Real Money Items on Xbox Live "An Error," Says Microsoft

74
Lee Bradley

Microsoft has called the appearance of real money items on Xbox Live as “an error.”

Yesterday, some avatar items appeared on Xbox Live Marketplace purchasable with real money, leading some to speculate that Microsoft Points are on the way out.

They’re not. Microsoft has blamed a glitch for the issue.

"Yesterday, a few avatar items appeared with an option to purchase with local currency, instead of Microsoft Points," said Microsoft in a statement.

"This display error doesn't signal a change in payment options, but rather an error in how the offers were configured in our services which resulted in an inconsistent experience. It is in the process of being resolved."

Earlier this year it was rumoured that Microsoft Points were to be scrapped. Looks like that's  definitely not the case.

[via GameIndustry]

Comments
74
  • For this generation at least
  • I don't understand why some people would make a big deal if they were to cancel them, I mean I'm fed up of left over points upon purchasing DLC.
  • i'm happy to keep using mspoints, i don't want my credit card details on live thanks!
  • @2 Because people like me don't want to put credit card details on an xbox or give any credit details to MS what-so-ever. And its cheaper to get the points/Live Gold from other sources than direct from MS, not by much though.
  • I like the idea of Microsoft points but I think they should do what PS3 does so if a dlc you want costs £X.XX then the money comes straight out of your bank, MS could do this by charging the equivalent of the MSP for the item you want.
  • I'd be much happier happy to be able to pay with real money, if one could do it through Paypal. Then again, that's how Microsoft gets some suckers. People sometimes spend leftover points on avatar items, and such.
  • I hope they scrap it eventually I'm sick of getting dlc for 1200 and having to buy 1000 and 500
  • Or at least buying the EXACT amount of points you want, in some kind of online store.
  • well personally i think i would rather have a few leftover points than give ms my card details.
  • Games on Demand has the option for both. Why not add the option to everything else?
  • I think they should scrap them on the xbox, but keep them in the shops, and from online shops. I dont like buying 1500 points for a 1200 game. I would rather just pay £12 of what ever it is.
  • @4 yeah, good point, but the alternative? Buy a card with an actual money value instead of a MSP value on it. That way it's like having actual money, but with no card details on your account. It doesn't solve the issues of left overs, but it seems like a step in the right direction at least...
  • im pretty happy with the points system, i you buy the right amount it can work out pretty good, i have 200 left after buying gotham city impostors so ill only need to spend £8 to get counter strike at the end of the month
  • @4 Or we could just have the points card replaced with a cash value? Like on PSN.
  • @6 I heard a rumor about being able to purchase XBL gold and such with PayPal here soon. The problem with MS points is that they're based on 4/5 of the US dollar. Why not make it 1 to 1 with that dollar like Nintendo does with Wii points? It's an intentionally misleading system that becomes even more so when you factor in fluctuating currency rates across the globe. MS continues to amaze me with bad ideas that they refuse to discontinue. Next up: the Metro dash & Kinect...
  • I buy all of my points from Amazon in the UK and it works out at a fifth of the price cheaper than buying them through the Xbox. Makes sense to me and I don't mind waiting two days for the codes to arrive. So for €50 worth of points I only spend €40.
  • @10 this We can purchase games on demand with real money why not arcade games or anything else? Its a cheap cloak to facilitate games from going down in price in small increments. Microsoft simply has too much pull with the microsoft points system to give it up.
  • i think its hilarious that people on this page are bitching about having left over points, what next?? You hate those dollars you get back from the cashier! lmao grow up you whiny babies, go cry somewhere else.
  • Even if Microsoft does ditch the points system, any remaining points would become cash credit. @15 Xbox Support said you can't buy gold with MS Points at this time. Either they're joking or know something about the future.
  • They can rip people off much easier with the points system, why would they stop now?
  • I get 20% off my points so I don't mind them. If it changed, then they would release money cards like ps3. Which i would also get discount on. Its all good. People complain about having left over points. Well I always have left over cash on ps3. Games are sometimes priced at .49/.59/.99 always leaving cash left.
