Microsoft Points Were Never Meant To "Mislead People"


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Like Nintendo's currency of the same name, Microsoft's "Points" have been confusing people since they were first released, humans being accustomed to think of money spent in terms of, well, money spent. Not some abstract points scheme. If it makes you feel any better, Microsoft never meant for MS Points to confuse you. To mislead you. "We never intended to ever mislead people", Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg told G4. "I think we want to be transparent about it, and so it is something that we're looking at. How can we be more transparent and let people see it in actual dollars?"

He goes on to explain "no matter if you're on the yen or the euro or the dollar ? something that's 200 points is 200 points everywhere around the world", which apparently makes things easier on Microsoft. Except...the points themselves don't cost the same from region to region, undermining that uniformity.

On the bright side, when it comes to Microsoft's Games on Demand pricing - which uses real currency - Greenberg says the "response has been good and absolutely it's something we're looking at doing [elsewhere]".

Source: http://kotaku.com/5453422/microsoft-points...-mislead-people

That's my only gripe, I hate paying for anything on any service in spacebucks, easier just to know exactly what you're paying there and then.

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To me it makes sense that Microsoft only has to quote one price for each item. Then it's up to the consumer to know how much money that is, just like using any currency that isn't your national currency.

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I hate the idea of "Points". I also hate that you can't add an exact amount of Points, you have to add set amounts. Quite frustrating if you want to buy something that costs ?4 but you have to add ?5 worth of points.

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The idea behind using points makes sense, and he brings it up. It's the same points no matter where you live. In the end that 200 point item will end up costing you less if you're using something like Euros vs Dollars I bet. Unless you'd rather they stick the price be the same $ and Euro or Pound wise and you end up actually paying more since we all know $5 doesn't equal 5euros etc.

There are points converters out there iirc, many people use those. The only problem is the surplus. I expect MS to let you start adding any ammount of points you want to make it easier.

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At first I hated the points idea but I think I just got used to just dividing the total by 80 points to know how much I am actually paying. But def hate having 80 or 160 "leftover" points, I know I will eventually use them but I just hate that I cant buy the exact amount.

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I think thats the whole point, you buy more points than you need which means you have left over points so you buy more points to add to them points to buy something else and you have points left over after that etc..

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I hated the idea at first but don't mind so much any more. You actually get good deals on point cards which makes things cheaper and the global currency idea works great.

My only gripe is the set levels of point you can buy, that is deliberate to make you spend more which he avoids talking about and should have been brought up.

I don't understand why they went with real currency for Games on Demand though. Perhaps they are losing more money with points and want to test the water with real money or they didn't fancy having 4000 point cards and up when they start selling more expensive stuff as that looks like a high number.

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If you do the math and compared prices to content on Live to content on Playstation Network, the Live stuff is still way cheaper. So maybe the points thing isn't so bad.

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points are always left over. slick way of ripping people off. buy more points and maybe your total leftovers off multiple buys will be enough for a hat for your big head virtual image? lol slick.

i ditched the 360 and no choice but leave my left over money, i mean points behind. rip artists.

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I wouldn't mind points if, as you guys have mentioned, you could buy any amount you wanted and not a pre-defined amount. I understand why the pre-defined system is there, but still.

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Points are great for kids though, who's parents dont want to keep giving their credit card. Instead, they can gift the kids points cards and let the kids manage their own account.

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Points are great for kids though, who's parents dont want to keep giving their credit card. Instead, they can gift the kids points cards and let the kids manage their own account.

But they could just do what Sony do and do PSN cards the same way, so you could buy a ?20 Microsoft Live card.

Points is a silly currency and as people say a sneaky way to make people overspend when they actually want to buy something.

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Lawl Gavin, that's definitely not your only gripe with the 360 :p

On the marketplace it is, content wise the marketplace is great.

I just absolutely hate points as I'm always asking myself what the heck am I actually paying and then there's the surplus left over cause nothing costs the amount you add. At least on PSN anything over ?5 and you can spend the exact amount needed.

It's like going around a supermarket then paying with shoes which you exchange your real money for at the door.

Unless you want me to moan about the Gold 1 week demo early thing as well, but that's got nothing to do with this topic :p

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I wouldn't mind points if, as you guys have mentioned, you could buy any amount you wanted and not a pre-defined amount. I understand why the pre-defined system is there, but still.

I can see why retail stores have predefined amounts but you should be able to buy points (any amount) on your xbox with your credit card

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This is similar to the Playstation Store, which has a $5.00 minimum purchase increment. No different.

How is it no different when one uses real money and other points?

What people are complaining about is

a) Point converting

b) You can't spend exact amounts

If you go to buy a game at $9.99 on the PSN store it will take exactly $9.99 off your card. Most things on it are over $5 anyway, and even if they aren't, if you have $1 left in your PSN wallet and go to buy the $9.99 thing it will take $8.99 off your card, leaving you with no change. You don't need to go add an abstract amount of dollars to your account which has $1 in it to buy the $9.99 thing, which then again leaves you with left over dollars.

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This is similar to the Playstation Store, which has a $5.00 minimum purchase increment. No different.

I fail to see the similarity. Where is the conversion? Where is the leftover currency? I haven't seen this $5 limit myself, but still doesnt have anything to do with in comparison.

Even when using credit cards most stores have a minimum $5 requirement. They do get charged for every transaction by the CC company.

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I fail to see the similarity. Where is the conversion? Where is the leftover currency? I haven't seen this $5 limit myself, but still doesnt have anything to do with in comparison.

Even when using credit cards most stores have a minimum $5 requirement. They do get charged for every transaction by the CC company.

There is a minimum entry of $/?5 for the reason you said, but if you spend anything over that as I explained above it just charges you the exact amount needed, no left overs. Then when you do spend less than $/?5, all it does is use that money from your PSN wallet with whatever is needed to make up the difference to buy what you're buying, leaving you with no change.

MS need to implement that more than they do change from points, let you buy in exact point amounts as long as the point amount is greater than ?/$5, and then do it the way PSN does, use the left over change and charge only whats needed points wise on top for the new piece of content you're buying.

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MS need to implement that more than they do change from points, let you buy in exact point amounts as long as the point amount is greater than ?/$5, and then do it the way PSN does, use the left over change and charge only whats needed points wise on top for the new piece of content you're buying.

I think the points thing just doesn't work altogether when dealing with currency. Even if 1pt = $1, there's still the question of change. I doubt they go with 1pt = 1cent which would make absolutely no sense in a point system to begin with.

It was designed to do exactly what its doing now, benefit them (rip people off) regardless of what ms stated. Until they change the price tags to actual money amount, people will lose one way or another.

So yea, agreed. rid off the point/currency conversion system.

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no matter if you're on the yen or the euro or the dollar ? something that's 200 points is 200 points everywhere around the world

No matter if you are on the yen or the euro or the dollar, something selling on the xbox store is something selling on the xbox store, and will have different prices depending on where you live. Adding an abstract currency in the middle solves nothing (they still have to decide how much a point is worth in each country) and adds confusion (why do I have to bother remembering how much a point is?).

It's a stupid idea no matter how you look at it.

No being able to pay the exact cost of a xbox store item also sucks, but that's kinda unrelated. They could be following the same scheme even if they were pricing items with an actual currency.

On the other hand, though, this along with the MS point issue does (even if it's not intended) do a good job at misleading people.

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