wqp

DemonI81

There are two ways to purchase games.

1: Via the XBL console
2: Via the "Buy It" nag/prompt within the game itself.

That said, my offline gaming experience has been: if I've purchased a game via the XBL console I can play it sans internet connection. If I've purchased the content via the "Buy It" nag/prompt inside the game, I'm S.O.L without the a network connection.

So it seems like the purchasing should ONLY be done via the XBL console.

OfficeDespot

THE CAKE IS A LIE!

PSN: kingpsyz

The only thing that puzzles me is why and how so many burned by Microsoft and their shoddy design and production keep coming back for more. Many of you paying out of pocket for multiple boxes. And people complain of the PS3 being too expensive... at least you only need to buy one of them.

If my PS3 broke due to a widely known and publicised design flaw and they refused to fix it or made me go through the run around for months on end til I got a properly running refurbished model only to force me to buy a new box. I wouldn't. End of story, I'd take my business somewhere else.

So someone please tell me why in a rational manner, not in fanboi speak, why is it those of you who have had to buy multiple 360s to get over and around the inherent design flaws keep coming back for more? And in the same vein, can I have some money? I'll send you a plastic box that may or may not allow you to plkay games on it. You'll have about a 66% chance it will work out for you.

PSN: kingpsyz

jem7

PSN: kingpsyz

You're telling me that the gamertag "AtmaDave" doesn't exist on Live? Check again. Jeez, try googling it or something. If I don't exist, how do I have a service record at Bungie.net?

RedSonSuperDave

Starsmore

DustoMan

unhappymatt1

unhappymatt1

unhappymatt1

I'm not getting much response on my list, however. I was hoping more people would be willing to help.

shafnitz

Android8675

Having played all three next-gen (or should it be this-gen by now) consoles, in my opinion, the 360 has by far the best library of games and also the superior controller. I love my 360, I just have some problems with the people who make it.

Look at my goddamn gamertag. If I was a Sony fanboy, would I play over 15000 achievement points' worth of games just so I could go on a forum and pretend to be complaining about my system? That's some deep cover right there.

RedSonSuperDave

unhappymatt1

I don't use live a lot, if I download anything its just for playing here and there. My Xbox 360 dies in July 07. I got it back at the end of July. It was long after I realized I couldn't play the 7 or 8 games that I had downloaded (let a lone the Call of Duty 2 maps that I had downloaded and payed for).

After a number of calls to xbox live support about erase the games, delete your gamer tag and redownload it, and then redownload the games. Well considering I'm only on a 256k dsl, it does take a while. I let the xbox rep go. This happen like twice I had to go through all the steps. Nothing ever worked. I was little surprised that they thought it would. After searching Xbox's forums I found a guy that said I needed to get the points.
So I called again, explained all I had done. The guy was actually here in the USA and the process went much faster. He said we need to submit a claim to get your points back. He asked all the games that I paid for (some I didn't but got free full version). He then said he had to run it buy his supervior. Then it kind of got strange, he had to test my gamertag to see if he could put the points into it. For what ever reason that didn't work. So he said I had to create a new Gamer Tag, and a new e-mail address to go with it. I did. It still didn't work (what ever test to put points in) he said I probably can't do it because it never had any points in it. So I had to buy points to put it in this account. (so I bought 500 points). He said okay it should work. I'll give you a call back in a couple of weeks and walk you through it (it then sounded like it was going to give me codes or something). I said Okay.

Over a month went buy and I never heard anything I went through the process again. I explained the whole deal to some manager this time. She didn't know why the guy did some of those things, but this is when she told me they don't do the points any more. I said okay so now what. She had to fill out some form so that they could switch over the S/N in there computer to allow me to download things back on my Xbox 360. I said how long is this going to take. She said well probably closer to a month, and she joked about how thats the Government. So I waited, never heard anything. This was during Sept and Oct. Finally I called again in Dec, I waited forever, got somebody and told them the story. The girl said yes I see that you have that submited. I asked for a manger, she said it would be about 30 mins. I said Okay I'll wait. I waited about 35 mins and never got through and hung up. I have never heard anything from them!!! This is big problem!

maxpower360

The day after I post my story on Consumerist, I get my DLC back. Yeah, I can finally play Shivering Isles without being connected to the Internet, five months after my 360 died.

Coincidence? Luck?

RedSonSuperDave

Think I'll pass.

Rusted

..wait, one month free? No, sir, we have no records of that!

Yeah, I'm just gonna call Tier 3 when I get home. This is ridiculous.

