Y'know, all of this could have been solved if someone at Microsoft's CS department had a true sense of customer service. Christ. I've worked at a company who would bend over backwards to keep a paying customer happy- even undercutting pricing to do so- just to ensure that customer remains loyal and the money keeps coming in.
What the hell really happened to that mentality?
What are the customers going to do, buy that other XBox 360 multiplayer service?
Welcome to the world of lock-in. It's the same reason that they get away with charging $180 for a 120 gig hard drive when you can get off-the-shelf external drives with more than 4 times the capacity for less.
Godammit, I want my fairy wings and rainbows! Get me my "the customer is always right!" hat! Viva la proletariat!!!!!
Microsoft is super stingy with gamertags. My old gamertag was just "YodaTuna" and when I tried to recover it, I had all the information required except for the original credit card I paid with because it had expired like 2 years earlier. Microsoft would not budge.
It's stupid.
If it helps, you probably couldn't have that name even if you remembered the credit card number. If MS has closed that account then no one, not even you, can ever use YodaTuna ever again. Same thing happened to me. I weep for the untold thousands of gamertags lost to the 48 hour freebee cards of the original xbox's run.
Hi Fellas,
I saw Ben's post linking to here and I notice your posts are exactly what I came here to rant about.
That whole 'can't get an old tag back' policy is ridiculous.
I can understand if it's someone elses and hasn't been used for 5 months, that's still not yours to recover but when it IS YOUR account and you 'can't have it back' it's just plain terrible.
CC of my post on Bens blog here in regards to the issue.
Also Ben, good luck, I've found Xbox support to be terrible, the best man is MajorNelson by far but there's only so much he can do - and in regards to my issue, I don't think he could care less
Post here:
I too am having issues with Xbox live something else also damn niggly (although not as bad)
I created an Xbox Live acount on my Xbox 1 about 3 years ago, I used a name which I use on at least 40 forums across the internet, I like it and it’s ‘me’ as far as I’m concerned.
I quit Xbox Live for my XB1 due to a hardware failure about 2 years ago, I eventually got a new one but never signed back up.
My Xbox account is now locked out, forever, I can never ever get that gamertag back for no apparent reason.
I’ve emailed support, I’ve started a rant on Xbox.com forums, I’ve emailed MajorNelson (and got responses too!) essentually I was told ‘well if you don’t keep it active, you lose it, so there’s some incentive to keep it active’
Effectively blackmail, if you want to keep your gamertag you must pay for a subscription, even if you can’t or don’t want to use live.
(Overseas holiday, New baby, Very ill, console stolen and slow insurance - all kinds of reasons to terminate the subscription for a while)
I actually DO have ALL the recovery information for this account, yet it simply won’t let me recover it.
I’m 99.9% sure it’s a case of some smart little fellow in MS diddlying with a few flags on a database (funny enough same as your account issue) but do you think anyone will listen or address it?
Piss poor.
I never thought I’d say this but my PS3 is getting a lot more use than I thought it would ,…….
EDIT:
Any of you who think it's a stupid policy or have been burnt by it previously, you're welcome to jump in to that thread and chime in, the more replies we get the more we get noticed.
Oh and I even offered money to them, asking if I could rename TO my old gamertag, nope.
I had an old XBox live account that I let lapse. I had all the info and they wouldn't let me recover it when I got the 360. It wasn't that big of a deal, since I got a great new tag ('Angry Steve' if you want to add me), which I like better than my old one ('A Lumberjack').
I had an old XBox live account that I let lapse. I had all the info and they wouldn't let me recover it when I got the 360. It wasn't that big of a deal, since I got a great new tag ('Angry Steve' if you want to add me), which I like better than my old one ('A Lumberjack').
The problem is when you've got people who have been using the same nick online for years and they can't keep it on live, ESPECIALLY when it was actually their nick.
This is bad for people on forums for example where you can't track down the nick of all your gamerfriends
(plus it's just a silly policy in the first place, it's a database flag for goodness sakes)
I realize the problems associated with it. I didn't encounter them when MS gave me problems with keeping the old name, but I recognize that they exist for a large number of people.
