Kotaku
Hooray! A game I already own! Back at the beginning of the year, Xbox Live GM Marc Whitten announced that due to consistent outages of the service as well as in celebration of the success of the service, they would be offering an Xbox Live Arcade title completely free later in the month. Now I, like many, had assumed this meant a new release of some sort...you know, something tens of thousands of people hadn't already purchased. Instead we get Undertow, available to Gold and Silver members at no charge from 2:00 a.m. PST Wednesday, January 23 through 11:59 p.m. PST, Sunday, January 27. Undertow is an excellent game that I could not recommend enough back when it launched, meaning many of you already own it. So what will Microsoft do for us, the intelligent individuals who already picked up the game?
Upon hearing the news, we immediately contacted Microsoft to ask about those who had already purchased the game, and received a swift response.
If Xbox LIVE members have already purchased the game, they should contact their local support (1-800-4-MYXBOX in North America).While we're not exactly sure what calling the number will do for you, we assume that they'll do something along the lines of refunded the points you spent on the game in the first place, allowing you to use them at your discretion. I still think they should have just dumped points into everyone's account and been done with it, but at least this way they save some money on people too lazy to dial a telephone.
As for the outages themselves, we still have reports as recent as last night that the problems are still a major issue, and while we had Microsoft's ear we also asked for their advice to those still suffering from Xbox Live difficulties.
With the high number of new members in the system, issues can appear that are independent of the situation over the holidays. As always, we are continuing to make minor adjustments, and are monitoring every aspect of Xbox LIVE closely. If you are having any problems, please contact your local support (1-800-4-MYXBOX in North America) so that we can assist you.
You should probably just write that number on a sticky note and paste it on the fridge.
Undertow free of charge next week [Xbox Live's Major Nelson - Thanks Neocutter!]
Comments
and where do we get in on that class action lawsuit?
Good thing I never purchase arcade games other than the retros.
Sweet! I've been going back and forth on whether or not to buy this.
Cool fun game and glad I didn't purchase it already.
But really they should have just gave out MS Points and make everyone happy.
Did anyone really expect something different? Of course it'd be an old title because the chances are more people have it and they wont lose money
Excellent. A game that I have no interest in, on a console that hasn't been able to get on Live for the last month. Frankly, I'd rather just have another month credited to me account. At the way Live is going these days, I'll be lucky if I can even download that game in the week it is offered.
@El Patricko: 2nd'd.
/bitchandmoan
GAWD I would never pay for such a rubbish service.
Heheh, lucky me.
Bahahahaha! Oh MS, you silly wascally wabbit, tricks are for kids! 'Undertow'...how appropriate...I feel MS getting caught in its own undertow, and you know what, there's a big shark out there everyone discounted, his name is PSN
@adamsummers:
Hah, the best point I've seen made here in awhile.
This is good news for me and if they will refund the points of people who already bought it kudos to XBL.
I'd still just rather have the points though.
Sweet!
@Sparx88: I was actually thinking it would be like Dig Dug.
Hmm, well at least it's not Joust.
Wow. It's a save money tactic on two fronts. One, as mentioned in the article, most people won't call. Two, you only have a small window to get the "free" game anyway and I bet most people will miss that from lack of promotion.
go go gadget microsoft
Great news! Like most Live Arcade games, I enjoyed the demo, but not enough to dump $10 on it. Yeah, I'm cheap, wanna fight about it?
I wonder if the developer agreed to let them give it awayb free because they've got for-pay DLC coming soon.
My 360 is in Texas for RRoD. Great.
Yeah they should've just given everyone a decent amount of points instead.
@holoprojector:
If that's the case then call the number adn get the points added.
Hopefully XBL wont be down between those dates. *fingerscrossed*
O;o;;
the title says Relevead?
do you mean "Revealed"?
Cool. This is a great game I intended to pick up but it was lost during the crush of holiday titles (still exploring every nook and cranny in Mass Effect) that superceded it. To those complaining, they could have picked Boogie Bunnies.
@Maximus9:
LOL fanboys.
yaay, i waited since mass effect and rock band had just come out! This makes up for me buying carcassone.
Way to go Microsoft. Just when I thought you couldn't screw this thing up any worse, you prove me wrong.
Well done.
Let's see if a million people downloading a crappy XBLA game over a three day window could bring XBL down. That would be awesome.
Undertow? Awesome. Especially considering I haven't really been having any problems with Live outside of the three or so days directly after Christmas.
Cool!
A game I was too cheap to buy! Works out for me.
@jx1: Now it says Revelead. Getting closer!
Never heard of this game. Have to give 'er a whack.
@Mr.Waffleton: Errr...I own both systems, nice try..I just thinks MS is generally more greedy than Sony, they should have given 1 month free of live or points to spend as you please.
