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Microsoft Giving Xbox Live Users a Free Game
Earlier this week we covered the Xbox Live outages over the holidays. Several users have pointed out that Microsoft has acknowledged its lack of performance, and is now offering a free game to compensate its users. Unfortunately for Microsoft, disgruntled patrons have already filed a class action lawsuit over the recent difficulties. Quoting the PC World article:
"Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten said that the problems with Xbox Live downtime were caused by an influx of new users who had gotten an Xbox 360 over the holidays. It's been a record-setting season for Xbox Live. 'This included our largest sign-up of new members to Xbox LIVE in our 5 year history and just yesterday you broke the record for the single biggest day of concurrent members ever on the service,' said Whitten."
I'm guessing the free game is going to Pong Advanced.
God, schmod. I want my monkey man!
Last night was another terrible night of XBOX Live gaming. COD4 was unplayable online. At one point, while designated as host, my XBOX froze, unfroze, froze, unfroze and so on for 10 minutes. I couldn't even back out being host. The only way i would have been able to get control over my system was to turn it off. I didn't just to see how long XBOX Live was going to keep my XBOX 360 hostage to its poor performance while surfed for prices for SONY's PS3 gaming system. Now that nearly every major motion picture company has abandoned HD-DVD for BluRay and it appears Apple is going BluRay, the PS3 is looking to be a more desirable platform. I am really not satisfied with the response that Microsoft has put out and giving me a P.O.S. XBLA game I will never play for losing two weeks of paid service that still doesn't appear to be fixed isn't convincing me to stay with Microsoft -- not to mention the three times I have sent my XBOX 360 in because of the Red Ring of Death.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Years ago I used to play Asheron's Call. In those days, Microsoft owned the game, and instead of logging directly onto the servers you had to pass through Microsoft's "Gaming Zone." This was later extended to requiring Internet Explorer to access a Microsoft Passport account to log in to the Gaming Zone so you could get to Asheron's Call. Thanks to this convoluted system, there were a LOT of connection problems that weren't addressed until Microsoft finally sold the game back to Turbine, and you could log directly onto the Turbine servers.
Good luck XBOX Live customers, and don't hold your breath...
It's not like this was a SURPRISE to them. They SELL the units, the have absolute control over how many units are sold. If your netgame people say the current network can support 80,000 users, you DON'T SELL 200,000 UNITS until you have upgraded your network. (numbers fabricated but you get the idea)
This was entirely their responsibility, and I cannot believe they did not see this coming. What it came down to is they wanted to do a money grab for the holidays so they made as many units as they possibly could, to hell with the network until we get past christmas then we'll divert resources from production to upgrade the net so they can USE the product.
Not saying it's unexpected, just shameful is all. Nothing new there in business.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
"Our network works just fine... please somebody use it"
"Could someone explain the logic behind this?"
This is Insightful???
So, you must think that the technical issues with Xbox Live are all part of Microsoft's evil plan? Yes, if you listen carefully in the direction of Redmond, you can hear a faint "Eeeexcellent!"
They are providing an Xbox Live game as compensation because they expect the technical issues to be resolved soon. Is that logical enough for you?
Really, I'm quite sure that those responsible for Xbox Live are working overtime trying to get the issues resolved. Do you REALLY think MS wants bad PR over the online service for their console?? They have taken it in the shorts financially trying to get the Xbox into the console market. Now that they are actually seeing some improvements in market share, they're just going to alienate their new found customers?? It seems that they had a much higher than anticipated growth in the 4th quarter of '07. Maybe someone dropped the ball in being prepared, but they will get the issues resolved as quickly as possible.
Why? Because it is good for business. Xbox Live is a huge selling point for their console.
As a consumer, I would be upset if the service I paid for did not work. In this case, MS is offering a form of compensation. Is this form of compensation adequate for all users? I would say probably not. I'm sure many would prefer a refund. Well, how much is MS required to refund to all users? Do they just give everyone $5 back? In my opinion, extending each users subscription by a month would be a more equitable compensation than an arcade game that many may not even want. Still, I'm not sure MS is legally bound to provide any compensation for these issues, but they have. To file a class-action lawsuit is a bit over the top though, and I doubt it will go anywhere.
On a side note. How are the online services for the other consoles doing????