170°

Microsoft Points – don’t get rid of this virtual currency

Jack Turner: Along with rumours about the next Xbox’s capabilities, another emerged about the way we buy content on the Xbox 360 and other Microsoft devices. It could soon scrap its virtual currency system; Microsoft Points.

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conversation.which.co.uk
greeneggsnsam4504d ago

The left over points are too annoying to overlook, it leaves me with wasted money!

hellvaguy4504d ago

Its all psychological. You dont really need that extra $1-2 dollars of points to be at zero at all times. If your that tight on money, you should get into a cheaper hobby like scrapbooking.

Godmars2904504d ago

That $1-2 is money MS has in its bank earning a tenth to a hundredth of a cent yearly. As totaled from over millions of accounts.

TheoreticalParticle4504d ago

Uh, scrapbooking costs a lot of money.

spicelicka4504d ago (Edited 4504d ago )

That doesnt make sense, the point is that it's unethical and pathetic of microsoft to force extra $2 out of every transaction just so the customers are forced to buy useless virtual avatar crap, which should be free anyway...

If instead that money went to charity then i'd be happy.

hellvaguy4504d ago

Geez to think I always leave over $1,000 in my checking account at all times. Imagine how many more times powerful $1000 is over 1 dollar?! Im gunna go rage the bank for allowing this to happen and have left overs in the account.

Godmars2904504d ago (Edited 4504d ago )

Um, you know that banks use your money as venture capital right? The collateral for loads inside your community as well for ones around the world? That where they get to keep most profits from those, they then will nickel and dime you to further increase their income. This times every other account they have.

What MS does with your left over points is more akin to a cashier keeping your change from a purchase, "holding" it in the form of store credit, but for all other purposes its all their money from the moment you gave it to them.

Sony does the exact same thing with that penny because you had to had over $10 to buy something at $9.99, but its just a penny.

Until you go into the whole pre-paid card thing...

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Megaton4504d ago

That's exactly why point schemes like these exist. To get you to have leftovers, wasted money, unless you buy more.

RedDead4504d ago (Edited 4504d ago )

Yeah but the ability to buy cheap never really came to my mind, if you get 25%(or more) of points from Ebay or something you are saving alot of money. For example 2100 points is 18.88 on Ebay. It's 27 euro in shops(I think it is anyway) that's over 30% off.

techie4504d ago

But then as this guy says - you still have left over money in your PlayStation Store wallet as there's a £5 minimum.

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Jallen4504d ago

Finally, I hate MS Points and Wii points. The only good thing about it I've experienced is that occasionally MS gives away points.

Brosy4504d ago

I couldn't care less either way. Keep or not I don't care.

arnyftw4504d ago

I agree with the article, ms points are much cheaper than real money like on psn. And you can have discounts and stuff which you cant with real money. I would rather spend 1200 ms points on a dlc than like $25

cr33ping_death4504d ago

how are they cheaper??? if you have to buy DLC that is a certain price you have to buy more points than needed... whereas you can just pay the exact amount the PSN.

Aloren4504d ago

Let's say you wanna buy a 1600pts game, which is about 20 euros.
If you get your points on live, you have to get 2000MS points for 24 euros.
If you buy a card, you can get 2100pts for 19 euros.

In the end, you pay 19 euros instead of 20, and you have 500pts left.

So yeah, that qualifies as cheaper to me. For anyone who knows how to use them, MS points are much more interesting than real money.

techie4504d ago

Well, the article gives an actual example to compare so he has a point.

Plus, you can't pay the exact amount on PSN. You have to put money into your wallet at £5 intervals... diff in the US?

cr33ping_death4504d ago

@techie...i have never had to pay more than what the asking price was.... not sure if its different.

techie4504d ago

Hm, but don't you need to put a set amount into your wallet, where the transaction is then taken from? So if something is £2, I have put £5 into my wallet, where £2 is then taken, leaving £3 left in my wallet...

cr33ping_death4504d ago

@techie.... everything i have ever bought was over 5 dollars so i wouldnt know... could be.

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Persistantthug4504d ago

Why would the discounting have to end?

Aloren4504d ago

Because as far as I know, no shop offers to buy 20 bucks for 15 bucks... the discount you can get with ms points is an additional discount, not related to stuffs like "deal of the week".

arnyftw4504d ago

I've noticed that you never get discounts for psn credit, while you get discounts all the time for ms points

lorianguy4504d ago

@arnyFTW

My local GAME store reguarly sells £25 PSN cards for £20. I bought two the other day.

koehler834504d ago (Edited 4504d ago )

The idea that being able to hoard points purchased at a discount is a positive aspect of the currency is a skinner box response.