I realize the problems associated with it. I didn't encounter them when MS gave me problems with keeping the old name, but I recognize that they exist for a large number of people.
Oh yeah and majornelson telling me 'well that's just incentive to keep the account' is frankly rubbish, because they don't tell you that you'll lose the gamertag if you quit
Listen man I herd about your story on XBLArcade.com and I got a solution to your problem.
Try using this website it's called Game Points Now and it allows you to buy English subscriptions and gamer points over the internet without using M$'s marketplace.
I can vouch for these guys because I have used them before and they have never let me down once. They also accept PayPal which is handy if you do not have a credit card.
So why are people honestly defending Microsoft over this? It shouldn't be that hard to go into his information and change "region" to "North America", change the "address" field and then just have him pay what everybody else in North America pays for Live.
The fact that it's THAT hard to get something so SIMPLE done on the only online gaming service you actually have to PAY for is retarded. What kind of screwed up system is Microsoft running?
So why are people honestly defending Microsoft over this? It shouldn't be that hard to go into his information and change "region" to "North America", change the "address" field and then just have him pay what everybody else in North America pays for Live.
The fact that it's THAT hard to get something so SIMPLE done on the only online gaming service you actually have to PAY for is retarded. What kind of screwed up system is Microsoft running?
There are different laws in different countries. We agree to a different set of terms and conditions over here than you guys in the US. Additionally, some content is restricted in some countries. Its more complicated than you think.
But there should still be a procedure in place to let people migrate, in my opinion.
So why are people honestly defending Microsoft over this? It shouldn't be that hard to go into his information and change "region" to "North America", change the "address" field and then just have him pay what everybody else in North America pays for Live.
The fact that it's THAT hard to get something so SIMPLE done on the only online gaming service you actually have to PAY for is retarded. What kind of screwed up system is Microsoft running?
There are different laws in different countries. We agree to a different set of terms and conditions over here than you guys in the US. Additionally, some content is restricted in some countries. Its more complicated than you think.
But there should still be a procedure in place to let people migrate, in my opinion.
Seriously, I can't imagine it's that difficult to setup a function to parse through the current account and disable or remove access to the content that is exclusive to the region being transfered from.
then once that is done, all that is left is having the user agree to the US terms and conditions.
If I knew how the account data was setup I could probably write the code for it myself in less than an hour.
Even if they charged a fee for it I'd still see it as reasonable.
I've been wanting to get a 360 for ages now, but since I also plan on emigrating to China within the next year or so, I'm guessing I would hit the same stonewall as you have and have decided to hang on to my money for now.
So why are people honestly defending Microsoft over this? It shouldn't be that hard to go into his information and change "region" to "North America", change the "address" field and then just have him pay what everybody else in North America pays for Live.
The fact that it's THAT hard to get something so SIMPLE done on the only online gaming service you actually have to PAY for is retarded. What kind of screwed up system is Microsoft running?
There are different laws in different countries. We agree to a different set of terms and conditions over here than you guys in the US. Additionally, some content is restricted in some countries. Its more complicated than you think.
But there should still be a procedure in place to let people migrate, in my opinion.
Seriously, I can't imagine it's that difficult to setup a function to parse through the current account and disable or remove access to the content that is exclusive to the region being transfered from.
then once that is done, all that is left is having the user agree to the US terms and conditions.
If I knew how the account data was setup I could probably write the code for it myself in less than an hour.
Even if they charged a fee for it I'd still see it as reasonable.
that's even assuming that gamertags are all on one system, and given the difficulty here, i severely doubt that the entire world's gamertags are centralized; hell, I doubt due to regulations that they COULD be centralized.
I feel your pain about MS support. I also wish you the best in all of this.
But when I went to the site you write for all I could think is, 'I must re-design this site'. White text on black like that just killed my eyes. I may have missed it in the 28 pages of the thread, but could you paste the article you wrote?
I don't think Microsoft has a good decision making organization. If left to the tech support guys who generally don't have business sense, things like this occur.
