Bye-bye Microsoft Points! Good riddance ... or not?
Neowin.net - Microsoft Points to be retired, replaced with real money.One of the more infuriating elements for users of Microsoft services is the company’s insistence on
using a unified virtual currency system across patches of its digital empire – Microsoft Points.
Many purchases on the Xbox LIVE and Zune Marketplace stores can only be paid for with MS Points,
but it’s now been revealed that the company is preparing to abandon its digital currency, in favour of
embracing purchases made with real world currencies.
Not something I was expecting. Do you welcome this move, or do you enjoy collecting those Points, especially when
some MS Points cards have limited edition designs relating to a specific XBox360 title and/or downloadable content?
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So i take it the only options will be debit/credit cards or paypal. Dont really fancy putting my card details on there system for some reason:rolleyes:
That will still apply as they will probably have some sort of top-up system similar to PSN with a minimum top-up of say £5.
They will keep the prepaid cards because many people don't like to input a credit card and prepaid cards are good gifts for people.
Just wish they would allow you to buy a Gold membership using points or whatever is used as currency via the Dashboard. I know its easy enough to go out & buy the Gold Pre-Paid card, However they have had some offers avaliable via the dash recently (1 month for £1 for example) which can only be paid for via Debit/Credit card. If you could pay using MS-Points I'd have gone for that offer.
Don't worry, I'm sure it will be like the PSN, on a few websites you can pick up a £35 PSN Card for £30!
If however the game/whatever is over £5, you can pay the exact amount. So a £6.99 game, you pay £6.99. Its slightly annoying if all you wanted was a 20p avatar though.
This, hopefully you on Live you can purchase something worth....say....20p and only get charged 20p and not have to pay £5 and then have £4.80 sat in your account.
still would like the option of buying vouchers in store, like iTunes.
Same way you do now with pre paid cards, but instead of putting MS points onto your account it will put the value of the card onto your account.
Instead of going out & buying a 2100 MS-Points card you would go & buy a £25 Pre-Paid card (Or whatever prices MS opt for) which would cost you £25.
A PSN Card:
http://www.game.co.uk/en/PlayStation-Network-Card-%C2%A325-119542?cm_mmc=BigMouth-_-Accessories-_-PlayStation-Network-Card-%C2%A325-_-link
By removing the points, i'd never buy any crap like that. I don't think iv'e ever looked at that market and thought 'wow, look at that cool t-shirt, i must go out and get some points so i can buy it'.
At the moment, when i have points i see it as play money, like monopoly, but by having real currency i would think twice before buying anything, and i'm sure alot of other people would too. 80msp for a avatar hat seems like nothing but i'd think that 0.79p for one would be a rip off.
Ripped off?
Last time i bought some points, i paid £24.49 for 4200msp
I don't think MS will be willing to give the same discount.
And you'll still be able to buy Money Cards, much like PSN Cards, and yes, you can get a deal on them depending on the website. Just because they're ditching points doesn't suddenly mean you won't get a good deal on pre-paid cards anymore.
Whenever I've bought something on Live, I've always nipped on a conversion website and done a conversion to GBP so I know exactly how much I'm spending.
Lets hope a PS3 style prepaid card replaces them.
I assume it makes transactions look cheaper.
"oh, just 300 points? I'll have that" without realising how much those points cost you, especially when you can only buy set amounts.
Yeah that annoys me. Good riddance to em i say.
Hopefully things can be purchased for their actual price rather than having a minimum top-up.
being discontinued has come up again. According to an article posted yesterday on tech news site Neowin.net . . .
Microsoft Points starting to be phased out.
I'll wait until an official confirmation or denial from Microsoft . . .