You have been conditioned to pay money you have now based on the potential to save money on something you may want later. Um.. just put it in the bank and accrue some interest. Or actually invest it somewhere.

Your money is more valuable to you in your pocket than in Microsoft's.

If you just -happen- to find some MS points at a discount the day before you were planning on spending money anyway, well hey granted, it's a positive thing for a consumer in a very rare circumstance. Much like winning the lottery vindicates one idiot out of millions.

Aloren4504d ago (Edited 4504d ago )

"You have been conditioned to pay money you have now based on the potential to save money on something you may want later. Um.. just put it in the bank and accrue some interest. Or actually invest it somewhere."

I'd say spending 20 bucks in advance to get a 20 to 30% bonus on your purchasing power is a pretty good investment. Well, it is for anyone who regularly buys games anyway. But I guess if you intend to never buy another xbla game again, it's a waste indeed.

trouble_bubble4504d ago (Edited 4504d ago )

There's rarely anything on PSN or XBLA that catches my eye as is. I spend most of my time playing retail games. Why stock up on points cards just to play winners like 'Amy', lol?

Maybe if someone buys a lot of DLC or online passes for some reason, but then they're probably rich enough to just buy newer games anyways.

Why spend just to look at an account of monopoly money grow that gathers no interest, when you can just keep it in your wallet and spend it as needed? Just cuz something's on sale, doesn't mean you have to buy it. I've passed on $4.99 brand new retail Move games at BestBuy because I simply didn't need them, great price notwithstanding.

techie4504d ago

Plus you can get discounts on PSN cards anyway.

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150°

10 Biggest Xbox Mistakes of All Time (So Far)

The Xbox brand has done a lot of good over the years, but their various blunders are pretty wild to look back on in their magnitude.

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culturedvultures.com
piroh7d ago (Edited 7d ago )

Ironically number 9 can save them at this point (releasing games on multiple platforms)

ChasterMies6d ago

By “save them” you mean make more profit for Microsoft. Xbox will still be a dying hardware platform.

OtterX6d ago

You could add the naming scheme for the consoles, it just confuses customers. I know they wanted to avoid traditional numbering bc it would always be lower than their competitor, but this whole 360 then One then Series thing is confusing af. Imagine a Soccer Mom trying to figure this stuff out. I still mistakenly call the Series X the One from time to time on accident.

RNTody6d ago

Don't forget about the Xbox One, Xbox One X and Xbox Series X! Good luck to Soccer moms around the world.

S2Killinit6d ago (Edited 6d ago )

They did that on purpose to confuse and direct attention away from the generational numbering.

MS doesn’t like reminding people that they joined the industry after others had already been involved in gaming.

For instance, they called the xbox “360” to combat PlayStation “3” because they wanted to seem like “more” than “3”, so instead of xbox 2, they opted for xbox 360. Also this had the additional benefit of selling consoles to uninformed parents who might purchase a “360” instead of a “3” by mistake, or because they thought 360 was more than 3. Kind of a disingenuous move.

They have been continuing with their confusing naming patterns for pretty much the same reasons. Frankly, it fits with who and what they are as a brand.

FinalFantasyFanatic5d ago

I can understand their reasoning, but whoever came up with that naming scheme should be fired, bad naming schemes have killed consoles (I'm pretty sure it was the major reason for the downfall of the WiiU). They should have had unqiue names like Nintendo and Sega have had for their consoles, far less confusing for the consumer.

rob-GP2d ago

@FinalFantasyFanatic "They should have had unqiue names like Nintendo..."

lol, you mean:

NES, SNES
GameBoy, GameBoy Advanced, GameBoy Colour, GameBoy SP
DS, DSi, DSXL
3DS, 3DS XL, New 3DS, New 3DS XL
Wii, Wii U
Switch, Switch OLED

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Cacabunga6d ago (Edited 6d ago )

Phil Spencer is the worst that has happened to Xbox.
They built a respectable brand up to Xbox one. Then this guy took over and things became a joke

Reaper22_6d ago

He still has his job. Something you can't say about Jim Ryan.

Cacabunga6d ago

Both bad execs. One is on job and one thankfully retired.

FinalFantasyFanatic5d ago (Edited 5d ago )

I didn't like either person, both people damaged their respective brands and produced worse outcomes, but Phil did save the Xbox brand from being retired by Microsoft. Although in hindsight, he should have just let it die, rather than languish in limbo like it is now.

Rainbowcookie4d ago

Yeah but the one that was "bad" didn't even affect sales.

bunt-custardly6d ago

Phil Spencer was also on the team back when 360 was around, alongside Shane Kim, Peter Moore etc. I think the damage that did the most harm was the Don Mattrick "Always Online" console (ahead of its time basically). They handed Sony and Nintendo a free-pass when that was revealed. It went downhill from there. Then the corporate machine went into full swing to try and recover. They have to a degree as a games company for the masses, and less so for the core gamer. Outside USA, the Xbox brand does not sell as well as Japanese based consoles (citation needed).

