Today, Microsoft's XBOX department kicked their most loyal supporters, their subscribers, directly in the teeth.
XBOX has a subscription option that offers some perks: Microsoft Points they can use to buy games, easy access to support, the ability to stream Netflix over their XBOX, those sorts of things.
Sony Playstation has a similar subscription option, but rather than setting up a system like Microsoft Points, Sony has been providing video games to its subscribers without additional charge. It's part of the package deal. Currently available for download is XCOM:Enemy Unknown, a squad based combat game where an elite international force fights off an alien invasion.
Not my style of game, but it's very, very popular.
Microsoft got cheers at E3 when they announced that they were going to start giving its subscribers games without additional charge too:
Yusuf Mehdi, a Senior VP with Microsoft, took the stage and said:
"We're also going to roll out a new program for Xbox Live gold members. Beginning July 1, up through the release of Xbox One, gold members new or existing, are going to receive two free game downloads [a month], yours to keep. To kick off that program, I'd like to share just two of the titles we're going to share over the next few months, Assassins Creed II, and Halo 3."Now this announcement created some confusion. Does that mean, asked Subscribers, that Xbox was ready to kick off the "Games for Gold" program by giving them two, "free," old but still very highly rated AAA titles?!
Yes! Said multiple tweets from Xbox Support. Those games will both be available for download in June!
And so today, Subscribers waited, excited to download Halo 3 or Assassins Creed 2, and what did they find?
Defense Grid: Awakening.
Defense Grid Awakening is an escalator. What was once an amusement park ride is now, frankly, boring. At one point, I had two copies of Defense Grid:Awakening. Logitech was giving copies of that particular game away. I had trouble finding people who wanted my copies, so I posted an offer for someone to grab them on a message board. I only got two bites. And one response was a "Yeah, I guess I'll take it off your hands."
It felt like I was giving away a pair of used socks.
And the worst part is, they ran into technical difficulties, and the game wasn't available for download until just few minutes ago.
The internet is furious.
Anyone who wants to play Defense Grid:Awakening, already has Defense Grid:Awakening. It's called a "tower defense" game, and is one of the varieties of games that people play on phones and flash, it's not really adapted very well to consoles.
Yet this is the exciting launch of the new Xbox Games for Gold program?
To quote a friend of mine who's an Xbox Gold subscriber (that's how he watches Netflix):
If someone says that as part of the customer service I'm paying for, that they are going to give me a cake in a week, I'll be very happy. Hey! A cake! Cakes are awesome. I'll walk around, eagerly awaiting my cake. And then they walk up to me and I'll expect them to hand me a cake, the cake I have been waiting for.He's not the only one. Gamers have taken to Reddit, Twitter, and message boards to vent their rage today. Meanwhile, Microsoft seems genuinely stunned by the reaction. "Who said we were giving away Assassins Creed or Halo 3?" Asked one Microsoft Tweep, only to be bombarded with screengrabs and memes.If they hand me a half-eaten Payday then I'm going to kick them in the groin, because no one fucking likes paydays anyway and those assholes promised me a cake!
It feels like Microsoft just asked me if I wanted a Hertz Doughnut!
Microsoft said that as part of the Gold membership that its subscribers are paying for, they would receive a copy of Assassins Creed and Halo 3 in June. Instead, they're offering a game that no one particularly wants to play as the game to launch their new program.
This is really, really bad marketing and customer service. They really worked on hyping Games for Gold. No one would have cared, at all, if Defense Grid:Awakening was part of the packing peanuts to flesh out their 2-games a month plan. When deals like this come around, they expect packing peanuts.
But you don't launch a new program with packing peanuts.
And this isn't the first complete disaster for Microsoft in the past four weeks.