I myself didn't experience any big problems with live. If this is the stink people make about this, i'm surprised blizzard hasn't been sued for a bajillion dollars over world of warcraft server outages.

Thanks for the phone number, Fahey.

killinggameshow

MS has a weird way of compensating customers.

Brendar

taomaster99

They knew how many consoles were going to be made, they knew how may were going to be on the market, they had profit projections telling how many they expected to sell.

To not have enough infrastructure to support the 360s they knew would be connecting to Live is criminal. Being a gamer dad, I don't have that much time to game in a week and having to lose some of that time to MS's oversight really pisses me off.

Nekura20x6

Cueil

Cueil

The game may be great, at least, to people who enjoy it. I didn't like it all. As an apology to me, from Microsoft, you can kick Valve in the ass and tell them I would really like some new Team Fortress maps! ;)

Annex1

Irenicus-the one and only

Mine is also in Texas thanks to RROD fever. Just sent out yesterday. I tried calling the customer service number to see if I can get a code to download it later or if they can credit me points and the service reps said they weren't sure how to go about this.

Hopefully Major Nelson will come up with an answer.

One_Crazy_Idiot

Kermi

Irenicus-the one and only

Doomstink

Pinhead

Duoae

It had better still be available when I get it back...

muscrat_01

Talk about adding insult to injury.

thegreatgazoo999

Besides, no XBL problems and a free game? SCORE!

Zen Grenadier

.

HigglyPiggly

Cambronator

Mr. Mastodon Farm

finder39

Going by my experience over the past month, no no I will not. I wouldn't be so pissed if I didn't have to be logged in all the time because of their stupid DRM!!

Morberis

temporaryscars

cherrybomb

DanteIX

eastx

Irenicus-the one and only

Although I wonder what happens if I call from Japan. :x

Well time to find out next week.

Witzbold

thinkfreemind

So everyone who bought the game allready seems to get the best deal, and more of a proper apology, while the ones who did not buy the game before have to settle with Undertow, not saying it is a bad game but we all got different tastes.

Irenicus-the one and only

Nothing set up quite yet to deal with people who already have the game.

The guy on support said they just got an update about the Undertow deal and have a note in respect to dealing with people who already own the game, but he said that it does not actually contain any steps yet or say what to do to compensate them. Best bet is to call back the start of next week, closer to the actual time of the Free Game offer. He was not sure if it would be a points refund or a free alternate download.

Halaster

This was a real fucking stupid move of them to be "picking" the game for us as a form of apology.

Witzbold

CagedSun

Irenicus-the one and only

This is crap. And I STILL have trouble getting into games and my dashboard STILL lags. I'd say when an "apology" makes the majority of people ANGRY, it isn't sufficient.

Sloopydrew

Pr1vate_D0nut

Now where's that lawsuit information? Suddenly I feel much more like I may be part of a certain "class" of gamer.

stranger

Shame those that did not get the game before does not recieve 800points though, if they did that then I would say MS gave everyone a fair compensation and did the good thing.

Irenicus-the one and only

One of the games on my top three most played list cost me $10. A title I've put 10s of hours into. Yeah, that seems pretty stupid to me when recently I've seen full retail games cost $60 and last for 8 hours.

Psychotext

Mike Fahey

I'm sorry, intelligent individuals?

You consider someone who paid $2-10 for an Arcade game intelligent?
Wouldn't I, and others, be the intelligent ones, because we waited until such a game was free?

I haven't downloaded it yet. But now I will. Because I don't waste money on e-games. And I take advantage of freebies. Yes!

thereturnoftheufo

Also the metal gear servers are still up for europe I believe as we got the game later, and you can still play resistance P2P when they close the dedicated servers, but you don't have dedicated servers. just P2P, I guess that you get what you pay for.

Irenicus-the one and only

Spiderbait

lol just read my comment like 6 posts up

i bought it too.

they refunded it in full, instantly, when i called them and asked about their offer to people who have bought it already.

the copy of Undertow still works in full AND i have 800 points to do whatever i want with!

call 1-800-4-MY-XBOX
The whole process took me 4mins

DIV360

batdrox

I purchased this. I found that NO ONE was playing it, so I wasted money in the long run. It's a unique game, but fails in final execution. :/

Aragashi

batdrox

phorty40

kftgr

CyberSkull

KidU

From the demo and others' impressions, Undertow is a pretty good game. One reason why Undertow got shit for sales is that it was released during the packed holiday season, and nobody picked it up. At least for me, that was the case.

