Making purchases on Xbox Live is a bit of a ball-ache. Aside from the fairly prohibitive lack of worthwhile content of late, the main stumbling block is those tricksy MS Points. Existing, let's face it, as naught but a cheeky scam to a) make you overspend on purchases, and b) hide the fact that you're spending money at all when you buy games, they've been nothing but a pointless complication since day one.
Mercifully, if a new rumour turns out to be true (and please God, please let it be true), then Microsoft's magic Moon-money is being dropped this year, in favour of legitimate, genuine, actual-existing-in-the-real-world currency. The rumour comes via the usual insider sources, by way of a report from Inside Mobile Apps, who claim that Windows Phone 7 devs have already been alerted of the upcoming change.
And I'm all for that. Aside from the above-mentioned problems with the MS Points System, I find that rather than simplifying the whole buying process as PR spiel would tell you that it does, it actually over-complicates it to the point of killing any possibility of an impulse purchase. "800 Points? How much is that in real money? Hang on, let's work it out. Hmm, how many do I have at the moment, and how many more do I need? Oh f*ck it, I'll buy it later" And rarely do I ever buy it later. Though if a game is multiformat, I pick it up on the PSN, where the price is in real money and I can add the exact amount needed to my account with one button press.
Plus, with Apple's App Store currently being the king of the impulse game buy due to quick and easy, clearly priced, one-click bargain sales, the death of the Points system is surely a necessity if the Windows Phone 7 is going to compete with the iPhone on an equal footing.
But what do you reckon? Click a button on this handy-dandy poll below and let me know.
Would you welcome the death of Microsoft Points in favour of real money transactions?