I hope that you're doing well in spite of this, Ben. I'm also glad to see that you've garnered the support you have so far.
So why are people honestly defending Microsoft over this? It shouldn't be that hard to go into his information and change "region" to "North America", change the "address" field and then just have him pay what everybody else in North America pays for Live.
The fact that it's THAT hard to get something so SIMPLE done on the only online gaming service you actually have to PAY for is retarded. What kind of screwed up system is Microsoft running?
There are different laws in different countries. We agree to a different set of terms and conditions over here than you guys in the US. Additionally, some content is restricted in some countries. Its more complicated than you think.
But there should still be a procedure in place to let people migrate, in my opinion.
Seriously, I can't imagine it's that difficult to setup a function to parse through the current account and disable or remove access to the content that is exclusive to the region being transfered from.
then once that is done, all that is left is having the user agree to the US terms and conditions.
If I knew how the account data was setup I could probably write the code for it myself in less than an hour.
Even if they charged a fee for it I'd still see it as reasonable.
that's even assuming that gamertags are all on one system, and given the difficulty here, i severely doubt that the entire world's gamertags are centralized; hell, I doubt due to regulations that they COULD be centralized.
Even if they aren't on the same system, they have to be connected somehow, or else you wouldn't be able to play with someone from a different region. All that is needed is that wherever they are stored be accesses from the same place, and clearly that's possible because I was playing with a guy from england last week.
It would be like transferring servers in WoW. Still not that hard, and once they have the process implemented they can CHARGE for it.
So why are people honestly defending Microsoft over this? It shouldn't be that hard to go into his information and change "region" to "North America", change the "address" field and then just have him pay what everybody else in North America pays for Live.
The fact that it's THAT hard to get something so SIMPLE done on the only online gaming service you actually have to PAY for is retarded. What kind of screwed up system is Microsoft running?
There are different laws in different countries. We agree to a different set of terms and conditions over here than you guys in the US. Additionally, some content is restricted in some countries. Its more complicated than you think.
But there should still be a procedure in place to let people migrate, in my opinion.
Seriously, I can't imagine it's that difficult to setup a function to parse through the current account and disable or remove access to the content that is exclusive to the region being transfered from.
then once that is done, all that is left is having the user agree to the US terms and conditions.
If I knew how the account data was setup I could probably write the code for it myself in less than an hour.
Even if they charged a fee for it I'd still see it as reasonable.
that's even assuming that gamertags are all on one system, and given the difficulty here, i severely doubt that the entire world's gamertags are centralized; hell, I doubt due to regulations that they COULD be centralized.
Even if they aren't on the same system, they have to be connected somehow, or else you wouldn't be able to play with someone from a different region. All that is needed is that wherever they are stored be accesses from the same place, and clearly that's possible because I was playing with a guy from england last week.
It would be like transferring servers in WoW. Still not that hard, and once they have the process implemented they can CHARGE for it.
No, it would be like transferring to a different regional server in WoW. Oh wait, you can't do that either. hmm. so much for that idea.
So why are people honestly defending Microsoft over this? It shouldn't be that hard to go into his information and change "region" to "North America", change the "address" field and then just have him pay what everybody else in North America pays for Live.
The fact that it's THAT hard to get something so SIMPLE done on the only online gaming service you actually have to PAY for is retarded. What kind of screwed up system is Microsoft running?
There are different laws in different countries. We agree to a different set of terms and conditions over here than you guys in the US. Additionally, some content is restricted in some countries. Its more complicated than you think.
But there should still be a procedure in place to let people migrate, in my opinion.
Seriously, I can't imagine it's that difficult to setup a function to parse through the current account and disable or remove access to the content that is exclusive to the region being transfered from.
then once that is done, all that is left is having the user agree to the US terms and conditions.
If I knew how the account data was setup I could probably write the code for it myself in less than an hour.
Even if they charged a fee for it I'd still see it as reasonable.
that's even assuming that gamertags are all on one system, and given the difficulty here, i severely doubt that the entire world's gamertags are centralized; hell, I doubt due to regulations that they COULD be centralized.
