Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2010/01/21/xbox_points_cash/

Xbox Live to display download cash values

MS Point exchange rate clarification

By James Sherwood

Posted in Personal Tech, 21st January 2010 12:30 GMT

Microsoft may display cash values alongside its existing virtual currency on Xbox Live in a bid to end consumer confusion.

Download content from Xbox Live and you pay for it with Microsoft Points. A given download's cash value can be ambiguous. While 5000 Points cost £42.50 to buy, many gamers need to nip off and grab a calculator to work out how much a 325 Point download is actually costing them. £2.76, since you ask.

When Microsoft initially launched Games on Demand for Xbox Live in the US last year it began displaying Dollar prices alongside each download. According to Aaron Greenberg, Xbox Group Product Manager, this approach may now be rolled out to other countries.

“It's something that the team's looking at,” Greenberg told website G4. “I think we want to be transparent about it.”

Greenberg didn’t suggest that real currencies would replace Microsoft Points, simply that the two could be displayed alongside each other to give gamers a better idea of each download’s cash value.

But a global rollout wouldn’t come without its complications, Greenberg added.

He claimed that because Xbox Live operates in multiple countries, adjusting the cash value of Microsoft Points to numerous local currencies and accounting for fluctuations presents “some challenges”. ®