Print

[Xbox-Scene]

MS Still No Answer For Broken Xbox Live DRM Posted by XanTium | February 12 20:07 EST | News Category: Xbox360

The DRM issue with repaired/replaced Xbox360s is not new, but today consumerist.com wrote a new article about it. Not only does it look like there won't be a real solution for this problem any time soon, but the microsoft support is still pretty much clueless about the issue: Reader Kevin's XBOX 360 suffered the usual Red Ring of Death, so he sent it in to be repaired. He got back a different XBOX 360 with a different serial number. That would be no big deal, except Kevin has purchased a bunch of content through XBOX Live... content that is no longer fully functional due to Microsoft's broken DRM. Here's a quick summary:     * November 2007: Kevin's XBOX 360 is replaced, causing his content to lose full functionality. He calls Microsoft.     * Microsoft keeps Kevin on the phone for an hour trying different methods of restoring functionality to his content. Nothing works. They say they will call him back in two weeks.     * They do not call him back, so he calls them. Microsoft makes him repeat the steps he tried the first time he called. They tell him they will call him back in two weeks.     * This cycle repeats twice more before Kevin gets a call from Frank at XBOX escalations. It's now the second week of January.     * Kevin periodically speaks to Frank. Frank has no answers for him.     * February 7, 2008: Frank tells Kevin that there's nothing more he can do and, when Kevin asks when he can expect a resolution, Frank says "hopefully sometime in 2008." We suggested that Kevin escalate his complaint. He did. This resulted in another call from Frank confirming: * That he can give me no ETA for when this issue will be resolved. * That there is nobody I can call for status updates since the team that does 'relicensing' does not give updates. * That they will only provide me with resolution when all my content is relicensed not partial. * That there is no compensation for the fact this has taken and will likely take months more to resolve. * That there is nothing more he can do. * That he 'hopes' that it will be resolved shortly. Full Story: consumerist.com

[deadlokIV]

Heh...and we saw people suing for the Xbox Live shortages...

I can't understand why such a relatively small problem isn't taken care of swiftly by the Xbox Live or associated teams. How was this even missed to begin with??

Hope he gets it sorted soon, would suck to be him in that situation.

[shank69xo]

QUOTE(xplayer @ Feb 12 2008, 08:39 PM)

Call me ignorant, but wouldn't it have just been easier for microsoft to just give him x amount of points equal to the value of his past purchase so he can just repurchase everything?

I actually got them to do thqat for me......once. And it was only a matter of a few thousand points. 4-5 Full XBLA games. But now my second system has recently RROD, and it was replaced with new console. Now this particular XBOX has nearly 30000 points worth of XBLA games, and DLC, Themes, etc. And they give me pretty much the same response as Kevin gets in the story. MS really needs to address this issue. Especially sice they released an upgraded 120GBHD, that will suffer from same said problem with content transfered from original 20GBHDD.

[hazyspartan]

doesnt everything still work if you are connected to live?

[mduga]

Typical MS!!!  I just got RROD last weekend.  So if I go and buy another console, everything I bought that's on my hard drive isn't gonna work?  What a load of shit.  I'm for sure just gonna buy a PS3 now.  Sucks though because I'll have to rebuy the games I like...  

I am never buying anything MS again!  Although I hate Sony a lot, at least their console won't break down after only 6 months of having it.

[Nailed]

About time this is getting the attention it deserves!  I really don't understand why re-issuing the DRM is so complex.  This must be a low priority issue to Microsoft, but they need to wake up and recognize this is hurting their sales!  No way I'm buying an Elite until this is resolved.

[GerbilJammer]

2 months and a million promises broken.... my DRM issues are still not fixed. They keep asking me to refax the same shit over and over....

[Johnwinger]

You buy something, but when you console breaks it's suddenly worthless when you get a different console back from service and Microsoft doesn't give a shit because they already have your money....

Makes sense.

[BRD]

I had this issue in 2006.  They told me I was entitled to a points refund and I got one.  Three months later.  That was bullshit.  Now they just evade everything like the thieves they are.  This is bullshit.  If I ever run into problems like this again I will simply get revenge by modding the DVD drive and liberating whatever disc-based games I want.  I can't believe they can get away with this.

[Mozbius]

I believe that it makes it clear! Knowing now that my 360 WILL (later or sooner depending on how I treat the console) eventually get the RROD and that I'll end up with broken DRM for stuff that I bought... That's definitely a no brainer! I'm done buying stuff on Live. I'll just keep on playing on Live but no more buying for me.

[africamagical]

QUOTE(Mozbius @ Feb 13 2008, 05:22 AM)

I believe that it makes it clear! Knowing now that my 360 WILL (later or sooner depending on how I treat the console) eventually get the RROD and that I'll end up with broken DRM for stuff that I bought... That's definitely a no brainer! I'm done buying stuff on Live. I'll just keep on playing on Live but no more buying for me.

it "will rrod"? so why is my launch box still going strong? i run that thing into the ground, look at my gamerscore, she has never had one hiccup.

[Mr Invader]

Either they should transfer the priveleges of the DRM on the broken 360s over to the refurbished 360s

or
they should attach the DRM to the harddrive, since they don't fail as much as the console itself

I hope to see a solution to this problem this year, considering my 360 broke two weeks ago.

[hecz]

Ive lost two consoles with lots of xbla games.....

I will not buy any game until this is fixed and my internet connection sucks so I cant play online all the time.

Street fighter HD is coming and I wont buy it until this is fixed period.

[eyric101]

QUOTE(trey85stang @ Feb 12 2008, 11:15 PM)

Ive been complaining about this since Dec. 05 when my first xbox died.  I keep a list of all the points I have spent across all the tags and I get all the points refunded to rebuy all the content....  Which sucks.  They need an easy way to fix the crap.

Funny,  a news story gets posted and its a big deal.  I made a thread about it back when and people told me to quit whining (i dont recall if it was xbox forums or sboxscene though).

The RROD issue happened to me early on and I returned it to best buy under warrenty.  I had purchased a lot of live stuff.  When i called they offered me a refund but I had to provide them a receipt for my original XBOX which best buy had kept.  I now have a lot of broken DRM stuff and I will not buy anything under the MICROSOFT DRM system again until/unless they fix it.  I will just wait for it to come out on DVD.  Microsoft claims they support downloadable content over blueray and hddvd but I say prove it!

[afandiewinter]

QUOTE

BY IAMELEVENEIGHT AT 02/12/08 12:57 PM
hey microsoft. Simple solution.
You have records of what he's bought. You have records of the problems hes having. REFUND. THE. FUCKING. POINTS.
DUH. I'm sure he would be and have been much happier with the solution that hey, we can't do anything to fix the problem so we are going to refund your live points so you can repurchase those items.
Easy fix.