Even if they aren't on the same system, they have to be connected somehow, or else you wouldn't be able to play with someone from a different region. All that is needed is that wherever they are stored be accesses from the same place, and clearly that's possible because I was playing with a guy from england last week.
It would be like transferring servers in WoW. Still not that hard, and once they have the process implemented they can CHARGE for it.
No, it would be like transferring to a different regional server in WoW. Oh wait, you can't do that either. hmm. so much for that idea.
Are you positive you can't? has it been proven that blizzard wouldn't transfer someone's account to another region? I don't know but I think it is possible if need be.
So why are people honestly defending Microsoft over this? It shouldn't be that hard to go into his information and change "region" to "North America", change the "address" field and then just have him pay what everybody else in North America pays for Live.
The fact that it's THAT hard to get something so SIMPLE done on the only online gaming service you actually have to PAY for is retarded. What kind of screwed up system is Microsoft running?
There are different laws in different countries. We agree to a different set of terms and conditions over here than you guys in the US. Additionally, some content is restricted in some countries. Its more complicated than you think.
But there should still be a procedure in place to let people migrate, in my opinion.
Seriously, I can't imagine it's that difficult to setup a function to parse through the current account and disable or remove access to the content that is exclusive to the region being transfered from.
then once that is done, all that is left is having the user agree to the US terms and conditions.
If I knew how the account data was setup I could probably write the code for it myself in less than an hour.
Even if they charged a fee for it I'd still see it as reasonable.
that's even assuming that gamertags are all on one system, and given the difficulty here, i severely doubt that the entire world's gamertags are centralized; hell, I doubt due to regulations that they COULD be centralized.
Even if they aren't on the same system, they have to be connected somehow, or else you wouldn't be able to play with someone from a different region. All that is needed is that wherever they are stored be accesses from the same place, and clearly that's possible because I was playing with a guy from england last week.
It would be like transferring servers in WoW. Still not that hard, and once they have the process implemented they can CHARGE for it.
No, it would be like transferring to a different regional server in WoW. Oh wait, you can't do that either. hmm. so much for that idea.
Are you positive you can't? has it been proven that blizzard wouldn't transfer someone's account to another region? I don't know but I think it is possible if need be.
It's not possible. if you want a UK account on WoW, you need a UK disk. If you want a US account, you need a US disk. The disks and installation codes are region locked as well as the accounts associated with those disks.
And you most definately cannot use the WoW character transfer system to move a character from one region to another.
But can you switch how you pay for WoW? Mainly, can you go from a UK CC to a US CC?
I'm not sure about that.
Given, in the OP's situation it would have been slightly less troublesome if he could just pay for his UK account with his US CC, but he would still have to pay the UK subscription fees and it would mean that microsoft would have to incorporate some form of system to deal with monetary conversions with payments. And that isn't as easy as flipping a switch.
Also on this topic people have brought up apple iTunes and used that as a comparison to xbox live. This isn't a good comparison. The two services are, no pun intended, apples and oranges and different laws apply. The WoW service is much more comparable to xbox live and that service also doesn't allow transfers between regions.
Also of note is that when it comes to the 360, the hardware itself is region locked. even if the OP did have his original 360 he would still have to buy games from amazon.uk or some other import service because he couldn't play any of the games sold off the US shelves. Allowing a transfer between regions could allow people to throw the Gamerscore system all out of wack by doubling up on points. Yah! I got 1000 points in US oblivion, and another 1000 points from UK oblivion!
There are valid reasons to lock both the hardware and accounts to a region, and in the end very few people will ever experience an issue with it. They probably will never know or care.
I also wanted to point out the maybe-not-so-obvious. Other companies can often get away with doing things the good-for-the-customer-but-not-quite-legal way. Reason? They're not the same legal target that Microsoft is. Nor are they constantly under the microscope by a multitude of groups (the E.U., consumer groups, etc.). Nor are they a huge target for hackers and script kiddies, looking to take advantage of any loophole or exploit they can find, just so they can be the first one to claim "Look! I hacked Micro$oft! I r l33t!" and be rewarded for it in fame on a multitude of anti-MS forums and web-sites.
