Home Gaming An(other) Update on the ZA Xbox Live Marketplace – Sync or Swim?

An(other) Update on the ZA Xbox Live Marketplace – Sync or Swim?

2 min read
14

sync

I’ve been pretty defensive about the local Xbox Live Marketplace. It’s a new fledgling store in a new territory and it takes time to get things up and running. Mostly, I’m just glad that we finally have Xbox Live after fighting so hard for it for the better part of 4 years.

There’s a point though where even the strongest advocates have to back down and shut the hell up. As of writing, there are still only 3 fully fledged arcade titles available on the local marketplace. As an upside, I believe we’re getting Avatar items day and date with the UK, and I’ve also been told that the Call of Duty : Black Ops Zombie maps can now be downloaded with South African accounts.

The reason for the delay isn’t down to some mysterious “sync” that’s happening in the cloud though. According to Microsoft SA, it’s all down to our local Film and Publication’s board – the FPB; the government run media nannies who control what media we can and can’t partake in.

According to a discussion on the Xbox360 SA Facebook page

“…The problem lies in that our classification system is not PEGI as the rest of Europe is, we use FPB (Film & Publication board) to classify our games (eg. 18V, 13 etc) and because of this all the Arcade games need to be classified locally. We are in the process of doing it – but it will take some time to get them all done. Keep checking back [sic] marketplace as more games become available.”

I know many of you reading that will be clenching your fists, ready to shout “Then you should have bloody well gotten all that sorted BEFORE launch!” and admittedly, I’m one of those people. The problem with that though is that they tried to, but the FPB (like many of our government institutions) have a terrible tendency to do things at their own pace.

Somebody at Microsoft really needs to light fires under the arses of those responsible at the FPB and get thing expedited. At the current rate, we’ll have a fully populated Xbox Live Marketplace just in time for nobody to give a damn anymore. They need to propose a definite time-frame for when the local marketplace will reach parity with more established ones, and that would go a long way in easing the current local hostility towards Microsoft and the Xbox brand.

One last thing…those brave souls who migrated their accounts under the auspices of free MS points and are still waiting? You’ll be getting those points in about 4 weeks time, although whether or not there’ll be anything worthwhile to spend them on is a different matter entirely.

Last Updated: November 19, 2010

14 Comments

  1. Steve Hofmeyr

    November 19, 2010 at 11:27

    Thanks for the update. Lara Croft GOL is available at least, busy downloading.

    Reply

  2. WeRRieS ZA

    November 19, 2010 at 11:40

    Man I don’t give a shit anymore, I will only Jump if the RB DLC is available. How long has PSN had RB DLC and still cant download it?

    Xbox LIVE ZA…whats that? I’m staying in the US till they ban me someday. Seriously they should have thought about this.

    Rockband has already been approved by the FPB, so why the hell do they need to approve the DLC?

    GH had approved DLC, RB only has 26 Beatle songs, pfft I’m done!

    Reply

  3. Milesh Bhana

    November 19, 2010 at 11:44

    Same here, all i want is the RB store and i’ll be happy. Not going to Export my RB2 stuff to RB3 until this happens.

    Reply

  4. easy

    November 19, 2010 at 11:50

    solely blaming the fpb sounds like a cop-out as well as misguided blame.
    it is ms’ responsibility to ensure their services are up to standard and fully functional (populated), not the fpb’s.

    this all smells of ms not giving a shit.

    Reply

  5. Brian

    November 19, 2010 at 12:10

    Man up and just release it anyways. If they’re too lazy to classify everything, then they’ll be too lazy to slap MS on the wrists. But really, I’m sure they’ve been working on xbox live SA for a while now, should’ve sent this shit through months ago.

    Reply

  6. pantsula

    November 19, 2010 at 12:23

    Lara croft is the best we have, don’t bother with the rest. Also grab the free dlc challenge maps ASAP.

    Definitely worth it.

    Reply

  7. Uberutang

    November 19, 2010 at 12:34

    RB stuff will prolly never see our shores. The music industry here is worse than the Pik Regime.

    Reply

  8. C Le Grange

    November 19, 2010 at 12:40

    thanx for the update…
    I’ll be migrating “when me sh!t turns purple and smells like rainbow shu’bert”

    Reply

  9. Legend007

    November 19, 2010 at 13:30

    Well, we deal with the FPB and they do take a little while. But of course everything can be planned so when you know you have a release date you get them working on certifying way before….

    Reply

  10. Joe Wagner

    November 19, 2010 at 19:04

    Do Microsoft Points work the same way and cost the same in South Africa as they do in the United States? What about promotions for free points?

    Reply

  11. aaron

    November 21, 2010 at 04:54

    oh my god my balls hurt so much

    Reply

  12. aaron

    November 21, 2010 at 04:54

    lol

    Reply

  13. Gavin

    November 21, 2010 at 05:10

    No our points are compatible with the UK points not the US ones… promotions will be run locally hopefully.

    Reply

  14. Joe Wagner

    November 30, 2010 at 19:57

    Thanks for the info, Gavin.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Check Also

Has the FPB made itself redundant?

Quick lesson: The FPB AKA the Films and Publication Board in South Africa is responsible f…