  • @19 ? As my previous post says, I was refering to being able to make purchases with PayPal. I know the idea has been tossed around, but users may not like the idea of that info being tied to their XBL accounts any more than a credit card. The MS point system is a ruse; you have leftover points & may be compelled to spend them, someone sees an avatar item for 240 MSP & buys it on impulse, but might not if it said $3. It's a blatant & greedy tactic to get your spare change basicly.
  • Never had the option to buy Games On Demand for points, even though it made it like like it did have the option. Every time I'd click on the title it would still ask for €s and my credit card information, dirty business practices.
  • @22. That is not the case for everyone. I know people who have had left over pouts from cod dlc packs and kept them for the next pack or an xbla game they like. Not everyone buys on impulse. 100msp is 85p UK money. So an 800 game would be £6.90. Unless they round it down or up. Which they won't do. Either way there will be change left over. Unless youre buying from a card on file. You will need to buy a preloaded cash card from a store. Which will prob be a £10/£15 minimum. Meaning left over points. Look at all aspects before you make an ass of yourself.
  • Points/change!
  • Just switch from MSP. Still sell cards to add credit to your GT without a credit card or with one if you want but stop with the retarded 480 MSP items!!! You can't but a fraction of 100 points so there is always like 2 dollars sitting on my account I can't use on anything.
  • MS 'trick' people into impulse avatar purchases? Are you people stupid? If I say you can buy the AC III game for 240MSP the day before release, and then when you download it, it turns out to be just an AC III game avatar prop, THAT's trickin you. MS don't do that. And if people are so weak or addicted to spending that they simply MUST spend all their MS points, then that's their own fault. Honestly, some of the shite I see in the comments section on here is just flat out absurd.
  • Amazon and Gamestop both sale 400, 800, 1200, 1600 and 4000 points. 2400, maybe? I've never had left over ms points, ever. If they do away with them, I'd be shocked, because they must know there are hundreds of thousands of gamers who will never put their credit card info online. Avatar props..lol, que?
  • MS Points go on sale... money never does. Do away with points, and it's no DLC for me... ever. Allow me to put money into my account, fine, but link a credit card? Shit no.
  • @27 I know right? Exactly my thoughts Mittens.
  • I wish theyd do it like psn where if the dlc costs 1200 and i have 740 i should be able to just buy the difference. instead of having to buy 800.
  • @4 you dont have to use credit card. You could buy from local store like psn currency. Microsoft use points to gain more money
  • MSP is much cheaper, and you get more value for money, rather than on PSN where everything is in real money, and there's no way to cut down the prices. Well in Denmark, 2100 MSP cost 300DKK. Online i can buy the same amount of money for 151DKK! That's half of the price, compared to what i can buy in retail store. For PSN, 500DKK cost.. 500DKK online.
  • I noticed Prototype 2 Rad Edition is like 7.99$ but the points say 800. Wonder if thats fixed
  • I doubt MSP will ever go away for a couple reasons. 1) Like someone above mentioned, people (myself included)are more inclined to spend "left over" points on small stuff like Avatar items. 2) Putting a denomination in front of those number ($, £, etc) makes people less likely to impulse buy because a lot of them don't directly relate MSP to real dollars, which also relates to #1. Even though $10.00 is the same as 800 points, most consumers would be drawn more to the 800 because it looks lower than $10.00. Same reason retailers price items at (for example) $19.99 instead of $20.00
  • Good thing I don't waste money on avtar items.
  • I hope msp stay forever. A lot of things are sold in increments of 400 points. Cards come in increments of 400 points. Any left over points do not expire (I have one account that has had 35 points in it since 2007 and the points are still there). Left over points (35 here 70 there) add up over time and I know I will eventually have enough to buy something I want. MSP cards go on sale a lot. I think I have only bought a couple 1600 point cards at full price, a few at 10 percent off, but most of them are at least 20 percent off. This would not be possible if microsoft used cash. When was the last time you saw cash on sale? I understand why some people don't want to pay for .50-2 dollars extra when they buy their points, just to have them sit there. But, if you are only buying your points on sale, then at least you have those left over points in the end, and you haven't really paid any more for them.
