Microsoft to give all Xbox Live subs a free game

Author: Tim Smalley
Published: 4th January 2008
Comments (17) Stumble
Microsoft will offer a free game from the Xbox Live marketplace to all Xbox Live members.

Microsoft will offer a free game from the Xbox Live marketplace to all Xbox Live members.

After the problems with Microsoft’s Xbox Live network over the Christmas period, the company has said that it will compensate all Xbox Live customers by offering a free game from the Live Marketplace.

Just yesterday, we reported that the company was working to fix the problems many users had been suffering from, but still it hasn’t managed to fix them just yet. Larry Hryb, Xbox Live Director of Programming at Microsoft, said that his team was working day and night to fix the issues as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, another Microsoft spokesperson said that the company would definitely do something for its Gold members, but didn’t provide any details and interestingly also left Silver members out.

If you’re a Silver member and suffered from the problems, don’t fret because Microsoft hasn’t forgotten about you either -- Marc Whitten, General Manager of Xbox Live issued an official statement via Larry Hryb’s blog in the early hours of this morning, which should please all Xbox Live members.

“Dear Xbox LIVE Members:

During this past holiday season you helped us break a number of Xbox LIVE records. This included our largest sign-up of new members to Xbox LIVE in our 5 year history and just yesterday you broke the record for the single biggest day of concurrent members ever on the service.

As a result of this massive increase in usage we know that some of you experienced intermittent Xbox LIVE issues over the holiday break. While the service was not completely offline at any given time, we are disappointed in our performance. I would like to take this moment to thank you each and every one of you for your patience and understanding as our team has worked around the clock to return the service to a stable state.

At the same time we would like to offer a token of our appreciation to all of you in celebration of record success for the service. And as a thank you for your loyalty during this holiday period, we will be offering all of our Xbox LIVE members around the world access to a full Xbox LIVE Arcade game that will be available to download free of charge. In the coming weeks we will be sharing the specific details of this offer with you.”

I wonder whether Microsoft will limit it to just one game or if it’ll make a selection of games available for you to choose one from? Share your thoughts on the latest developments in the forums.
Quote Jamie 4th January 2008, 09:45
I wonder if I will get this, at some point during the holiday period my gold subscription ran out and was downgraded to silver.
Quote Cadillac Ferd 4th January 2008, 09:54
Damn, I have too many games to play as it is! I was hoping for like a free month of XBL or something.
Quote The_Pope 4th January 2008, 10:02
Jamie - you will. ALL Live users get it - Gold AND Silver. Is that why you wanted to steal my free pass? :P
Quote Blademrk 4th January 2008, 10:08
I just hope it's not a game I've already bought.
Quote BioSniper 4th January 2008, 10:45
read as: You'll all get a free copy of a game that nobody buys in an attempt to make it seem more successful, something like Frogger or Asteroids.
Quote mikeuk2004 4th January 2008, 10:49
So True
Quote Swafeman 4th January 2008, 10:58
im only on silver, tempted to blag something :D 400 or 800ms points tho i wonder?
Quote cjoyce1980 4th January 2008, 11:30
its better than nothing, but if it was a choice between an XBLA game and xbox live membership, MS give me an extra 3 months please
Quote Jamie 4th January 2008, 12:09
Rather than giving a game of MS choosing they should give everyone the points to buy a game they actually want. That way those that buy a lot of arcade games will at least be able to choose something they haven't already bought.
Quote The_Pope 4th January 2008, 12:50
Quote:
Originally Posted by BioSniper
read as: You'll all get a free copy of a game that nobody buys in an attempt to make it seem more successful, something like Frogger or Asteroids.

Sadly, that's my impression also. Though everyone in the office is hoping it's just a MS Points credit that you can spend on anything :D
Quote The_Pope 4th January 2008, 12:52
Quote:
Originally Posted by cjoyce1980
its better than nothing, but if it was a choice between an XBLA game and xbox live membership, MS give me an extra 3 months please

Given the period of disruption it would only ever be 1 month. And they're not doing it that way anyway (8 million subscribers x £3 a month = lotta moola lost!)
Quote samkiller42 4th January 2008, 13:42
How nice of them, I would like to see a choice of games, not 1 game like they did on the 5th ani.

Sam
Quote Votey 4th January 2008, 21:39
Quote:
Originally Posted by samkiller42
How nice of them, I would like to see a choice of games, not 1 game like they did on the 5th ani.

Sam

1st: Carcassonne is awesome.

2nd: I really hope it isn't something dumb like Asteroids. I will not feel compensated if I am given something I don't want in exchange for something I did want (and paid for). They almost have to give us MS Points, because any XBLA game they choose will be already bought by some members, and therefore an empty gesture.
Quote devdevil85 4th January 2008, 22:29
Quote:
Originally Posted by Votey
They almost have to give us MS Points, because any XBLA game they choose will be already bought by some members, and therefore an empty gesture.
And what are you going to do if they don't abide to your expectations? Seriously, MS wouldn't have to do anything and you'd all still continue paying for it.....

I, like a lot of people, find the service to be overrated and to pay $50/year after 2 years of being deployed to me is just dumb, especially when it's filled w/ ads....

With everyone saying XBL is so reliable it just makes me laugh when I read that for 11 days the service was messed up (not everyone was affected though which I acknowledge, but still).....I'm not trying to be an XBL hater...I just feel that the service needs to be for less because if it was then people wouldn't as pissed off.....most of my friends didn't have any trouble w/ Rock Band so....

And what's up w/ free Silver accounts getting the same as paying Gold members??

I agree with Sam that they need to offer a choice of games at the least.....
Quote completemadness 5th January 2008, 04:33
I'm sorry, but am i the only one thinking this

MS must know how many Xbox's were sold over Christmas, and must know roughly what % of users sign up for Live, and should assume as its a holiday period, more people will be able to game
So therefore, why the hell didn't they predict that there would be a huge increase in gamers online, and signup's, and that the network would need to be prepared for this?

No? OK then
Quote Amon 5th January 2008, 04:34
Reimbursement with MS points would have made more sense.
Quote Hex 5th January 2008, 12:49
This is still bugging me as I can log on to Xbox Live now (albeit in yoyo fashion) but I can't play any new games as the updates from Xbox Live always fail. Grrr... this is so completely turning me off ever getting a 360 of my own. I've had nothing but grief with it.
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