Ever since I have owned a 360 (Christmas ’07), there have been Microsoft points. Microsoft points, or MSP, are the points you have to purchase from Microsoft with real money to buy extras from the Xbox 360 marketplace. While this seems simple, it really can be a great deal of messing about and aggravation just to buy something that could just be bought straight off the credit card. I personally have never understood why Microsoft makes you buy points with real life cash just so you can buy some gamer pictures or an in-game expansion. I don’t know whether they make a commission off this method but if they don’t, it seems completely and utterly pointless.

The next issue that lots of people have come across is the amounts they sell you the points in. To obtain the points, you can either enter you credit card details into the required area in the marketplace on the Xbox itself or do the same online. The third alternative is to buy a Microsoft points card off the high street from your local game store or supermarket. The points come in groups of 500, 1000, 2000, 4000, and 5000 online and in similar groups on the 360. From high street shops, you can buy them only in increments of 2100 or 4200. When an add-on or gamer picture set costs 800 points, you have to buy 1000 or 2100 to buy it. Once you have bought your desired digital merchandise, you are left over with 200 or 1300. If you only have 200, (unless you want gamer pictures), finding something else for 200 or less Microsoft points is very difficult. This further contributes to the arguments regarding purchasing points via a credit card to buy their products for your 360.

As far as I know, the PS3 uses the credit card system and it works without a hitch. It also lets children and adults alike see with ease how much the product is that they are buying rather than having to convert from Sterling or Dollars, to Microsoft Points back to your appropriate currency. It’s a whole lot of kerfuffle for something that could be sorted with a quick system update.

This article was more of a rant than a review of sorts but I hope you enjoyed reading it anyway.