US Microsoft Points

Peyton Manning

A quick question for you folks. A friend of mine in the US has 1600 microsoft points for which he has no use, so he sent me the code. Now I know these are region locked, so will not work when I try to redeem them here. Is there any way around this? From googling, it seems it is next to impossible to change the coutnry/region you are associated with, but is there any way my friend could log into my account from the US and redeem them from there - or would I still face the same old region locked problem? Any advice appreciated, would love to be able to use these but if not, no big deal.

bucks73

No chance of using them outside US unfortunately. Best thing is probably sell them on Ebay.

Kenny_D

Can he not recover your gamertag on his machine, use the points and then you recover it back to your machine? Obviously this isnt a good idea if you have credit card info on your machine and you really know the guy well or he's a relation

Fingleberries

Can you not create a gamertag on XBox.com (with a new Windows Live ID using a US Address) and then log on to your XBox with that User ID.

Some content (e.g. TV, Movies and Videos) would probably not be accessible for download or purchase but Arcade games, themes and the like should be available. You could download them onto your XBox, and because you purchased them from that XBox they should still be licenced and accessible as full games if you log in with your Irish XBox Live account.

(When you buy XBL content you get two licences, one for your user account and one for the XBox on which it was purchased - this means that you can have the game on a Memory Unit and play the game as a full game on someone elses XBox as long as you are logged into XBox Live on that XBox Live. It also means that anyone playing on your XBox should be able to play the game as a full game because it was purchased from that XBox).

I've never actually tried this, but theoretically it should work.

TouchingVirus

GStormcrow wrote: »

Can he not recover your gamertag on his machine, use the points and then you recover it back to your machine? Obviously this isnt a good idea if you have credit card info on your machine and you really know the guy well or he's a relation

As far as I know this won't work because it is the gametag that prevents non-region things from happening. The OP's friend won't be able to apply the US points to the Irish gamertag.

bucks73

All content purchased with one gamertag can not be used on another gamertag no matter what country they are based in. Everything on Xbox Live is non-transferable. Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done with these points on the OPs Irish gamertag.

He could try creating a US account and spending them on that account but he would have to log in under that US account anytime he wanted to use whatever he bought.

Fingleberries

Just to clarify from a bit earlier.

Fingleberries wrote: »

When you buy XBL content you get two licences, one for your user account and one for the XBox on which it was purchased - this means that you can have the game on a Memory Unit and play the game as a full game on someone elses XBox as long as you are logged into XBox Live on that XBox Live. It also means that anyone playing on your XBox should be able to play the game as a full game because it was purchased from that XBox.

I've never actually tried this, but theoretically it should work.

The XBox Engineering Blog has a bit more to back this up (I had to google for a bit to find this) - http://blogs.msdn.com/xboxteam/archive/2006/08/10/694758.aspx

When an item is purchased and subsequently downloaded for the first time, licenses to use the downloaded content are created and passed out to two separate locations. First, a license is created and issued to the console. This license enables all accounts to use this content freely, as long as the content is being accessed from said console – any profile being used on the console will be able to use the content while on the console.

Second, a license is created and issued to the profile used to purchase the item. This second license is different in that it allows the profile to use the content on whichever console it currently resides on, but only if it is connected to live. Only the signed-in account can use the paid-for content – a license would have to be purchased on that console for everyone to be able to play. This seems to be where some people are getting tripped up – bringing a profile with a license on it to another console will not give the second console a license as well.

To my understanding this would mean that creating a US-based Windows Live ID (the old California 90210 zip code works a charm), then create a silver account on XBox.com using this Live ID and redeeming the code for this account and log on to the XBox as this user should grant a console licence for whatever is bought and mean that any games can be played as full games when logging onto the same XBox with the Irish Gamertag.

I've never tried this, but it might just work... let us know how you get on.

Atavan-Halen

bucks73 wrote: »

All content purchased with one gamertag can not be used on another gamertag no matter what country they are based in. Everything on Xbox Live is non-transferable. Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done with these points on the OPs Irish gamertag.

He could try creating a US account and spending them on that account but he would have to log in under that US account anytime he wanted to use whatever he bought.

No, not necessarily. I created a US account to download Aegis wing and once it's saved to the HD I can play it no probs using my Irish Gamertag. Unless they've changed it recently, which I don't think they have.

armour87

Isn't there a way of making the xbox 'think' it's in the US via some IP shenanigans etc? Maybe setting up a new account as a yank but obviosuly that's usless as regards your existing account.

TouchingVirus

armour87 wrote: »

Isn't there a way of making the xbox 'think' it's in the US via some IP shenanigans etc? Maybe setting up a new account as a yank but obviosuly that's usless as regards your existing account.

It isn't the console that's preventing claiming the points, it is the origin of the gamertag (Ireland, and always will be Ireland no matter where you go).