The amount of legal wrangling that I've had to go through in the past and for current projects is definitely one of the low points of the job. Same goes for security. I am very envious of my peers that don't have to deal with nearly as much red-tape.
Of course, the flip-side is that because Microsoft is a huge target for all things Security and Legal, there's a lot of resources we can use to try to solve these problems as best as possible for the consumer. It makes things easier but it doesn't make it easy.
This has probably been said in the umpteen pages I couldn't be bothered to read but.... what about You Tube? (as its far more popular than digg or "gaming blogs")?
I saw a report of a Brit who hit back at the his water supplier for a mis-billing. They refused to budge on the issue until he placed a formal video complaint on youtube and then wrote to them with the link. They shat the bed and promptly sorted the issue along with a suitable applogy.
Again, it's probably already been said, but its using google against the very people who are milking it for advertising... if enough people hit your video and its starts featuring in top search results for "Microsoft" or "immigration" they'll bust a blood vessle.
OK it may drown in a sea of retarded "MS hate" results but ..."MS Hates Immigrants" is a great eye catcher ;-)
Just got back from Houston about an hour ago. I had a lot of email to get through, mostly relating to this situation. I haven't read the thread posts since I left just yet but I will do once I get the next page of Jump Leads up.
Here's how the situation stands right now:
"Steve" at Xbox Escalations has emailed me with a view to resolving the issue.
Major Nelson has too, and we've been having a conversation via email concerning getting this sorted. He wants this mess resolved as much as I do and is going to do all that he can. Which is awesome.
People have flooded my inbox with support. Equally, people have emailed me to say I'm a lying asshat. I've been called a douche, a dick, a "luying [sic] bullshitting cockjockey", and a Sony fanboy. These emails are almost entirely from people with names like "Xboy_04pa", "Dave360", or "MS_RULEZ_69".
People have flooded my inbox with support. Equally, people have emailed me to say I'm a lying asshat. I've been called a ......and a Sony fanboy. These emails are almost entirely from people with names like "Xboy_04pa", "Dave360", or "MS_RULEZ_69".
I like how the Sony Fanboy apparently owns a 360....
Just got back from Houston about an hour ago. I had a lot of email to get through, mostly relating to this situation. I haven't read the thread posts since I left just yet but I will do once I get the next page of Jump Leads up.
Here's how the situation stands right now:
"Steve" at Xbox Escalations has emailed me with a view to resolving the issue.
Major Nelson has too, and we've been having a conversation via email concerning getting this sorted. He wants this mess resolved as much as I do and is going to do all that he can. Which is awesome.
People have flooded my inbox with support. Equally, people have emailed me to say I'm a lying asshat. I've been called a douche, a dick, a "luying [sic] bullshitting cockjockey", and a Sony fanboy. These emails are almost entirely from people with names like "Xboy_04pa", "Dave360", or "MS_RULEZ_69".
Yay!
And I'm referring to the positive stuff, not the last bit. ;-)
Now that CES is over (and folks like Major Nelson are back in the office), it'll be easier to get some traction going.
I like to amuse myself by imagining that "Steve" is in fact Steve Jobs, trying to make Microsoft look even worse and turn me over to the Mac Side.That said, I have a fairly inventive imagination.
ViscountalphaThe pen is mightier than the swordhttp://youtu.be/G_sBOsh-vyIRegistered Userregular
edited January 2008
It is nice to finally hear that it sounds like it will be resolved finally. I still wish I could of heard the "go back to england" from one of the tech support people. It is so ridiculously insulting that it is funny in a retrospective manner.
The question at this point is: Is this a one off fix or can we look forward to a policy change.
And if this leads to an actual policy change, maybe we can turn our collective guns towards other shit like the transfer issues, which are still affecting many new people every day by the way. Hell they even flat out LIED to people in the UK with the launch of the Elite saying that the DRM issues that plagued Americans have been fixed, only to have the same shit happen all over again (I have sources in the UK that can attest to this).