This is horrible. Why couldn't Microsoft just give a set amount of points to everyone? I mean I could understand giving this one game away if the problems only were around for a week, but we're talking about 27 days now.
This.Is.Unacceptable
I'd still rather have the points.
@Kataki: The window may be small but think about it, the only people really affected by the sporadic outages are those hardcore power-users who log in frequently (obsessively?). I really haven't noticed any of the outages/issues during regular play after work or video chats with friends/family. The only way I knew of these "crippling, massive, class-actionable, life-altering outages" is this site. My parents, who are more casual players and use the video chat mostly, haven't noticed any problems.
Man do I get tired of 'sifting' threw constant bitching. I am surprised that it caught me off guard this time because I should have known that it really wouldn't have mattered what arcade game they gave us it (of course) was doomed to have the mob (pitchforks on the ready) cued up. I for one am happy they gave us from what I have read a pretty great game, if you already have it it seems they are going to still try and help you. Seriously, did anyone think it would have been one of the better Arcade titles? To be honest, I'm happy they are giving us something, period...
Undertow is a sweet little game! Cue Borat: Very Niice
Better to have Bill Gates stop by every Live users' home and make an apology in person.
Cool, I wanted to get this game but didn't want to pay for it and now I can. Hooray!
Really? I'm surprised that you guys are so complicit with this MS response. You pay for a service, the service goes down at the height of when you would want to use it, stays out for a month, and you settle for an already released game rather than demanding a prorated credit to your accounts? I'm sorry, but I think xbox LIVE users should demand a refund for the month lost. Why are you going to let microsoft keep your money for services not rendered???
I tried the demo, it was ok, granted- I wasn't really paying attention and wasn't into it. I've heard very good things about it though, so I'm sure I'll enjoy it. And while I really would have preferred some MS points, they could have done worse than this game- though, the just thing to do would have been a free month of Live for everyone, but it's unreasonable (from a business standpoint) to think they would of given us that.
Live has been fine the last few days for me, but I still feel like we deserved a little more. I can deal with getting this pretty good game though.
Well it's nice that I can own this game now, but it really sucks that they don't have plans to get something for people who already have this game. I think it would be far better if they just gave out a set number of Microsoft points redeemable only withing a certain time period, and let people choose what game they want.
Sweet! This is the one arcade game I have really considered to get, but ultimately passed on, thinking I wouldn't get around to playing Multiplayer enough to justify the purchase. That's probably still true, but I'll snag it for free, cos I really did think the Demo was fun.
@Bishmon: If only others shared your sense of gratitude. XBL costs $5 a month and people act like they deserve millions in retribution for a temporary problem with the servers. Instead we get a $10 game (or a point refund if you already purchased it) and everyone still complains.
What the fuck is wrong with all of you?
It's a FREE FUCKING GAME!!!
And if you already own it, you will still get something (probably of equal value) by doing nothing more than calling a toll-free number!
Holy shit, guys. Slapping them in the face for offering this deal is a new low for the online gamer community.
Undertow, eh? I'll take it. I liked the demo, just not enough to pay for the full game.
@soundgarden:
Well first off the service never really went down and then it only effected me for like a week. I'm not going ask XBL for my dollar back and besides that a XBLA game more than makes up for my loss.
@ssjmichael: I also love how everyone pretends that they have had no access to XBL for the ENTIRE time. I have encountered maybe 5-8 times where an online game was unplayable (mostly CoD4). Guess what? Halo 3 and TF2 worked fine. And even if they did not, I always had the single-player for CoD4 and Mass Effect.
@soundgarden: cause it wasn't "a month lost" or anything close to that - I've played at least 50 halo games since xmas - problems aren't that widespread and really weren't that severe at thier peak annoyance levels - I think I couldn't play online for like 5 or 6 days tops, mostly just cosmetic hiccups after that - free game is enuf for me
@Maximus9: rofl psn a big shark? sure guy whatever you say. I'll tell you what, when it takes less then 4 hours to download a demo we will talk again because thats just one of the MANY major problems PSN has.
They'll do for you what they did for those of that had already purchased Carcassonne:
Nothing.
I don't have this game yet so at least I'll get in on one freebie.
Fan-fucking-tastic. A free game to compensate me for my inability to use Live, available only while my 360's red-ringed. Great. Really. I appreciate this whole "not being able to use things I paid for and not getting compensated for not being able to use them" thing, Microsoft.
@Hiero Glyph: I have had access to Live MAYBE 10% of the time for the past month. No games, no chat, no Marketplace, no friends list. Couldn't even play the Arcade games I'd bought with previous consoles.
I am certainly no fan of Microsoft at the moment.
A win for me -- I haven't yet bought Undertow, though it is on my list, and I haven't had any problems with LIVE. So I get LIVE service with no issues AND a free game I want. It's almost like Christmas :)