  • At least with MSP you can shop around, I've been able to pick up some great prices on 2100 cards. Whereas my PS3 playing friend has never been able to but a pre-paid card for any less than it's face value
  • The Xbox live rewards scheme might be a little more popular if it paid out actual money, but I can't see that happening. But it is a good way to round up those left over points into enough for something that isn't a total waste of points (like avatar crap)
  • I don't want them to get rid of Microsoft Points because I currently get them for cheaper than face value on Amazon and when local stores have sales on game accessories I get them for like 15-25% off. When it becomes real money then there will be no more savings. Everything will simply cost it's face value. I don't see why that's not more upsetting to people.
  • I don't think MSP needs to be scrapped, but they need to allow every single item on the marketplace to be bought with actual money, like GoD and all GFWL content.
  • I prefer points. So I can constantly get 25% off.
  • @10,this
  • I don't mind Microsoft Points. It's all the same thing, it just takes a bit more time to calculate. 80 Points is the equivalent of $1.00, so what's the big deal?
  • I don't really care if they switch to just MSP or just actual money I just hope that they keep prepaid cards around. I hate having my credit card on my xbl account, it seems like every time I put it on my account auto renewal gets turned on.
  • You can easily buy 4200 points for £29.99 in the UK which saves £10 on the RRP (effectively giving you 1000 free points) , scrap points & will be no option but to pay full price
  • Yaaayyy! I'm with #3, I use Amazon to buy all my points :) My Xbox already got hacked once and they bottomed out my credit card, so I'm happy this way, with having none of my financial information stored on the profile.
  • In Canada, points are a ripoff. We get 1400 for $20 instead of 1600, meaning we have to spend another $20 retail to get 1600 points.
  • Please keep MSP, there is no chance in hell im putting credit cards on my profile! I already got hacked once and luckily i didn't even have MSP.
  • I don't mind the MS points all that much, the most annoying thing is the leftover points and not being able to choose how many points you can purchase at once. I guess thats microsofts way of getting you to buy stupid avatar items.
  • I like the idea of microsoft points but i hate how i have left over points that I can't even use to buy DLC or avatar items
  • Just press the x button when purchasing something and see the actual money valve
  • Points or cash is fine. Like another poster said, too many whiners. Buy a 1000, and a 500 for a dlc worth 1200. Then next time u see somthing u want for 1200, just buy the 1000. Its not rocket science ppl. Think if it as your change u can put towards your next purchase. They also accumulate, u dont lose that change back. Lmao. Dumb ppl. Also dont impulse avatar buy, and there goes that argument... Some ppls kids, i swear.
  • @3 Doing away with the points system wouldn't mean you'd have to use your credit card or stop you from being able to buy pre-paid cards like you can now. The pre-paid cards would instead have the dollar amount just like the PSN cards do. I'd like them to do away with the points system but if they don't it's not a big deal to me. It's not like the games would be cheaper if they did that.
  • eBay all the way, digital download , £30 for 4200 points
  • As someone further up said you buy on demand games with either points or cash so I say just make the option available on all marketplace content.
  • @53 They're not the dumb ones. So, you buy 1000 and 500 points for a 1200 game, and your answer is "Then next time u see somthing u want for 1200, just buy the 1000. Its not rocket science ppl." Okay, so 1000 plus your 300 change from last time is 1300, leaving 100 left over. So then next time you want a 1200 download, you need to buy another 1000 and 500. Which then leaves you 400 change. So the time after that, you only buy 1000, spend 1200 and you're still left with 200. And so on. It never ends. And god help you if you buy a 560MSP DLC, unless you like avatar stuff you'll never spend that odd 40 on anything decent. Put it this way. Say you went to the grocery store, you buy bread and milk and something for dinner, you pay with a $10 and get for example $3.50 change. And the store say "nah, we're not giving that to you, we'll hold it till the next time you come in". So the next time you go in, you have $3.50 credit with them, but because that's not enough for your stuff, you have to pay with another $10, and get another $3.50 change, and leave them with $7 of your own money. Then you go in, but you only want $5 worth of stuff, so they keep $2. You're never straight with them. They're always holding some little bit of your money. Would you do that? Or does it sound crazy? It's only tiny amounts, but it's the principle of the thing. It's your money, it's your change. In real life, you'd expect to be handed your change. In a digital transaction, there's no rational reason in the world it can't be a precise to-the-penny transaction. If you spent $8.99 on a DVD on Amazon, would you want them to bill you $8.99, or $10 and keep the $1.01 as account credit?
