While it's not a major hassle for online gaming, as LIVE simply operates as a peer-to-peer matching service and will always try to find the lowest ping players, our access to content has been severly stifled.

Local players who want to play against their friends have been forced to use a US or UK account, which required a bit of subterfuge to get up and running.

Thankfully, Microsoft has heard our cries of pain, as well as those of eight other countries, and will bring official, full Xbox LIVE support to South Africa by the end of the year.

(rest of article tells about how illegal-made accounts can be migrated.)

--

I personally think that this has been a long time coming, and was absoloutly overjoyed at reading this article.

So I will see you all online this year I hope! Provided I can organise an Un-capped connection.

Discuss.

But considering that they've make 1.2 billon USD off of it, I think supporting South Africa is a small sacrifice for customer satisfaction.

Edited for bad slash usage.

[Edited by Rise_Against, 8/8/2010 3:15:26 PM]

Translation, "The profits are under a million percent so we won't bother". These *******s could charge half what they do and make a healthy profit.

The company with the fastest internet here in Canada (Rogers) used to cap internet at 60GB a month. But a few months ago basic high speed lite internet was dropped to a 2GB cap, for the same money. We had to upgrade our internet twice and we still only get 25GB, which we've surpassed every month since I came home for the summer. And for every GB you go above they charge $2.50 up to a maximum of $50. That's like a billion percent profit, they're just a bunch of crooks.

Half way through this billing period we were already at the $50 overcharge. So since every GB I use from then on is free I've been downloading nonstop day and night for the past week just to stick it to them. We're 50GB over the limit and my laptop is downloading as I write this.

Fortunately, I'm looking in to un-capped ADSL from M-web, which would cost about 350 ZAR (About 30-35 USD) a month, as opposed to our 100 ZAR (10 USD) a month for a 1GB cap. Thing is, I'm not sure about the speed of the connection, and that's where they might make the price hikes.

If anyone tried to cut off internet when we go over the limit here they'd be sued within seconds and lose all their customers.

There's a new internet company here called Acanac that offers unlimited usage for $25/month for the first year. But my dad doesn't want to switch because Rogers does our phone, TV, and internet so we get package discounts and it's generally very reliable and the customer service is just top notch.

It's just annoying becuase when we look down south at America they have cheaper TV, cheaper cell phone service, and cheaper internet. We're right next to each other but the Canadian government just doesn't understand the concept of competition and they meddle in everything. A new company can't come sell either of those 3 services (TV, phone, internet) here without getting approval from the government. And when they do get allowed in either Bell or Rogers buys them out. We had 4 cell phone carriers, but Rogers bought out Fido and Bell Canada owns both Telus and Virgin Mobile's Canadian branch. It's government aided monopolization and it means we pay almost double what any American would.