Xbox Live lands in SA tomorrow – worth migrating?

Microsoft last month made an announcement that many thought would change the local Xbox Live landscape forever. For the first time since the console was released in SA 4 years ago, Microsoft has acknowledged our little corner of Africa, and is giving us our own little patch of Xbox Live real estate.

The problem is, SA’s gamers are an enterprising bunch, and many have been using Xbox Live for years already, regardless of whether Microsoft wanted us tea-bagging noobs and headshoting griefers on its network or not. 

We even played our own little enabling role here at MyGaming, with a walkthrough and dedicated sticky forum explaining to the uninitiated just how to get on Xbox Live in SA. Suffice to say, that article and sticky thread have together been viewed around 23,000 times in the past year and a bit. From tomorrow onwards though, there will be no need for that particular walkthrough anymore. Or will there?

Anyone with an Xbox 360 and an internet connection will be able to sign up an Xbox Live account, play games online, and have their way with the Xbox Live Marketplace. They will not have to fabricate a US or UK address when signing up, nor will they have to buy MS Points from local third-party proprietors – neither of which, might I add, are particularly bothersome requirements. 

More importantly, perhaps, is that South Africans will no longer have to miss out on downloadable content due to international censorship laws, which have to date prevented our region from downloading select content relating to Grand Theft Auto, Gears of War, and loads more. While a sham physical address was always enough to get us on Xbox Live, our pesky local IP addresses prevented us from getting our hands on the good stuff.

That all ends, tomorrow. 

One of the primary concerns regarding the localisation of Xbox Live initially, was the issue of migrating accounts. As previously mentioned, many local Xbox 360 gamers long ago established Xbox Live profiles, and the idea of losing gamerscore, as well as Xbox Live content was enough to put most off the idea. Thankfully, Microsoft allayed our fears, and declared that any South African with a foreign Live account will be able to transfer to SA Live for free.

This revelation brightened the outlook for local Xbox Live, but was followed with an announcement which knocked the wind out of many would-be migrants; pricing.

As the below table illustrates, local Xbox Live will cost significantly more than UK and US Xbox Live. Not many current Xbox Live users will want to go through the effort of moving to local Xbox Live, only to have to cough up an extra R160/R180 per year in subscription fees alone. Then there is the price of local MS Points, which is not far off double what you will pay for US MSPoints, and a solid 33% more than UK MS Points.

Consider that an Xbox Live game costing 1200 MS Points will cost you R105-R110 on an international account. In local MS Points, the same game will cost you R170. An extra R60 on a relatively cheap Arcade game is enough to dampen any patriotic desire you may have had to move in the first place. 

The second bugbear is that Xbox Live SA will not get all the features supported on Xbox Live US/UK. Microsoft is “working on” getting Netflix, Zune, Facebook and Twitter for Xbox Live SA, but there are no guarantees at this point.

Then, there is the confusion which still surrounds the migration process. Microsoft recommends re-downloading already purchased Xbox Live content if you have not currently got it installed, otherwise you may not be able to download it after migrating. Essentially, you want to have all your purchased live content on your Xbox 360 harddrive before migrating. Does this mean that after migrating, if you ever choose to temporarily delete something on your Xbox 360 that was purchased on you old Xbox Live account, you will never be able to download it again? Microsoft has been unable to give a clear answer to this question. 

And finally, one of the biggest motivators for users not to migrate, is that they are likely to benefit from local Xbox Live even if they don’t sign up. Microsoft will drop the local IP ban on sensitive content, which means that regardless of whether you are on local Xbox Live, your IP will no longer be blacklisted,  and you will easily be able to download content that would previously have been blocked. You do not need to be registered on local Xbox Live to benefit from this advantage.  

This, coupled with cheaper Xbox Live subscription and MS Points costs on EU/US Live accounts, means that at this point, there is really little reason to migrate your account to Xbox Live SA.

Do you plan on migrating your Xbox Live account? Or will you stick to a foreign location? << Share your views in the forums