Okay, it's standard fare for a newspaper such as Mr Rupert Murdoch's The Sun to avoid noticing something like the huge work done for charity recently by the games industry to concentrate on the story of a credit card debt and Xbox Live. But in the story lurks a fragment of sense.
Basic story is that, "Sam Ghera, 48, had registered his card details on the console to cover a £5.99 monthly subscription so son Nik could play online with school friends using Xbox Live." The kid then goes onto spend £1,000+. Dad is angry.
Sure, there is an element of RTFM to this but that said, Sam points out that:
"I didn’t even know that it was storing my information, and even if that thought had entered my head I would have thought there would be something in place so it wasn’t so easy to spend money.
“With sites like eBay and iTunes it always asks you for a password before you make a purchase. But with Xbox Live you just press a button and then your money’s gone."
This is also compounded by the fact that Xbox Live uses Microsoft Points. As Sam says, "Nik didn’t realise he was using money, he thought he was using points he’d won in games. He didn’t realise it was costing real money."
It could be time for Microsoft and its "family friendly" outlook to take a serious look at this?
Basic story is that, "Sam Ghera, 48, had registered his card details on the console to cover a £5.99 monthly subscription so son Nik could play online with school friends using Xbox Live." The kid then goes onto spend £1,000+. Dad is angry.
Sure, there is an element of RTFM to this but that said, Sam points out that:
"I didn’t even know that it was storing my information, and even if that thought had entered my head I would have thought there would be something in place so it wasn’t so easy to spend money.
“With sites like eBay and iTunes it always asks you for a password before you make a purchase. But with Xbox Live you just press a button and then your money’s gone."
This is also compounded by the fact that Xbox Live uses Microsoft Points. As Sam says, "Nik didn’t realise he was using money, he thought he was using points he’d won in games. He didn’t realise it was costing real money."
It could be time for Microsoft and its "family friendly" outlook to take a serious look at this?