Starsmore

Starsmore

Starsmore

shafnitz

Even after you get it back. Drop in MS provided CD; let end user connect to XBLA account and transfer old serial to new device Bam! or a damn menu under the XBL that provides this service. done.

If MS can ban an xbox for having 12v fans by network bios polling...bla bla bla =D

Sixxtwo

Sixxtwo

murph

Logic dictates that if they are updating the warranty information, they should be updating the licensing then, too. Of course, Punjab or whoever from India didn't have an answer to that in his script. And then when I told them they dropped the ball and needed to make things right, tried to offer me the 1-month free card that Repair sent me in the first place.

Told him I wanted a month free in compensation for this licensing fubar... guess I'll call Tier 3 Escalations and see if any of this made it into the system.

Starsmore

There, I fixed your User Error.

Jinx

Although in my case, one of the MS Support Reps had me delete my profile and then recover my Gamertag in order to try and fix this problem. This had the WONDERFUL side effect of "breaking" every one of my saved games, which he failed to mention to me ahead of time. Better still, this was not a level 1 guy who told me this but someone it had been escalated to. I lost hours and hours of gameplay. Had to make all my Rock Band character and band all over again.

Just refund the $^#*@ MS Points!!

murph

RaepGoblin

A crime was committed here, it's about time you treat it as such.

Jinx

More than likely, they will come to a settlement with you. 1) They don't want to hire/send a lawyer to your county to deal with the court; 2) They know a county judge will have little understanding of DRM and will side with you (I bought it, why can't I use it); 3) It's a public relations nightmare in just a few phone calls.

Michael Wales

Starsmore

Well, in order for me to play Rock Band, I have to move my XBOX360 into the other room, which doesn't have a broadband connection, because there's no room for the drums and such in my bedroom.

Which means when I'm playing Rock Band, I'm offline, and I can't play any of the songs I've paid for.

Starsmore

DustoMan

Of course, I actually do call them, and the guy I speak to this morning is all "Oh, you just need to recover the gamertag!"

Everything save-related is saved to a Memory Unit, so shouldn't be that bad... we'll see...

Starsmore

Adam In Texas

cflury

CharlieSeattle

CharlieSeattle

jocaju

1. Create a temp gametag (with all it intails)
2. M$ will credit the new Xbox live membership with all the points needed to redownload all the games you bought, they gave them to me in blocks of 1000
3. Delete all the download games off your HDD
4. Buy the full verions & redownload everything to your new 360 & new gametag
5. Once done all your content will work fine
with your old account
6. When I was done I deleted my temp gamertag, I think they said it stays active for 6 months????

This is the confirmed fix be me Nightjar from personal experience

N1ghtjar

Until my 2nd Xbox failed. And then I had to go through it all again.

A redesign of the core Xbox system is needed. Or a PS3.

Ultra_Violence

RedSonSuperDave

Trencher

unhappymatt1

lhomme77

PSN: Lp47

AnTi PRO

Well, for me, roughly 95% of the time. Since neither I nor my significant other have a high-speed Internet connection at our house, if I want to play games that I bought over a year ago, it's take my 360 to my buddy's house (where I first bought the games) or do without. This is unacceptable. There were no such restrictions on this content when I first purchased it, it's not fair that I now have to abide by these restrictions thanks to M$'s own mistake that they have already admitted was their fault.

My license should have been switched to my new 360 the day it left the repair facility. It shouldn't take five months and wasting hours on the phone speaking to incompetent Durkastanis who need me to phonetically spell out complex words like "David" and "Florida" to fix this problem.

RedSonSuperDave

At the end of September, my launch 360 got the 3RLOD. M$ was decent about replacing it, but ever since I got it back, my 10400 M$ points' worth of downloadable content doesn't work offline. Now, for something like the Halo 3 map pack, this is understandable, but to require that I be plugged into a hi-speed Internet connection to play single-player offline-only game content such as the Shivering Isles expansion is nothing short of ridiculous, and an unreasonable imposition considering that I don't have such a connection at my own home. If I want to play MY games on MY console, I have to take it over to a friend's house and use his Internet connection.

Like you, Kevin, I have been steadily getting the runaround from M$'s so-called "customer service" departments. It was especially infuriating when I asked the guy if I could just get the points refunded and he said that "we used to do that but we don't anymore". Oh, great, you have an instant solution to my problem, but you're not allowed to let me use it. Not to mention the inexcusable incompetence on the part of the useless CS reps who lied to me nearly every time I called them, telling me that the issue was fixed and all I had to do was delete everything off my hard drive, then delete and recover my gamertag ("AtmaDave" if anybody cares) and then everything would be working again. So now, in addition to not having my DLC functioning properly for the past FIVE MONTHS, each and every saved game that I used to have is now gone.