Pretty sly move by Microsoft though, as this gift to Silver users might actually convert a few to Gold, given the game's multiplayer focus.

Also good for the Undertow community in terms of better matchmaking with a ton more players.

I just wonder how much MS is reimbursing the Undertow developers. Probably much more than they're getting back in Silver->Gold converts though.

It only sucks for the people that have no interest in such a game and got screwed (not just inconvenienced) by the live outages.

kftgr

Irenicus-the one and only

Nice stuff man and I'm happy for you :)

Irenicus-the one and only

THE GAME STILL WORKS IN FULL!!!

DIV360

I JUST called 5mins ago and the refunded my points for undertow which i bought on dec 9th! The whole process took like 4mins!

The guy asked to verfiy my address and gamertag and refunded it instantly!

I turned on my xbox just now and there it is! 800ms points back to my 360!!

so i guess MS did it! for those of you who DID buy it, just call and get your points back!

awesome service! especially since i didn't even experience problems with xbl in the first place!!

IN CONCLUSION!

CALL AND GET YOUR POINTS BACK!

DIV360

teteC

nerotheantihero

This is funny, and the joke is on you guys!

Irenicus-the one and only

Maximus9

GamingNinja

xenothaulus

duckmouth

Natpalm

banmojo

Thank you.

Guizzy

But hey, I downloaded YARIS for free, so I'll get this!

Langis-Langley

Konchu

FtGF

ChiefoftheChiss

And for the PSN lovers out there. Please shut it. I have a PS3 and the service is crap. Demo downloads take forever and then you have to install them after that. I usually have to leave my console on overnight to download 2-3 demos. It is getting better, but I still don't like playing online. Warhawk had way worse problems when it came out and I didn't hear nearly the uproar that i hear now. (probably because their weren't as many users). Trust me, when PSN gets as good as Xbox Live you are going to pay one way or the other. Either through being forced to watch ads, or through subscriptions for certain games, or something. I highly doubt Sony will invest all that money into the service and then not make money on it at all. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

For those with major problems Live problems over the last month. Did you try calling Live customer service and ask them for a credit for the days you have had down? I called Xbox Live customer service one month after it auto-renewed my yearly subscription to tell them I had a prepaid card I wanted to use instead. They refunded the charge right away. You have to try to call the customer service before you can bitch about how bad they are.

jf04gli

Kaemon

the-hypnotoad

I didn't even experience that much difficulty other than COD4 matches not hooking up or error messages if i scroll down to fast on some menus like XBLA Titles or 360 demos. So basically im getting undertow for free for nothing.

And now im wondering if i can download undertow and then call the number later that day or the next day. Or do they have some sort of log that says when you've purchased something?

ArmyofJuan

s7venrw

yashichi8bit

holmeszk

jpgnotgif

Eliasoz_01

Now if they could do something about my new WOW addiction that occurred because I was bored without Live.Had never tried it and now I am hooked. Ugh.

lionkitten

I see. Should I still give money to small corporations?

Listen genius. XBL is the best game in town. That is when it works. That's why people keep using it.

I really don't understand why is it so wrong in expecting to get your money's worth? If I pay for something and I don't get the service I'm paying for, am I supposed to just sit quiet and take it? I suppose I should, according to some people.

If nobody complained, that's when Microsoft should get worried. That'd mean nobody gives a shit any more.

Pixelantes Anonymous

:)

At least Im not the only one here!

NMC ONE WAY

What REALLY gets on my nerves is the people who throw a fit when they feel like they are getting screwed by "the man". Then, the stop listening to rational arguments, like "as is" or "you lost a handful of pennies".

If you want Microsoft to pay for this, do it the way the rest of the free market does it: stop giving them money. They are already losing reputation for this, which counts for more than the money they would lose. What is that you say? You still want to play on Live? Then, make up your own damn mind. Stop demanding money from large corporations. That's no better than the white trash lawsuit in Texas.

The point is that Microsoft does not owe you a dime. They offered the free game... a damn good game I might add. Take it or leave it.

Edge of Blade

Sorry Xbox Live. This last month, you have lost. First to me and my friends not being able to reliably play Catan over Live THREE DAYS IN A ROW, now to Tower Defense.

You just can't pick good fights, can you?

Ginko

Jmontilla2786

Cannedpasta

firesign

Zerozaki Ishiki

Disappointing!

