The Mailowl Scrolls

If you live in South Africa and have an Xbox 360 you might want to check out the petition that’s just been started which will be sent Microsoft South Africa asking for local Live support.

Xbox Live is amazing and extends from downloading and playing Live Arcade games (classics from Double Dragon, to Worms, to Poker) to a market place for getting demos, videos, themes and importantly playing multi-player games with anyone around the world and being able to chat to them and with your friends using VOIP. Microsoft is also due to bring out support for streaming TV through your Xbox 360 with the power of Live.

Sadly this functionality is not available in South Africa, and to quote one gamer:

“This hasn’t been a problem for a while because (as with everything else here) we just pretend we’re British and pay shocking UK fees for everything. Unfortunately MS is clamping down, and while fully in their right to do so, we find this far end of Africa a bit left out in the cold.”

So the local community has started a petition to make Microsoft aware that there is a vibrant community here and is requesting the following:

• Issue a statement that clarifies the status of the Xbox Live launch for South Africa and puts all the rumours currently circulating to rest;
• Set up local billing facilities and pricing models as soon as possible to encourage the growth of the local Xbox 360 community; and
• Make provision for existing users to easily migrate their profiles from other countries to the local Xbox Live service (for free or as close to free as possible)

Personally, I’ve never believed petitions to be all that successful in changing business minds; but while Microsoft can take a guess at how many people have Xbox 360’s in the country by looking at their distribution sales, the petition does show how many of those customers are pro-active and excited about the Live feature. I know just within my own offices a number of people who aren’t on Live only because it’s not locally available and too expensive to pay foreign currency for, which having local support would resolve (they have all signed the petition).

Make your voice be heard.