You are probably pondering the title, right? Well if I were to explain in minute detail, I would say that I am practicing writing as myself and not as an outrageous persona. Although I am a little out of my comfort zone here and I would appreciate positive and negative feedback in its entirety!
The Announcement
Microsoft has announced that Xbox live will be offering rewards in the form of Microsoft points on Xbox Live, which you can see in this link to the very page of the announcement.
So, likely in all fairness, it seems Microsoft has announced this deal in order to get people to use Xbox Live more, and attain rewards in doing so as if some sort of, well, rewards scheme?
That tells us a few things:
- That Microsoft is trying to give an incentive to use Xbox Live.
- That Microsoft believes to some extent that they can get us to trade more in Xbox Marketplace.
- That Microsoft is aiming to goad us into the Marketplace with free currency, in order to get us started.
- That Microsoft is aiming to goad us into loyalty.
The Principle
So, they feel as if throwing these rewards at us will entice us in? Likely they will, and they will inspire loyalty, to some extent or in the least more loyalty than before. The idea is simple; they are most likely trying to build that loyalty more so than usual because of the fact their newest console is coming out soon. A loyal customer would buy it, wouldn’t they? Where as a normal gamer may not if he perchance say, hadn’t been enticed into loyalty. I even noticed in one of my articles, that when Zavvi was indeed having its up to 80% off sale, that it was also throwing in Microsoft avatars with selected games. So Microsoft has been in touch with Zavvi. Clearly. This, in my opinion, implies they are going on a large marketing scheme, and trying to cover all playing fields.
Funnily enough in the T&C below, I’ve noticed the date “2010”. This implies that they’ve used this before or in the least had it planned, like how, metaphorically speaking, a fisherman casts out another net in the hope that his bad catch will improve.
“The Xbox LIVE Rewards Program (the “Program”) is a loyalty program sponsored by Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052 U.S.A. (“Sponsor”) and administrated by ePrize, Inc. (“Administrator”) through which individuals will be offered the opportunity to earn Microsoft Points (“Microsoft Points”) and other rewards (“Rewards”) by performing various activities.
Individuals may redeem their Microsoft Points for items available at http://marketplace.xbox.com. “
-Microsoft Xbox Live Terms & Conditions.
The current phase of the Program begins at 5:00 Coordinated Universal Time (Greenwich Mean Time) on December 1, 2010, and is scheduled to continue for the foreseeable future. However, Sponsor reserves the right to shorten, extend, modify, suspend, or cancel the Program, at its discretion, at any time in accordance with Section G of these Terms. Sponsor will give a minimum of 30 days’ notice prior to canceling the Program.”
–Microsoft Xbox Live T&C
The Verdict
Seems to me they are just going all out. Namely by covering as previously mentioned all these fields in order to gain a more loyal clientele to XBox Live. I find that interesting. Although by looking at it in depth, and I mean in depth, all of this marketing, no matter how subtle, adds up. Coincidence that it’s during the marketing debut of the XBox, to which I refer got so much hostility, bad reputation over the always online concept?
Looks like a dog licking its wounds.
So, I believe it’s a well deserved paranoia. I believe that it’s a marketing gimmick. I believe that it should be exploited, and mooched to the best of our ability to really get the most out of it. You know what Microsoft is like; if they ever get the notion they don’t need it, they will get rid of it as I have highlighted in the Terms & Conditions second quote.
Thank you for reading!