  • bing rewards = free msp sooo there ya go
  • @58---Is Bing rewards still giving away ms points? I have not used that in over a year and a half but thought it ended
  • i just want to feed my bills into my xbox. can u just put a bill changer in the new xbox?
  • @57: No, it's nothing like that, it's like gift cards. With a gift card, you get your change, but it stays on the gift card. If you don't like it, don't do it. Nobody "needs" DLC. Hell, you don't even "need" games, and most of what's on XBLA can be obtained elsewhere. The MS points system is mutually beneficial. Just imagine this scenario... DLC you really want is 60% off on DotW, but you're skint. Hang on a sec, there's leftover points on your account that you can buy it with. Win.
  • @57 and @61 I guess we're all right. But 300 point left on MY ACCOUNT doesnt bother me one bit... Are you scared microsoft will shut down live and keep all our credit? I'm not... Yes its more like gift cards, not store credit
  • I don't mind buying MS points, I just wish you could buy the exact amount you wanted to buy.
  • @24 : Same here, even with some points left, no impulsive buy to some shitty avatars stuff. I keep them until a new game I want to buy is released. And like lots of people, I pay my points cheaper than Microsoft's price.
  • Forgot to say something, 800 points card are available online, so when you want to buy a 800 points game, you don't need to take 1000 points (and when you want a 1200, you don't need to take 1600, you can take 800+400). And with Microsoft rewards thing, you can even get away of those 20, 40, 60 or whatever points left. Each survey (one a month) give you 20 points.
  • @18 give me your moms number and I'll cry right up her butt crack ok? you assclown
  • Good points, #63 & 64/65. I do wish I could buy smaller amounts... not because I don't like having unused points... but I sometimes come-up short by 100 points or less, and have to buy 400 MS Points at a time (minimum), which means I'll have 300 points or more when I'm done. Then again... I'm in the Xbox Rewards program, and I've earned over 1700 points, and a lot of times... it's the reason for having random unused points in my account balance. :-p I do wish Microsoft would offer discounts for buying MORE points at a time. It would encourage people to buy more points, and there would probably be a lot less griping about leftover points on hand... because you got 1600 points for $17.99, instead of buying 800 points for $8.99, or 400 points for $4.99, etc.! Imagine if buying 4000 points was $44.99 instead of $49.99!!! I apologize to the people in the UK or other places... I don't know what the equivalent denomination is for your currency, and there's no way to do a "chart" layout here... but you get my idea.
  • Yeah, because with real money Microsoft can't force you spend $5 for $1.50 worth of content.
  • only thing i find amusing is that its easier to add points to your account purchasing an instant online code from Amazon.com then it is trying to do it right from xbox.com
  • @59 Yea they are still giving away MS points. I started doing it in April this year and have got 1600pts from it so far.
  • they should do it like PSN and the apple store. They dont use point cards but money. You pay the guy at the store 9.99 and you get a card with a code that adds 9.99 simple. its real money value with out needing credit card details.
  • u can do that now @71 its to keep the ppl outside of the US complaining about price since they dont understand international trade regulations and will be bitching about why does this DLC cost more in their country compared to that country they bypass that by letting the actual purchasing of MS points with the currency their country uses for the proper ammount depending on financial markets then when it comes to purchasing actual items, its 1200 MS points world wide for every country, not 16 euros in UK and 25 dollars in US or whatever
  • I would like it fixed so that when I moved from Canada to the united states I could actually use points cards on my account from the states or real money. I can only use Canadian points cards now.
  • @3 it would work the same as it does for the playstation network, or iTunes... You'd still buy a card it was just be a £15 card for example.
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