MS turning the screws on transnational Xbox users

Stephen Withers
Monday, 07 May 2007 08:46

Your IT - Entertainment

Microsoft is set to "strengthen the territory controls" on Xbox Live Marketplace content as part of this week's Spring Update according to Gamerscore, an unofficial blog written by members of Microsoft's games global marketing team.

The problem, according to senior group manager, online community and communications John Porcaro, is that the company has not been able to obtain global rights to all the content it offers. This is a common problem with Internet-based distribution, and also affects services such as Apple's iTunes Store (TV shows and almost all movies are only offered to US customers) and Joost (some programming is limited to users that are either within or outside the US).

"In addition, various countries such as Germany have regulations when it comes to what content is acceptable for distribution to their residents,"wrote Porcaro.

Reading between the lines, it sounds as if Xbox Live will compare users' nominated countries of residence with their actual (presumably as determined from their IP addresses) locations.

"For example, if you are not located in the US, but have created a US Xbox Live account, you will not be able to download TV shows and movies that are currently available for use only in the US."

The news resulted in a maelstrom of complaints from international Xbox owners, focused mainly on two issues.

The first was the shortage - or complete absence - of Marketplace content in certain countries including the UK and Australia. "[N]o wonder people are torrenting HBO and Hollywood out of business," commented 'what is going on?', a purportedly Australian user. Users in countries such as South Africa and Iceland where Xbox Live is not officially supported also concern, along with Americans temporarily living overseas.

The second issue apparently arose not from the Gamerscore posting itself, but from a report on gamer site Kotaku which read in part "Your XBL accounts are going to be locked to the region your console is [in]". Some readers interpreted this as meaning that accounts will be locked from games as well as downloading content, although the article didn't say that.