EnigmaNemesis

4dSwissCheese

Truepatriot

I see alot of the points people are making on both sides, I guess my issue is if Microsoft felt bad enough to apologize and give something away, why not let us choose what we want?

eleventeen

Erwin

[www.newegg.com]

srry for the caps :-)

adolfo-gomez

I think that's a fair settlement. If you're not happy, shove that download where the sun don't shine

interstate78

Hickeroar

Just give me the 800 points (I already own the game) and save me the aggravation of having to make that call.

Jmarsh04

Garro

FAHQ M$!!

SAKY

Rodent

okenny :) ...building bridges (to hide under)

RAWR! TEH INTERNETS IS NOT SATISFIED BY YOUR PETTY OFFERING!

NPlace

Drake Lake: Phase Lunaire

eleventeen

From a personal standpoint, I would rather have everyone here bitching about XBLive for a month than one day of execs calling me about how they can't check their email. RIM is WAYYYYY bigger than XBlive as well. But yeah, I hear ya on it. I also wasn't effected as bad as everyone else, so I might be a little against the complaints for a free game from them.

Again people, just my opinion.

NMC ONE WAY

Plus giving away Undertow only further reinforces my idea that it makes no sense to buy a game when it's first released.

3BD

Its only a deal if its on something you want.

Rajio

MosquitoControl

Glasseater

If you don't want Undertow, then they should allow you to download a movie or something. The compensation is a great idea and an added bonus, but its almost better to not get a gift than to get one you really don't want. Its like Heyapples said, its "like waking up Christmas day and opening up your prized gift to find it's a pair of socks. Yay socks?"

eleventeen

They probably won't give a set amount of points because they likely offered Chair a discounted amount for Undertow to be free for a day. I'm sure it was a cost cutting measure. This IS Microsoft after all.

Mr.Waffleton

To me, and I suspect a lot of other folks, Undertow doesn't come even close. Just because Microsoft prices something at $10 doesn't mean it's actually worth it to anyone else but Microsoft.

Pixelantes Anonymous

DARK DVNT; DARKDVNT [Xfire/Yahoo/Aim] ;Plz visit my website, k, thx.

Covert_Knight

And I don't even like Undertow (that's why I didn't buy it).

makigio

AnEternalEnigma

Stormrider

have you tried to spend Misawa winter without decent pair of socks?

icepick314

JustinS

todde7

Darkwing87

adamsummers

Yay socks?

HeyApples

No, I do not work for MS. Im a blackberry server admin.

There are "fuckfests" that happen with the mobile networks that I deal with. RIM had a HUGE issue where EVERYTHING went down for ALL blackberry users. No comp was given. Thats my example.

@JustinS:

I know some companies do offer comp, I've been given free stuff from certain services. Not knocking your comps, but both examples are small scale in comparison. ISP issues are localized, so I can understand THAT one. They aren't losing millions of dollars hooking you up with a month for free. And I doubt 5 million people were having the same problem (in the ISP's eyes). The FF issue is similar, a smaller scale with less users and less loss for the company providing the comp.

But I did like the place of blame on PSN. Made me laugh loud enough in my office to catch my coworkers attention.

NMC ONE WAY

Im saying that the service doesnt offer much of what the LIVE service offers (friends lists across all games, achievements currently not offered, universal voice support).

What they do they do well they just dont do as much as LIVE and if they did MS would be forced to make LIVE better and offer better compensation when things like this happen, especially considering the competition's service is free.

JustinS

okenny :) ...building bridges (to hide under)

Whysobluepandabear?

Tepoz

yay a free game based upon sea monkeys... I'd me more excited if I could see the damn things.

kryzhal

jfx316

bluesquareapple

They would get the full game, but it would only work when signed into live on the new box. You were close though. :)

Billkwando

bluesquareapple

Your logic is backwards. Sony's service is FREE. There are plenty of people who use PSN and have no issue with it. It may not have the numbers that Live has, but I'd wager the ratio of PS3 owners to PSN members is the same as the ratio of 360 owners to XBL Gold Members, if not higher.

Also, it's FREE. If it goes down, what do you have to complain about? IT'S FREE.

superberg

Piglatin02

Islandkiwi

Razlo

See my previous post?

Billkwando

coop510

DefHamster

I feel bad for the few people who RRODd and won't be able to get Undertow while it's available, but everyone else bitching in this thread, shut it.

DangerChimp

HootieMac

Marcus117

Really this is all SONY's fault. If their PSN service was better then MS would be forced to compete and they would give you better compensation for down times and offer better service overall.

JustinS

Gadgetron

FP_slomo788

Isn't compensation supposed to give you something in replacement for what you've missed out on?