Supposedly, "Geoff" at their Global Escalation Issues Department is going to call me tomorrow and fix my problem once and for all, even if it means refunding my points. I'm not exactly holding my breath.

RedSonSuperDave

Buran

Buran

My problems with Microsoft start Summer '06 when my XBOX Live account was wrongfully closed due to a billing error. I fought for 2 weeks (I checked my bill, 5 hours of toll free calling to M$ that week) to get my Gamertag restored; I was bounced around between India and the United States and told different things by different people. One kind American tech support agent admitted that this was a problem they knew about but there was no easy way available to restore my account. He even offered his cell phone number to try and help fix my problem off the clock, but when I called back later he was not able to help me. In the end I had to get a new Gamertag, thus losing all the achievements and gamesaves from my old account. Fast forward to spring 2007, before the new 3 year Warranty ruling. I fought long and hard to get my system fixed after it Red Ringed, only to give up after 4 hours of cell phone calls back and forth explaining my situation over and over again. In the end neither of my problems were solved and I bought a new system, only to find myself in DRM hell.

I tried to give it a go in round 3, went through the same crap the article's subject went through (explaining the situation repeatedly, going through useless troubleshooting) and even escalated through 2 or 3 levels of management only to be told that their policy doesn't cover users who "choose" to buy a new system, even though my "choice" was brought about by their faulty manufacturing in the first place.

Microsoft, I hope you're reading this blog and all the comments from your customers who WANT to play your games but can't stand dealing with your horrible business practices.

matttt

mk1gti

G-Dog

1. All video games are DRM'd. You can't play XBOX games on Nintendo, Playstation.

2. The same case applies for XBLA games.

3. The simple workaround until they fix this issue is to log in whichever user downloaded the content on a spare controller then you can play the games. Annoying, but you are able to still play the games, which is paramount to the situation.

paullyjunge

This happened to me waaay back at launch. I spent countless hours on the phone with MS. They ended up crediting my account with points, which totaled the cost of the titles I had purchased prior to the system malfunction. That was great and all, but it didn't solve the problem, because you cannot repurchase titles that have already been purchased with your profile. So the points they gave me ended up going to other games.

The only way to fix the problem completely is to "re-lock" the original downloads to the new 360. In order to do this, I had to: create a new silver profile, set-up credit card info on it, delete the original purchases from my hdd (the ones that I "redownloaded" with my original profile), buy points, and repurchase the originally purchased titles on my "new" 360. This will fix the issue of your family, friends, and even you (when you're not signed in online), not being able to play the original downloads (that you paid for to begin with!).

Granted, this is still a bunch of bs, and a huge waste of time, but it works. That is... if you can get MS to add points to your profile (to make up for the ones you have to buy over again with the new profile)... I don't know how I did it - just kept on complaining (and yelling... only a little).

TheNextLevel

robinandtami

iRloading

-Ahalya

lkgemini

They were probably getting completely ripped off by people who just wanted the points. The content still works as long as you are online. Anyone who DL'd the content in the first place, obviously has a connected box. So really this is only an issue if your internet connection is down, or if you take your 360 someplace where there is no internet. Seriously.... how often does that happen? The vast majority of people when given refund points, decided the scant limitations on their old content could be lived with, and just used the refund points to buy new content.

robinandtami

jaymac

After reading the 200 plus comments, lets clear up some things, shall we?

1) The DRM issue appears because your online content does not match your machines serial number and gamertag.

This means that if your console has been RRoD like most of us (on my 4th console personally) the serial number automatacilly won't match up since they send you out different console. This also means that if you are not using the same gamer tag you can't use content you bought and saved to a hard drive. (Yes tying the DRM to a hardrive would make much more sense then to a machine with a 90% failure rate, but it ain't going to happen.) So if online is down or someone uses a different gamertag (like if your wife or other family members have their own tag), you have the privlige of playing a trial version of a game that is fully saved to your hardrive for the cost of a full game.

2) Don't e-mail or call Bill Gates. (My wife tried this.) You will get Frank. Frank is frank. Frank is nice. But as the article points out, Frank is ultimately useless.

3) There are no Microsoft points or redownloading fixes. For some reason M$ has killed both of these programs. If you get a smart IT person (they are very hard to come by) they will tell you that the license will be switched to the new console. This will never happen.