If you set up a US gamertag you can claim the points and buy things with them. Then in order to play these games one of two conditions must be satisfied:

1) You must be signed in as the purchaser's Gamertag
2) If not signed is as the purchaser then your console must be connected to xbox live to verify offline play for that console ID.

The second condition is why when you get a new xbox you must transfer your licenses to the new console (via xbox.com) before offline playing of arcade games is allowed. If you don't all the games will be trial versions until you sign in as the purchaser gamertag

Fingleberries

TouchingVirus wrote: »

If you set up a US gamertag you can claim the points and buy things with them. Then in order to play these games one of two conditions must be satisfied:

1) You must be signed in as the purchaser's Gamertag
2) If not signed is as the purchaser then your console must be connected to xbox live to verify offline play for that console ID.

The second condition is why when you get a new xbox you must transfer your licenses to the new console (via xbox.com) before offline playing of arcade games is allowed.

Just a slight correction to this to avoid confusion - because the licences are issued to the console on which the arcade content is downloaded anyone on that console (US, Irish, Japanese Gamertag) should be able to play arcade content as a full game offline.

If you buy a new Console, it is this console licence that you are transferring from the old one to the new one. This means that the licences issued when you bought the arcade game are updated to have the console licence on the new machine and anyone can log on to that console and play the full version.

Without transferring the console licence, you are only able to play the arcade game on your new console using your user licence - meaning that you need to be connected to Live to play the full version. Essentially the same as if you brought the arcade game on an MU to a mates place.

The XBox engineering blog I mentioned earlier helps to explain further.

Hope that helps.

robinph

atavan-halen wrote: »

No, not necessarily. I created a US account to download Aegis wing and once it's saved to the HD I can play it no probs using my Irish Gamertag. Unless they've changed it recently, which I don't think they have.

Did the same myself. Just had to replace the console since then so stuff I'd downloaded with that tag before is now useless to me on the new one.

Spending the US points on a US registered gamertag on an Irish console in Ireland is no problem... but only for game content, any movies, music or other non game related content will be blocked due to your non-US IP address.

Fingleberries

robinph wrote: »

Did the same myself. Just had to replace the console since then so stuff I'd downloaded with that tag before is now useless to me on the new one.

Spending the US points on a US registered gamertag on an Irish console in Ireland is no problem... but only for game content, any movies, music or other non game related content will be blocked due to your non-US IP address.

As you've done this, do you know if Games on Demand from the US work if they are purchased in this way or do they show the same error as if you bought a Region Locked game DVD?

That'd be interesting to know because some of the US Games on Demand are $19.99 instead of the €29.99 they are charging here....

TouchingVirus

Fingleberries wrote: »

Just a slight correction to this to avoid confusion - because the licences are issued to the console on which the arcade content is downloaded anyone on that console (US, Irish, Japanese Gamertag) should be able to play arcade content as a full game offline.

If you buy a new Console, it is this console licence that you are transferring from the old one to the new one. This means that the licences issued when you bought the arcade game are updated to have the console licence on the new machine and anyone can log on to that console and play the full version.

Without transferring the console licence, you are only able to play the arcade game on your new console using your user licence - meaning that you need to be connected to Live to play the full version. Essentially the same as if you brought the arcade game on an MU to a mates place.

The XBox engineering blog I mentioned earlier helps to explain further.

Hope that helps.

I fail to see where I could lead people to any other conclusion

Fingleberries

TouchingVirus wrote:

If not signed is as the purchaser then your console must be connected to xbox live to verify offline play for that console ID.

It was just the line above that I thought could confuse, apologies if I misunderstood.

If the content is purchased from the console, the console has a licence for the content and can be played as a full game offline or online by anyone on that console.

If that's what you were saying, then ignore my earlier comment.


That said ... robinph has said that he has got it to work, so I'm curious about the Games on Demand content and if that would work the same as arcade content, or is it region locked (like some of the physical games would be).

Specifically, I'm looking at games like BioShock for $19.99 / 1600 Points (about €14) as opposed to €29.99 / 2400 Points

robinph

Actually I'm not sure about the Games On Demand stuff and if you can get that when out of region where the points are originally from. Arcade games and game add ons I have got with non EU points though.

Fingleberries

robinph wrote: »

Actually I'm not sure about the Games On Demand stuff and if you can get that when out of region where the points are originally from. Arcade games and game add ons I have got with non EU points though.

Ah, boo. I just found the answer to this
on Kotaku - Looks like the Games on Demand are region locked.

v3ttel

Why are points region specific? It seems a little crazy that the guy hast he points, but can't use them. Its not like theres PAL/NTSC stuff going on with a few simple MS points.

Maybe I've missed the point completely..

robinph

...because although the points system is supposed to provide a single global pricing stucture for all items on the marketplace, the points are not sold for the same equivalent price in each country. The difference in converting from "real" money to points is more than just currency exchange rate differences that have happened over the years as well.