That's cool you got some attention from people who give a shit! I hope they work out a repeatable way of fixing this problem so it doesn't rape other people in the wallet in the future.
Similarly, I thought it stood for "Spelling is Correct." (Which is to say, the spelling quoted was faithful to the source.) Clearly, if that were the case, it would have been an even more confusing phrase as the spelling is most definitely not correct pretty much every time I see it.
Posts
Godammit, I want my fairy wings and rainbows! Get me my "the customer is always right!" hat! Viva la proletariat!!!!!
Hi Fellas,
I saw Ben's post linking to here and I notice your posts are exactly what I came here to rant about.
That whole 'can't get an old tag back' policy is ridiculous.
I can understand if it's someone elses and hasn't been used for 5 months, that's still not yours to recover but when it IS YOUR account and you 'can't have it back' it's just plain terrible.
CC of my post on Bens blog here in regards to the issue.
Also Ben, good luck, I've found Xbox support to be terrible, the best man is MajorNelson by far but there's only so much he can do - and in regards to my issue, I don't think he could care less
Post here:
I too am having issues with Xbox live something else also damn niggly (although not as bad)
I created an Xbox Live acount on my Xbox 1 about 3 years ago, I used a name which I use on at least 40 forums across the internet, I like it and it’s ‘me’ as far as I’m concerned.
I quit Xbox Live for my XB1 due to a hardware failure about 2 years ago, I eventually got a new one but never signed back up.
My Xbox account is now locked out, forever, I can never ever get that gamertag back for no apparent reason.
I’ve emailed support, I’ve started a rant on Xbox.com forums, I’ve emailed MajorNelson (and got responses too!) essentually I was told ‘well if you don’t keep it active, you lose it, so there’s some incentive to keep it active’
Effectively blackmail, if you want to keep your gamertag you must pay for a subscription, even if you can’t or don’t want to use live.
(Overseas holiday, New baby, Very ill, console stolen and slow insurance - all kinds of reasons to terminate the subscription for a while)
I actually DO have ALL the recovery information for this account, yet it simply won’t let me recover it.
I’m 99.9% sure it’s a case of some smart little fellow in MS diddlying with a few flags on a database (funny enough same as your account issue) but do you think anyone will listen or address it?
Piss poor.
I never thought I’d say this but my PS3 is getting a lot more use than I thought it would ,…….
Here’s the URL to me talking about it on the XBOX.COM forums.
http://forums.xbox.com/17297131/ShowPost.aspx
EDIT:
Any of you who think it's a stupid policy or have been burnt by it previously, you're welcome to jump in to that thread and chime in, the more replies we get the more we get noticed.
Oh and I even offered money to them, asking if I could rename TO my old gamertag, nope.
The problem is when you've got people who have been using the same nick online for years and they can't keep it on live, ESPECIALLY when it was actually their nick.
This is bad for people on forums for example where you can't track down the nick of all your gamerfriends
(plus it's just a silly policy in the first place, it's a database flag for goodness sakes)
Oh yeah and majornelson telling me 'well that's just incentive to keep the account' is frankly rubbish, because they don't tell you that you'll lose the gamertag if you quit
Listen man I herd about your story on XBLArcade.com and I got a solution to your problem.
Try using this website it's called Game Points Now and it allows you to buy English subscriptions and gamer points over the internet without using M$'s marketplace.
I can vouch for these guys because I have used them before and they have never let me down once. They also accept PayPal which is handy if you do not have a credit card.
Anyway hope that helps!
~ Danny
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
The fact that it's THAT hard to get something so SIMPLE done on the only online gaming service you actually have to PAY for is retarded. What kind of screwed up system is Microsoft running?
But there should still be a procedure in place to let people migrate, in my opinion.
Seriously, I can't imagine it's that difficult to setup a function to parse through the current account and disable or remove access to the content that is exclusive to the region being transfered from.
then once that is done, all that is left is having the user agree to the US terms and conditions.
