MS says 'sorry'. Will offer free XBLA game to makeup for Live problems

[Queasy]

Undertow is now free

Undertow is now available, free of charge, until Sunday January 27th at 11:59pm PT.

Don't forget to call 1-800-4MY-XBOX if you've already purchased Undertow to get 800MS Points.

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UPDATE - Thanks raystorm:

Originally posted by: raystorm
Instead of creating a new thread I'll just bump this one. The OP can then update the thread title.


The promised free game will be Undertow and we'll get it next week.

Open letter by Marc Whitten at Xbox.com....Undertow will be the free xbla game.

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Link

Dear Xbox LIVE Members:

During this past holiday season you helped us break a number of Xbox LIVE records. This included our largest sign-up of new members to Xbox LIVE in our 5 year history and just yesterday you broke the record for the single biggest day of concurrent members ever on the service.

As a result of this massive increase in usage we know that some of you experienced intermittent Xbox LIVE issues over the holiday break. While the service was not completely offline at any given time, we are disappointed in our performance. I would like to take this moment to thank you each and every one of you for your patience and understanding as our team has worked around the clock to return the service to a stable state.

At the same time we would like to offer a token of our appreciation to all of you in celebration of record success for the service. And as a thank you for your loyalty during this holiday period, we will be offering all of our Xbox LIVE members around the world access to a full Xbox LIVE Arcade game that will be available to download free of charge. In the coming weeks we will be sharing the specific details of this offer with you.

Thank you again for helping make Xbox LIVE everything that it is today!

Sincerely,

Marc Whitten
General Manager, Xbox LIVE
Gamertag: Notwen

 

[nycxandy]

It better be a good XBLA game and not something that costs 400 points and has been out for over a year.

 

[dougp]

Originally posted by: nycxandy
It better be a good XBLA game and not something that costs 400 points and has been out for over a year.

I agree ... I've been wanting Undertow, MS3 or Worms for quite awhile now. Well, MS3 just came out, but you know what I mean ...

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: nycxandy
It better be a good XBLA game and not something that costs 400 points and has been out for over a year.

They're not going to give you a 800 point ($10) game for a week long semi-outage of a service that costs $4/month.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: nycxandy
It better be a good XBLA game and not something that costs 400 points and has been out for over a year.

They're not going to give you a 800 point ($10) game for a week long semi-outage of a service that costs $4/month.

They've made $8 games for free for a limited time before (Carcasonne). So, it is possible.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: nycxandy
It better be a good XBLA game and not something that costs 400 points and has been out for over a year.

They're not going to give you a 800 point ($10) game for a week long semi-outage of a service that costs $4/month.

They've made $8 games for free for a limited time before (Carcasonne). So, it is possible.

They have... but if they do that, then this will just replace one of those promotions that they had planned for the future. We'll gain nothing, but we'll be happy that they gave us a free game.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

Just gonna be a pos game they've given away 20 times before.

 

[indamixx99]

Lol, i just want Lumines. That's like what - 400 points now?

 

[holden j caufield]

they got street fighter or some variant? I want that

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Damn it t hey're going to give away a game we probably won't want and that they will still be able to make money off of. Damn it, maybe it'll be some Yaris game.

 

[gorcorps]

Originally posted by: indamixx99
Lol, i just want Lumines. That's like what - 400 points now?

800, and that was lowered from 1200 IIRC.

Originally posted by: holden j caufield
they got street fighter or some variant? I want that

I think I saw SFII and MK3 in there at some point.

I got a 1600 point card for Xmas and just bought Bankshot Billiards... so as long as it isn't that I'll be happy.

 

[Modeps]

I cant wait to get Contra for the 3rd time for free!
I hope its a game I didn't buy yet... but I bet it will be one that I spent points on. I'd rather they just dole out $5 worth of points to everyone so we could use it on whatever.

PS: I wasn't really too effected by the 'outage'. Marketplace and other tabs were slow to load, but I could play Halo fine.

 

[bucwylde23]

If they really want to show their appreciation they would let people choose whatever game they want for free.

 

[erwos]

Free Halo downloads for everyone. C'mon, Microsoft, you know you want to push Xbox originals - make that first hit free!

Otherwise, free Bomberman would be nice. I'm not expecting anything mind-blowing, though.

 

[bucwylde23]

Originally posted by: erwos
Free Halo downloads for everyone. C'mon, Microsoft, you know you want to push Xbox originals - make that first hit free!

Otherwise, free Bomberman would be nice. I'm not expecting anything mind-blowing, though.

I've already got bomberman, but damn that's a great game. maybe for the people who already have the game, they could get the add-on pack free

 

[R Nilla]

I sense another giveaway of Robotron and Joust in the near future...

 

[bucwylde23]

Originally posted by: R Nilla
I sense another giveaway of Robotron and Joust in the near future...

Noooooo I've gotten those games probably 3-4 times already!

 

[Xavier434]

I know some people view this very differently, but I really appreciate how MS has been putting forth a lot of effort to compensate the users for problems. You don't see as much generosity in a lot of other businesses.

 

[RagingBITCH]

I agree with Xavier.

 

[Modeps]

I agree with RagingBITCH's agreement of Xavier (but I'd still like it to be something I dont have )

 

[JoPh]

FREE UNO!

 

[bigpow]

BOO!

I'm gonna be so pissed if they give me another Robotron, Contra, Joust, or any other typical XBLA "I'm sorry freebies"
I prefer 1-wk extension of my Gold account or a comparable XBL points.

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: Xavier434
I know some people view this very differently, but I really appreciate how MS has been putting forth a lot of effort to compensate the users for problems. You don't see as much generosity in a lot of other businesses.

I'd prefer that they didnt have these kinds of problems in the first place, or solved them definitively in a prompt fashion.

An 3-year extension on the rrod warranty doesnt really satisfy me when what it really entails is a 3-week turnaround to get a system back that will have the very same problems.

And it shouldnt take a damn week to solve the XBL problems. I dont want a free XBLA game. I want XBL to work. I'm paying for it dammit.

They dont get a cookie from me for doing what theyre supposed to do.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: BD2003
And it shouldnt take a damn week to solve the XBL problems. I dont want a free XBLA game. I want XBL to work. I'm paying for it dammit.

They're supposed to be coming out with an explanation of what happened. I've heard everything from a DOS attacks to sales of the 360 being so good that it over-loaded the Live network with people registering.

I know it sucks but I've gotten used to these sort of things. Seems to happen with every internet dependent service whether it be gaming or not. Everything from WoW to blogs to banking websites.

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: BD2003
And it shouldnt take a damn week to solve the XBL problems. I dont want a free XBLA game. I want XBL to work. I'm paying for it dammit.

They're supposed to be coming out with an explanation of what happened. I've heard everything from a DOS attacks to sales of the 360 being so good that it over-loaded the Live network with people registering.

I know it sucks but I've gotten used to these sort of things. Seems to happen with every internet dependent service whether it be gaming or not. Everything from WoW to blogs to banking websites.

I've never seen WoW, a bank site, or ANY site/online service have issues for 1+ week and counting. I wouldnt be complaining about a day or two, but this is getting ridiculous.