4) People complain loudly on this issue because it has been mostly ignored by the press and M$. RRoD and X-Mas time internet failures are sexy. DRM issues that affect a family being able to play is not.

5) I am not a Sony or Wii fan boy. I think the Wii is a toy, and I was pissed when Sony said they were making a price cut at E3 when really they were making a clearance sale. But after 5 months of run around, not solving what should be a simple software fix, and being lied to... I am considering trading in all my 360 gear for a PS3. Sony might suck as a company, but I haven't heard of this many hardware and sofware promplems tied to their machine. Maybe it is time for a trade...

lkgemini

On the upside, as I'm in a position to sell both the PS3 and 360, I've made it a point to tell customer's my experience and sold them PS3s instead.

Mend0zA

unhappymatt1

When my transfer cable came in, I transferred all my items to the new 120GB HDD and played some live arcade games. Keeping in mind of course that I was online with the tag that purchased the games.

So, using the gamefaqs boards I asked about what to do when you get a different machine, such as an elite or a new 360, when using my new HDD.

I was notified that all i had to do was sign back in to live with the new HDD (after the transfer of course) and redownload all my games. (so, delete game and them redownload). Since my account was signed in, my games were all ready to be redownloaded for free (since i bought them). Now I wanted to test the games.

To test this, I went offline (unplug ethernet cable) and tried to play my unlocked content (full games) that i just redownloaded.

it works. Since the game is now tied to the new machine (the elite360).

As far as videos go, i haven't tried it yet, but i will when i get home :)

take care!

Soulgenesis

Actually, you can redownload everything again. My friends PS3s Harddrive fried because he kept it on for two and a half months, and he sent it in to a shop around his town and they gave him another Harddrive. All you've got to do is sign into the Playstation Store and hit "Download List" or whatnot, and click "Download". Real easy.

Crimson_Ryan

ogman

MS bent me over a barrel enough times in my life to finally wake up and smell the microchips and give them what they deserve, not a single red cent....

And people wonder why the Wii is selling so fast, and the PS3 is catching up daily.... they are products that work and have a rather outstanding level of customer satisfaction behind them.

It is issue like this one, and the hundreds of othere we have read in the past 2 years that will cement MS a losing position in the console market.

MS can't make a decent stable operating system, what made them think they could make a console that lasts....

cofn42

Anyway, yeah, same thing happened to me. I didn't even bother to call MS just because i'm not a masochist.

temporaryscars

San

Amazon.com MP3 Downloads... now there's a beautiful thing that I gladly pay for on a weekly basis.

//Then again, I DO have Xbox Gold and am always connected to the Internet... What's the point of owning a 360 without that?

crapsh00t

Overall the MS Xbox360 repair process has been some of the smoothest CS I've gotten (I wish I could say the same about support for their other products).

jinjin1080

amejr999

photoboy

rolla

Sometimes there is nothing a company can do.

balls187

Pancho_Villasan

ReconToaster

kneehighspy

Strider-No.9

Tepoz

The compromise would be what Sony does with its downloadable content. Allow five activations of downloadable LIVE content. It allows DRM to be in place so that games cannot be indifinitely copied from 360 to 360 and also allows for games to be unlocked automatically in instances where warranty repair causes the 360 to be replaced.

I believe it's time to flood the forums again. 360 owners, you know what to do. It's time to force another change.

Tepoz

Evo

Koneesha

[forums.xbox.com]

It's worth scanning the four pages to just read the posts by Lucky 13 X, an MS employee. It's a constant put-off.

blakbuzzrd

Adam In Texas

[forums.xbox.com]

Good luck!

Fixxxer

JerrD74: RIP George Carlin

Difdi

SilentAssassn87

adamsummers

josh924

--------------

TEMP FIX

KEVIN, if this applies for your situation, FOR A TEMP FIX try what my wife does. Login the account that can access the live material, then load the game, after the LIVE material loads into memory, LOAD the other account with the issues. Oblivion seems to trick the 360 by PRELOADING the live stuff into memory.

Tortri

adamsummers

shafnitz

That is one thing you gotta love about the Sony model. No made-up currencies and no getting locked out of purchases. The way Microsoft runs their Marketplace business model seriously fucks the consumer and I want no part of it. It gives digital distribution a bad name.

Xiedo

josh924

Leiterfluid

Chance

RastaSega

VicViper

adamsummers

SaraAB87

Edge of Blade

It was a while back, after my first RRoD. I did my second exchange via a Best Buy replacement warranty because I didn't want to wait. If you do an in-store replacement, it won't count to Microsoft.

