Pete wanted to share the joy of muliplayer gaming with the rest of his family, and so opened up a Family Gold account. All was well until he used some of his own points to buy downloadable content for his stepson. The system prompted him for a password that his stepson didn’t have, Pete didn’t have, and no one at Microsoft has the power to recover. [More]
xbox live
Xbox Gamer Allegedly Tricks SWAT Team Into Investigating Rival's Home
By 6.2.11
An online gaming disagreement turned into a nightmare for a gamer who refused to do the bidding of a person he spoke to over Xbox Live. The victim alleges a rival somehow discovered his name, address and phone number, then falsely reported a murder-suicide at his home, causing a SWAT team to descend on his home. [More]
Microsoft Makes It Easier For Military Members To Play Xbox Online
By 5.4.11
Until now, Microsoft made it difficult for those living on military bases to game online, refusing to accept Military State codes such as AE (Armed Forces Europe), AA (Armed Forces of the Americas) or AP (Armed Forces Pacific) as options for Xbox Live members to list their credit card billing addresses. [More]
Microsoft Investigates Indie Games Ratings Abuse
By 3.31.11
When most people think of downloadable Xbox 360 games, they think of Xbox Live Arcade, which boasts the work of major publishers. But there’s also an indie games economy, in which “garage developers” compete with one another for attention and royalties. The indie games section doesn’t get much play on the Xbox dashboard, and the odds appear further stacked against some indie games in light of charges that a group of online users manipulated the Xbox.com ratings system to elevate certain games while burying others. [More]
Teen Arrested For Sending Out School Threat Via Xbox Live
By 2.11.11
Authorities arrested a Maryland teenager who is charged with making threats of a mass shooting at a high school. He’s accused of impersonating another student while sending a threatening message to more than 100 people via Xbox Live. [More]
Xbox Live Dies Because I Used Prepaid Card While On Auto-Renewal Plan
By 1.18.11
Nathan tried to save some money on his Xbox Live subscription by buying a prepaid $50 card to avoid having to pay the recently increased annual fee of $60. While he did so, he failed to replace his expired credit card on file with a valid card. [More]
Resetting My Xbox Live Password Was An Exercise In Futility
By 1.10.11
Reader P bought a new Xbox 360 after his old console descended to Red Ring of Death hell. Having forgotten his Xbox Live password, P endured the arduous process of attempting to recover the password through Microsoft. The way P describes it, doing so was as simple and user-friendly as spinal surgery. [More]
Xbox Rewards Program Offers Online Currency For Online Activity
By 12.2.10
Whenever a monolithic company concocts a rewards program, the inclination is to view it with a skeptical eye, as a Trojan Horse that will surely lead to exploitation. But at first glance, it’s tough to find fault with Microsoft’s seemingly benevolent Xbox Live Rewards program. [More]
Microsoft Explains Why Its Xbox Live Price Hike Is Good, And Good For You
By 11.3.10
As of Monday, an annual Xbox Live Gold subscription costs $60 a year, a 20 percent jump from Sunday, when it was $50. Microsoft is here to assure you that the inflation is in your best interest, and necessary for the company to keep pace with its rising costs to do something or other. [More]
Xbox Suspends Gay Gamer For Calling Himself A "Homosexueller" Who "Likes Cupcakes"
By 9.2.10
Despite Xbox recently changing its policy to allow folks to describe their sexual orientation in their gamer profile, Super Street Fighter IV fan Shmoo found his Xbox Live account suspended for breaking their Code of Conduct. His gamer bio states, “Bio Ich bin ein homosexueller Mann in einer großen schlechten Stadt. Ich mag kleine Kuchen und Cheeseburgers.” Which translates from German to, “I am a gay man in a big bad city. I like cupcakes and cheeseburgers.” This, apparently, was verboten. [More]
Microsoft Hikes Xbox Live Subscription Fee
By 8.31.10
In what seems like a clever ruse to get gamers to quickly buy an extra year or two of Xbox Live Gold service — which offers online multiplayer as its main draw — Microsoft announced it’s raising the annual subscription fee from $50 to $60. One-month subscriptions rise from $8 to $10 and three-month hitches go from $20 to $25. The price changes go into effect Nov. 1. [More]
Go Ahead, Try To Make Sense Of This Xbox Live Pricing Scheme
By 8.12.10
Did you know that “free” is basically the same thing as $10? Neither did Jer, until he went to renew his Xbox Live account. He tells Consumerist that along with his account expiration date, he discovered the most baffling pricing scheme this side of Target. [More]
Xbox Assumes Women Contacting Them Must Be Doing It For Their "Sons"
By 8.9.10
When a woman emailed Xbox support about downgrading her Xbox LIVE Gold account to Silver, they sent her back a form letter that assumed she was contacting them on behalf of her son, even though she doesn’t have a son and never made mention of one at all. Hey Microsoft! Ever hear of GIRL GAMERS? [More]
Five Months From Now Microsoft Will Stop Gouging Families For Xbox Live
By 6.23.10
Microsoft’s indispensable Xbox Live service was always tough on gaming households, requiring family members and roommates to piggyback on one another’s accounts or spring for separate $50-a-year subscriptions. Yesterday the company announced it will start selling 4-for-the-price-of-2 Xbox Live Gold Family Packs, which give you four subscriptions for $100 a year. [More]
Microsoft Gives 7 Free Days Of Xbox Live To Players Who Bought Broken DLC
By 4.6.10
Those who downloaded Modern Warfare 2’s overpriced ($15) and broken Stimulus Package maps the day they came out got a little reward from Microsoft, according to Kotaku: 7 days of free gold service. [More]
Xbox Live No Longer Bans Gay People From Describing Themselves
By 3.5.10
One of Xbox Live’s more irksome policies has been that if your gamertag happens to mention that you are gay or lesbian, that’s not permitted. (Or if you use your real name, which happens to contain the letters G-A-Y in that order.) But Microsoft has changed their code of conduct, and this policy is no more. [More]
Make A Yo Momma Joke In Xbox Live Profile, Get Suspended
By 2.24.10
M. had his Xbox Live account suspended for making a mom joke that probably wouldn’t even have gotten his name on the board in third grade. His bio read “I like pie… URmoms PIE.” [More]
Amazon Slashes Prices On Xbox Live Subscription Cards
By 1.6.10
If you’re an Xbox 360 gamer who likes to play online, you’d do well to hit up Amazon for an Xbox Live subscription card or three. The 12-month subscriptions are $35 rather than $50, and you can stack one card on top of the other, ensuring your 360 and its red ring of death descendants will be online until John Cusack’s movie destroys the planet. [More]
