Activision’s XBL DLC Remains Full Price Despite Sale
Update: It looks like most of the items are now selling for the correct, discounted price. We contacted Microsoft for comment but have yet to hear back. Original article continues below.
Something is a bit iffy with the 50 percent off sale on the U.S. Xbox Live Marketplace.
There’s an advert up in the Spotlight section of the Xbox Dashboard linking to the sales section offering what appear to be some good deals from Activision, but when it comes time to purchase most items are ringing up at their original prices.
For example, the Call of Duty: World at War map pack bundle is advertised as costing 1000 points ($12.50), but when you try to check out it shows up at 2000 points ($25).
Similarly, the Xbox Original Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex advertises a price of 600 ($7.50) but tries to charge 1200 ($15).
Of the roughly dozen sale items I tried, I only found one that was priced correctly. The pack of songs from Rocky Horror Picture Show for Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is advertised at 220 ($2.75) and actually rings up that way.
This seems to imply that it’s not just an issue of the ad going up a little early, or a system-wide error with discounts.
This could just be a hiccup in the system, and you can probably expect an update later today. Just don’t buy anything without double checking the price first (not least because there’s a no refunds policy).
I hate Bobby Kotick. I know this isn’t his fault. This story could be about birds and I would still have said that I hate him. It’s just fun.
That is half price, the advertisement is clearly wrong. Kotik and his evil board of directors intend to actually double the price off all their DLC. So 2000 msp is half price and you better like it.
@Kale: It’s a typo, instead of msp they mean $. They want to sell you maps from old games for the price of a car. It makes sense from a business perspective.
It happens every week when new content goes up or it’s price changes. It’s simply a disconnect between the front end ad server and the back end payment system.
It’s not a conspiracy. It’s not a mistake. It’s not out of the ordinary. And it sure as hell isn’t news worthy.
It’s like I just read a bullshit Kotaku post. Good work there, Hans. You just made Nukezilla crappier.
You’re welcome?
The headline seems a bit unfairly anti-activision, but then, being unfairly anti-activision is probably deserved, and certainly fun. The actual article may well have saved people money by making it clear the sales weren’t on sale yet.