firm are probably working on some of the issues that captain MS just described, MS probably aren't working on reducing your subscription fees, or sneaking wireless internet and bluetooth into their box.
Swings and roundabouts, eh?
While MS certainly has plenty of over-priced accessories, a free headset bundled in the $199 SKU can hardly be considered over-priced. It doesn't matter if PS3 supports BlueTooth headsets. Since Sony doesn't include one in the box hardly anyone uses it, or even worse, has a very bad one that ruins the experience for everyone. At least the voicechat experience is consistent across Live! since almost everyone uses the one included in the box.
Private party chat (even if you're playing different games) with your friends takes away the problem of listening to annoying strangers on the service. As far as wireless, I have my PS3 plugged in - so I essentially paid a premium for a feature I neither want nor need.
One look at the leaderboards for any multiplatform game makes it abundantly clear that if you're into online gaming, 360 is the console to get. Even the biggest release of the year for PS3, Uncharted 2, struggles to have more than 15K users on at any given time (I've only seen more than 10K once). PS3 is perfectly fine for single-player games, but is still a pale imitation of the experience you get on 360 for online gaming.
More good points. Microsoft's whole overpriced accessories/peripherals/subscriptions strategy coupled with the laughably crippled Arcade SKU is a huge exercise in nickel-and-diming your customers to death while tricking everyone else into thinking you're competitive on price.
(I know I'm both off topic and a broken record with this, but the $100 wi-fi adapter has to be one of the most ridiculous anythings of this entire console generation.)
i totally agree mate,we already spend a lot of money to buy the games...
So the takeaway here is do not renew your Live subscription or buy anything on Marketplace until you are included in this program. Got it. I can wait.
The best part is, the more you spend, the more we get,
Fixed the quote.
How about some sort of exchange rate mechanism for converting "G" into MS points?
You could reward gamers for 100% completes or for reaching certain key targets. It would be great if your gaming prowess could allow you to get a little money off downloadable content.
I'm not sure what "G" is, but it sounds like you're saying convert achievements/trophies into a few pence off a game? I think this would be quite cool, and probably popular! I suppose the problem is with the big disparity in the difficulty between achievements/trophies in different games, but i think it would be pretty cool if my gold trophies could get me 50p towards a future game, or something.
Sorry to clarify "G" is gamer score. Same as trophies really, you get various amounts of "G" for completing achievements.
Wouldn't even have to be large amounts of points, something like a ratio of ten microsoft points for every hundred added to your gamer score.
Going forward I can see the possibility for specific achievements granting points (not unlike the avatard rewards), but I don't think there will ever be a straight gamerscore-to-points conversion.
Given your interest in such a system, would you expect it to apply to all the gamerscore you're already earned? Would you be angry if it only applied to achievements you get after its introduction?
No handouts required and certainly no animosity, I just thought the Gamerscore could be put to better use in the future. Seemed in keeping with the whole reward ethic, bragging rights is one thing, but you earning money off future content is something else. It would be good enough reason to start becoming more of a completist.
Oh, I understand where you're coming from. I'm just saying I can't see them launching a program like this so long after the console's release when people have already accumulated so much gamerscore because they'd end up giving away the whole marketplace in free points. And I think that their most loyal audience would be super annoyed if they had to start earning points from zero on the day such a program launched.
Yah. It would have to be tied to specific achievements because otherwise you're giving people money off their next game by making sure that they play the game they already have for longer. This hardly seems like a good marketing plan, as the longer i keep playing fallout, the longer it will be before i buy *next game*.