Cacabunga6d ago

Want a decision maker. The always online and TV plans was a disaster yes, but they caught up by announcing 1st party games that gamers actually kept the hype going.. until this moron took over and introduced the PC day one release.. e all know where that ended..

S2Killinit6d ago

I dont think they were ever a respectable brand, not since the beginning, when their goal was never to be involved and share in the gaming space. I think the OG xbox was an exception because MS as a brand was still getting its foot in and so the people behind that were people of the gaming industry.

FinalFantasyFanatic5d ago

The 360 was the brand in its prime though, everything went downhill towards the end of that generation. Its staple games like Halo, Forza and Gears are what kept the console relevant and afloat for so long.

MaximusPrime_6d ago

Really good video.

I remember the days with RRoD was big news on here, N4G.

Microsoft had it turbulence number of years.

Looking at the success of Sea of Thieves despite being 6 years old, time to release Halo, Forza horizon 4 & 5 on PS5. It'll help their revenue

shinoff21836d ago (Edited 6d ago )

2 of the 4 games they did already sold really well. So it's definitely going down. Idk about halo or forza but I feel those studios they've bought in the last 5 years, their coming

ChasterMies6d ago

I found this video painful to watch. Can someone list them out?

Top 10 for me from are:
1. 2013 reveal presentation
2. Bundling Kinect 2 with Xbox One
3. RRoD or why rushing to market with hardware is always a bad idea.
4. Buying studios only to close them.
5. Ads on the Home Screen
6. Letting Halo die.
7. Letting Geard of War die.
8. Every console name
9. Charging for Xbox Live on Xbox 360 when Sony let PS3 players play online for free.
10. Cancelling release of OG Xbox games after the Xbox 360 launched.

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150°

Microsoft to Add Copilot AI to Video Games

Microsoft recently revealed its plans to incorporate Copilot directly into video games, with Minecraft being the first showcased example.

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xpgained.co.uk
Fishy Fingers11d ago (Edited 11d ago )

F*** AI

"Hey Copilot, what's a good meme to prove I dislike AI".... https://giphy.com/clips/sou...

Einhander197211d ago

Two trillion dollar company that just can't wait to put as many people possible out of work as fast as possible.

It feels like every single thing they do is making gaming worse and destroying the industry.

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darthv7210d ago

....you know it takes people to program the AI.... right? It isnt like it is sentient. We haven't reach skynet level of situation or anywhere close to the matrix just yet.

That's next Thursday.

Einhander19729d ago (Edited 9d ago )

It takes a people to program the AI then that AI is used for who knows how many games eliminating countless jobs which only grows as AI is used for more and more game creation functions.

What you're saying is so ridiculously short sighted and truly larking any kind of understanding and foresight.

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CaptainFaisal10d ago

Why all the hate? Im actually excited about this! Always wanted this kind of immersion, and an AI companion with me all the time helping me out knowing the status of my skills/inventory/progress and giving me tips on the best approach or how to craft something specific is game changing for the industry.

Hate all you want about AI, but this is just the start and I can see the potential already. You wont be complaining in the next 5-10 years about this, but rather complain if a game hasn’t implemented it.

MrDead10d ago

Yes we can't wait for the work of others to be used without the need to pay them so that MS can profit even more from the people they fire.

I_am_Batman10d ago (Edited 10d ago )

There is no chance I'd ever use something like this, especially if it's not part of the core game design, but a layer on top of it. It's way too much handholding. Many games already feel like busy work, because they don't let the player figure things out on their own. Having a real-time interactive guide defeats the purpose of playing the game in the first place in my opinion.

If this were to become the standard like you predict, we'll see more and more video games get away with bad design, because people will just be used to ask for help from the AI companion anyway.

Number1TailzFan10d ago

Well Nintendo don't need this with some of their games these days, with invincible characters, items, easy bosses etc.. they do the hand holding built in

helicoptergirl10d ago

Takes "hand holding" in games to a whole new level.

BlackDoomAx9d ago

Because human nature xD Almost every new technology had these kind of comments.

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70°

Activision team is opening a new game studio in Poland 'Elsewhere Entertainment' to build new AAA IP

Microsoft's Activision subsidiary announced today that it is opening a new game development studio to take advantage of the huge talent pool growing in Poland. It'll be the second Activision studio based in the region, joining Infinity Ward Krakow, although this studio is, in fact, not working on Call of Duty.

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windowscentral.com
Psychonaut8514d ago

They’re not working on Call of Duty? Give it time.