If I knew how the account data was setup I could probably write the code for it myself in less than an hour.
Even if they charged a fee for it I'd still see it as reasonable.
By which I mean buy more Wii games.
Hope things work out.
that's even assuming that gamertags are all on one system, and given the difficulty here, i severely doubt that the entire world's gamertags are centralized; hell, I doubt due to regulations that they COULD be centralized.
But when I went to the site you write for all I could think is, 'I must re-design this site'. White text on black like that just killed my eyes. I may have missed it in the 28 pages of the thread, but could you paste the article you wrote?
I hope that you're doing well in spite of this, Ben. I'm also glad to see that you've garnered the support you have so far.
Even if they aren't on the same system, they have to be connected somehow, or else you wouldn't be able to play with someone from a different region. All that is needed is that wherever they are stored be accesses from the same place, and clearly that's possible because I was playing with a guy from england last week.
It would be like transferring servers in WoW. Still not that hard, and once they have the process implemented they can CHARGE for it.
No, it would be like transferring to a different regional server in WoW. Oh wait, you can't do that either. hmm. so much for that idea.
Willie Tanner Livestream
Are you positive you can't? has it been proven that blizzard wouldn't transfer someone's account to another region? I don't know but I think it is possible if need be.
It's not possible. if you want a UK account on WoW, you need a UK disk. If you want a US account, you need a US disk. The disks and installation codes are region locked as well as the accounts associated with those disks.
And you most definately cannot use the WoW character transfer system to move a character from one region to another.
Willie Tanner Livestream
I'm not sure about that.
Given, in the OP's situation it would have been slightly less troublesome if he could just pay for his UK account with his US CC, but he would still have to pay the UK subscription fees and it would mean that microsoft would have to incorporate some form of system to deal with monetary conversions with payments. And that isn't as easy as flipping a switch.
Also on this topic people have brought up apple iTunes and used that as a comparison to xbox live. This isn't a good comparison. The two services are, no pun intended, apples and oranges and different laws apply. The WoW service is much more comparable to xbox live and that service also doesn't allow transfers between regions.
Also of note is that when it comes to the 360, the hardware itself is region locked. even if the OP did have his original 360 he would still have to buy games from amazon.uk or some other import service because he couldn't play any of the games sold off the US shelves. Allowing a transfer between regions could allow people to throw the Gamerscore system all out of wack by doubling up on points. Yah! I got 1000 points in US oblivion, and another 1000 points from UK oblivion!
There are valid reasons to lock both the hardware and accounts to a region, and in the end very few people will ever experience an issue with it. They probably will never know or care.
Willie Tanner Livestream
maybe not in a conceptual sense but in a legal sense the two are much closer.
Willie Tanner Livestream
The amount of legal wrangling that I've had to go through in the past and for current projects is definitely one of the low points of the job. Same goes for security. I am very envious of my peers that don't have to deal with nearly as much red-tape.
Of course, the flip-side is that because Microsoft is a huge target for all things Security and Legal, there's a lot of resources we can use to try to solve these problems as best as possible for the consumer. It makes things easier but it doesn't make it easy.
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I saw a report of a Brit who hit back at the his water supplier for a mis-billing. They refused to budge on the issue until he placed a formal video complaint on youtube and then wrote to them with the link. They shat the bed and promptly sorted the issue along with a suitable applogy.
Again, it's probably already been said, but its using google against the very people who are milking it for advertising... if enough people hit your video and its starts featuring in top search results for "Microsoft" or "immigration" they'll bust a blood vessle.
OK it may drown in a sea of retarded "MS hate" results but ..."MS Hates Immigrants" is a great eye catcher ;-)
Here's how the situation stands right now:
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I like how the Sony Fanboy apparently owns a 360....
also I've always wondered, what does [sic] mean?
Satans..... hints.....
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Yay!
And I'm referring to the positive stuff, not the last bit. ;-)
Now that CES is over (and folks like Major Nelson are back in the office), it'll be easier to get some traction going.
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