Soupdog was sniffing through the rumour mill today and sent this little gem my way. Good boy.
InsideMobileApps is reporting that “a source with knowledge of the company’s decision” is saying that the developer of the world’s biggest OS, will be phasing out their well known, oft hated, points system.
Apparently, by the end of this year, Microsoft will have phased out the MS Points system across XBL, Zune and the Windows Phone, replacing them instead, with a region based cash price. In other words, if you’re in the UK, the price will now be in £’s, France will be €’s, the US $’s, etc etc, rather than in points.
Some may be rejoicing over this change, but, before the jubilations can commence, this should be tempered with the news that IMA contacted Microsoft, who declined to comment on the situation, saying: “we do not comment on rumours or speculation.”
One of two things is going on here: Either it is happening, and Microsoft are trying to stall while they find out just how the hell this got out, or it isn’t happening, and the PR rep is just as confused as the rest of us. Either way, in my eyes, this casts a rather large shadow of doubt across the whole thing. I’m not convinced some Sony/Nintendo fanboy isn’t out on a massive trolling exercise.
Personally, I would welcome a change to the XBLM in the way of prices. Sony list their DLC prices in monetary value, which just makes so much more sense. The MS Points system is just, well…a giant ballache, as you often end up spending more money than you need to. Which is how they get you in the end I suppose.
Small update: It just occured to me that this would not be good for people who don’t want to tie their credit/debit card details to their Live account. But then, if this is true, MS would probably implement the same system that Sony does with the money cards for PSN, so nothing would likely change.
Source: InsideMobileApps
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