Are you aware of how much money you have spent via the Xbox Live Marketplace with your Microsoft Points? I mean do you really know how your spending totals up?
If you are brave enough to face the truth of how much you have spent, here is a way to find out that total for the past several months. I recommend you do this when your spouse or significant other is out of the house or at least sleeping peacefully in bed. Log into your account via Microsoft’s Billing and Account Management website. Click the “Points” button in the column on the left. From there you can access each month’s points usage by viewing the corresponding month’s statement. Simply total your points purchased from all of those months then go to Gansterpanda’s Microsoft Points Converter. Enter your point total in the appropriate box, select your currency, and find out how much you have spent on your arcade games, extra maps, gamer pictures, themes, and all the rest of your little gaming must haves.
Surprised by your total? I have purchased 8,600 points in the last 11 months which totaled $107.50. Not so bad. These seemingly “micro-transactions” can add up surprisingly fast for some people though. Microsoft’s explanation of why they chose their point system from Xbox.com :
Points let everyone on Xbox Live—Silver and Gold members—pick up content to enhance their entertainment experience, opening up the Marketplace to everyone in the world that is connected to Xbox Live. But the big deal here is that Points allow what technical types call “micro-transactions.”
On the original Xbox Live, transactions had to be around five dollars U.S., the minimum for most credit cards. But with Microsoft Points, the price for most anything—maps, skins, levels, demos, and more—can be much lower than that. That’s a big deal. For example, say you want to get one of the new maps for your favorite shooter, but you’re not that interested in a few of the others. Lucky for you, Marketplace can offer each map individually for just a few points. Now that’s savings.
Is it savings, or is it an elaborate marketing ploy to force you to pay more for things? Hiding the money we have spent behind points makes it easy for you to forget how much cash is flowing out of your wallet. Not only that, but the points are never available in the increments you need them in. You always have to buy more than you need as the amount you can buy is not flexible. You want to buy an 800 point arcade game? You need to purchase 1,000 Microsoft points. You want to buy a .79 cent song for your Zune? The smallest available purchase is 400 points, or approximately $5.
The Microsoft Point system. Brilliant for them in terms of profits. How is it working out for you though?
Posted by xmiyux on May 26, 2007 at 11:24 am
Luckily for me i only spent 81$. Although to be fair at least two 1600 point cards were gotten for 1/2 price or cheaper through things like Google checkout etc.
Posted by TTL Demag0gue on May 29, 2007 at 5:49 am
I always keep track of what I spend and set a budget for myself each month. It would be really easy to get carried away, otherwise. There’s just a lot of really cool stuff sitting out there on the Marketplace.
Posted by Waffle Deluxe on February 21, 2009 at 2:11 pm
I usually use none of my points at a time… its quite fun!