Edge of Blade

statnut

mrbiggsndatx

And to the person who said "why do people buy MS stuff if it's so unreliable" I prefer x-box to Wii/PS3 because it's got superior (though, not free) online, and a better more relevant selection of games based on what I like. Sure the PS3 is more reliable, but the online isn't as good, and I would hardly play it since there aren't many games on their that appeal to me.

WEGGLES90

mrbiggsndatx

jf04gli

jf04gli

Techguy1138

Didn't you just make the main point right there, in that sentence? Access is one of the worst database apps known to mankind, and since obviously MS thinks its just peachy (they've made superficial changes at best the last 5-10 years) the way it is, that pretty much encapsulates this entire situation!

:)

DaiMacculate

ManjiKengo

It's not perfect, but it's probably the only way they have to prevent pirating.

interstate78

Unfortunately I don't know of any solution to it besides logging into xbox live. If this is a major problem I'm sorry. I've got my dsl running constantly so it was moot for me.

I am on a 2nd console though and I know exactly what he's talking about.

ManjiKengo

MonkeyMonk

Last year when this happened it took from 11/11/06-3/07 to get it fixed. What has to happen is you make a new gamertag (because your original tag cannot purchase the same stuff twice), and microsoft has to GIVE YOU new points to cover the purchases originally made on gamertags you own.

This can, and has been done. I have spent at least 2 solid weeks worth of my life on the phone with M.S. since the launch of 360.....I'm on my 9th 360 console.

Y0URGOD78

deadlizard

Retarded company.

PotKettleBlack

robochick

i'm sure microsoft is hoping he'll just give up and re-buy the same content over again.

those bastards!

joelface

To top it off, when they sent me a new console they did not update my warranty to reflect my new serial number. This is the same company that *makes* Access. The customer service guy told me to send a written letter in to the warranty office and tell them to update it. He could do nothing for me, but the service was 100% free including shipping so I will follow his instructions for now.

When my 360 gets repaired I am going to hurry and play all of my games that are in my backlog, because when it is out of warranty I am done with this console. I will be buying a PS3 and all of my new game purchases will be on that (if they don't come out for the PC) from now on. I was a big XBOX supporter but this is now far beyond being a joke and entering into the pathetic category.

Benstein

StupidDufus

[forums.xbox.com]

dvddesign

theprof00

Zantagor

coolfelix

No, it doesn't matter.

They specifically don't want the HDD back when you send the console in, and even to that end, that would actually show some concern on their end and MS hasn't done that so far.

dvddesign

You're always going to want YOUR purchases tied to YOUR gear. Ugh, this all makes my head hurt.

DaStuph

Jesus, this isn't goddamn rocket science.

InThrees

NKato

When you send in your RRoD'd 360 in the future, either keep the hard drive or be sure to tell customer service that you have DLC on the drive. This advice has already been posted several times; I just wanted to reiterate.

paganski

Note that I have a Parent account and use the Family Settings to protect my children from unlimited access to Live services. Last month, my son (who is a Kindergartner and doesn't read much yet) really wanted to watch some of the Looney Tune Cartoons that I had downloaded, so I signed on to Xbox Live with my Parent account which is the only way to view that product that was originally downloaded on a 3 Red Lights victim machine. On this rare occasion, I had some work to do in another room and allowed him to watch the cartoon unmonitored. At the end of the cartoon, a message pops up with a recommendation for another cartoon, which I had NOT purchased - it is essentially a targeted ad. My son clicks through and PURCHASES this cartoon without my knowledge (or his knowledge, being 5 years old). He watches the new cartoon and proceeds to burn through my MS Points!

Luckily, he had no clue how to "add points" using my credit card or I may have owned the entire Looney Tunes library eventually. I discovered the problem later that night when I tried to purchase something and only had 10 points left. I talked with my son, who admitted to watching several cartoons, but he had no idea he was "buying" them.

Instead of calling the 4-My-Xbox morons, I used the email support option on Xbox.com and explained everything that happened. I also requested a refund of the points that were used without authorization (I knew I was stretching here, as I did sign-in and failed to monitor him). What sucks is I received absolutely NO RESPONSE from my service request in a month.

Essentially, Microsoft's system required me to follow a process that opened me up to unauthorized use of my MS Points and Credit Card. This is because their policy of DRM recovery is BROKEN.

bionicjim

sludge13