Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg has apologised to consumers and said that the Xbox's system of MS Points was never meant to mislead customers who were trying to buy digital content over Xbox Live.
Microsoft, like Nintendo, uses a points currency system where users first have to buy a set amount of points using real money before buying the content they want. It's a lot of faff and we far prefer Sony's transparency by pricing content in actual, real currencies.
Microsoft has recently dropped the MS Points system for some Xbox services though, such as the new Games On Demand service, which is priced in proper monies.
"We never intended to ever mislead people," Greenberg told G4TV. "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? You've got to think that we have one service that we're offering around the world. The nice thing about Points is that no matter if you're on the JPY or the EUR or the USD - something that's 200 Points is 200 Points everywhere around the world."
"There's more technical complexities to being able to put local prices in," he added. "You have to do that for every product in every country and you then have to deal with currency fluctuations. So there's some challenges to that, but we absolutely did it with the Games On Demand, response has been good and absolutely it's something we're looking at doing."
One Microsoft Point is worth about £0.0085 (€0.012).
Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
Microsoft, like Nintendo, uses a points currency system where users first have to buy a set amount of points using real money before buying the content they want. It's a lot of faff and we far prefer Sony's transparency by pricing content in actual, real currencies.
Microsoft has recently dropped the MS Points system for some Xbox services though, such as the new Games On Demand service, which is priced in proper monies.
"We never intended to ever mislead people," Greenberg told G4TV. "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? You've got to think that we have one service that we're offering around the world. The nice thing about Points is that no matter if you're on the JPY or the EUR or the USD - something that's 200 Points is 200 Points everywhere around the world."
"There's more technical complexities to being able to put local prices in," he added. "You have to do that for every product in every country and you then have to deal with currency fluctuations. So there's some challenges to that, but we absolutely did it with the Games On Demand, response has been good and absolutely it's something we're looking at doing."
One Microsoft Point is worth about £0.0085 (€0.012).
Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
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