Personally - I think this is just crap. REALLY REALLY CRAP.

RagingAvatar

FP_slomo788

okenny :) ...building bridges (to hide under)

iamnotdryad is wrong. You can do that.

You need to be on Live to play it though.

HungryWolf AKA C of theCandSshow.com

adolfo-gomez

1 - You can check all the games I've played on Bungie. I play alot of Halo 3 and I have played pretty much every night since before this shit happened and up to last night, so you can take back what you said everyone having the same problem. I certainly didnt experience that shit everyone else had going on. I'm not saying it doesn't suck, but everyone kicking and screaming like babies is making it alo worse than it really is.

2 - This was an inconvienence to a service that is provided "AS IS". Unforseen issues might arise, that is something you have to take into consideration. Does your phone ever cut off and its not your fault? Ever have problems getting into your voice mail even though it was just working? Try calling your carrier and crying about it not working and all they would say is "sorry to hear that, we can work on getting it going now", but they WONT offer you some free services. I dont even care that they gave away a game for it. Its cool and all, but the fact is they didnt have to give anyone shit, and to hear everyone being a little bitch about it is really sad. Be happy they even acknowledged you.

I'm not saying that it doesnt feel like a shaft because of loss of service, but this happens in other things in our lives and we get no comp for it.

NMC ONE WAY

No, you don't want to use a friend's console. The download will then be licensed only to that console and not yours. When you'd get your XBox back you would be stuck with the trial version of Undertow.

It might work if you use a memory card but don't quote me on that since I don't have a memory card.

iamnotdryad

Of course this is all in theory, I've never tried it.

Rathus

JetPogi

I never said anything about complete outages, but you guys are paying for a service and you should expect something more than a cheap handout like this. I mean I know some who still get logged out after a few minutes of being logged in. Are the problems even solved yet? Doesn't seem like it. That's Unacceptable to me.

LittleBigPlaneteer

If my internet provider barely worked for a month, wouldn't I want to be credited for the month rather than having them send me a CD with a sports game when I don't even like sports games?

If my electricity didn't work for a month, would I still have to pay the electric bill or should they send me a free flashlight instead and still charge me?

If my cable TV didn't work for a month, wouldn't I want a credit to my account rather than a free pay channel for a week?

Microsoft makes us pay for a service. As such, as a consumer, I want this service to actually work, regardless of whether I log in once a week to play for an hour, or 10 hours a day every day. As a service, they are responsible to serve the consumer.

They weren't. Now they are placating us for a free game, which some people may have, some people may not even like... and you have to download it during a specific amount of time. Are they going to email, call, and broadcast this on CNN to ever user knows to download it? No.

8 million xbox live subscribers. I'll guess only 500,000 download this game. Maybe more, but it's not right regardless.

Microsoft has something like 50 BILLION in cash reserves. They can afford to pony up for their mistake and credit everyone a free month.

So to all you people who say we're just complaining because we'd complain no matter what game it is, think of it in other terms such as cable, electricity, internet, or gas (how'd you like to have no heat, but they send you a blanket next month instead and you still pay your heating bill!)

They charge for the service; therefore, they should credit us when there is a longstanding outage.

Yukichu

Never experianced an XBL outage.

Still plan on downloading this freebie. >=D

Raynre

Speak for yourself. For a lot of people it effectively was, especially if you were trying to recover your gamertag.

Ignorant bastards, never see beyond their own little worlds.

Pixelantes Anonymous

Its even BETTER news for me because I borrowed a friends PS3 and Wii during his holiday vacation and played Super Mario Galaxy the whole time, thus never experienced any XBL outages. Still haven't.

So I get something for free without having suffered any harm. TEE HEE!

DARTH_TIGRIS

baked ham

duckmouth

WreckTheLaw

topbravo222

skullivan

Can trolls swim?

@Mr.Waffleton:

Sounds like The Carcassonne Maneuver.

@chillblain:

Me too. I never picked up Undertow, and though it looks interesting, I wouldn't have. Metal Slug 3 has the censored white spooge-blood, so getting that free would've been nice, but if they gave us points I'd have enough to buy Psychonauts.....which is what I really want.

Oh well....I'll save my points for Samurai Shodown II which betterfuckinnot have green blood.

@slomo788:

Wrong. The 360 users bashed the PSN user who was bashing XBL for XBL problems. Not the same thing....and I wouldn't call it bashing cos we're not that bashcrafty.

If they really wanted to make amends they would've given us Omega 5 ;)

Billkwando

Well said.

Pixelantes Anonymous