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Bye-bye MS Points: Microsoft short-changes South African gamers

When is R50 not R50? If you’re an Xbox 360 user, the answer is quite simple. R50 is not R50 when it comes to Microsoft Points (MS Points, or MSP) and purchasing content on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

With this week’s Xbox dashboard update the software giant rolled out support for real currencies on its gaming marketplace, moving away from its virtual currency that the Xbox launched with – a unit that was always based on the American dollar, anyway. Aside from games now being priced in rands, they’ve also become cheaper since the prices are now closer to the dollar equivalent. Microsoft also converted all remaining MS Points in users’ accounts into a rand value, but here, things are a bit tricky, and gamers have been shortchanged.

First, let’s get some currency conversions out of the way. In the US the nominal conversion rate was always $1 for 80MSP. Therefore, a game that sold for 400MSP would commonly be referred to as a $5 purchase. 800MSP would be a $10 game, and so on. In South Africa, though, prices for MS Points didn’t reflect their dollar values. If you bought an 800MSP card at a shop you didn’t pay the equivalent of $10, which is around R110. Instead, an 800MSP card would retail here for R150 at full price. A bit of smart shopping, using sites like MSPoints.co.za or Evopoints.co.za, could get you 800MSP for around R120 – far closer to the actual value – and that took some of the sting out of the purchase. A side effect of MS Points was that people weren’t exposed to the real monetary value, and consequently didn’t make the connection of a 400MSP micro-transaction actually being a R50 purchase.

Even though MS Points are no more, Microsoft does say that gamers can still purchase MS Points cards and redeem them, and their accounts will be loaded with the monetary equivalent. Except, that’s not the case.

With the help of an htxt.africa reader, we were able to document the entire process. First, the update was applied to his Xbox 360. When trying to purchase an item on the Xbox Live Marketplace, he was prompted to convert his existing MS Points balance (450MSP). That amount in dollars would be around $5.60, and here he benefited from Microsoft’s generous exchange rate. Instead of R58, his account was credited with R68.

Then next step was to see what his account would be credited with when loading an 800MSP card. At full price, said card would cost R150 from most brick-and-mortar retailers, but he took advantage of the discounted rate from Evopoints.co.za, where 800MSP costs R115.

When entering the code into his Xbox it only ever said that 800MSP is being redeemed. Once that was confirmed and the transaction completed, his account was only credited with R113.60. Had he paid R150 from any store, which many consumers likely do, he would’ve lost out.

When MS Points were still being used only savvy shoppers would benefit from lower prices for MSP cards. Meanwhile, everybody who’s been buying full-priced cards at retail stores has been getting less value for their rands.

The move to real currencies is a good one, though. Prices for items on the Xbox Live Marketplace are now tied to their dollar equivalent. Games that used to cost 800MSP are now R109 – a good reflection of where our rand sits against the American dollar. But the transition, and the continued availability of points cards, will see people getting shortchanged.

The official Xbox FAQ for the retirement of MS Points states that currency gift cards will replace MS Points. This will be ideal for those who don’t want to use their credit cards with their Xbox Live accounts. However, at the time of writing Microsoft was unable to say whether these currency gift cards will be offered in South Africa.

In the meantime, try avoid MS Points cards, because you’ll be paying for more than you’re getting.

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