There’s no longer need to cry in to your cornflakes every morning, jaded Xbox gamers. Xbox Live is finally launching in South Africa after 4 very, very long years.
We knew, after E3 this year that the service would finally be available, but now we even have an official launch date! Hooray! According to the official Xbox360SA twitter account, you’ll be able to do local sign-ups from 10 November.
Says the ubiquitous Twitter :
BREAKING NEWS: Its official Xbox LIVE will be available in South Africa from the 11th November 2010!; before tweeting that they’ve Negotiated an extra day, will be bringing in Xbox LIVE to South Africa on 10 November!
There’s still no word on whether or not we’ll be able to migrate our unofficial US and UK accounts, but we’ve contacted Microsoft and will keep you updated. Thumbs up!
[Update] We’ve just received a Press release with some wonderful info : Migration will be possible! This is what the PR had to say :We want everyone to jump in. For those with existing Xbox LIVE account for another region, you’ll be able to migrate to the local service and keep your Profile, Gamer Score, Achievements, Microsoft Points Balance and paid for Subscription time remaining. You can also keep all the downloaded content stored on your hard-drive such as your Avatar items, LIVE Arcade games and songs. For full details on account migration, please visit www.xbox.com/En-za/live/faq.htm
Last Updated: October 12, 2010
WeRRieS ZA
October 12, 2010 at 09:28
Awesome news! Although we been using it for 4 years already, but will open new doors to the youngens! lol I’ll wait 3 months before I migrate, will just create a second account to check it out first.
We dont wanna lose those precious GS…do we? lol
Generic ZA
October 12, 2010 at 09:32
Account migration is possible
http://www.xbox.com/en-ZA/live/faq.htm
Gavin Mannion
October 12, 2010 at 09:43
Glad to hear we are going to be able to migrate our accounts, that used to be impossible. I’m guessing it’s more of a new feature in the new dashboard than anything specifically targeted at us though
Cleric
October 12, 2010 at 09:54
I want to support local Live. I really do. But at R600 for a gold sub, and R300 for 2100 ms points, it’s a very pricey affair to do so.
Fox1
October 12, 2010 at 10:04
Whoa! Steep introductory price! I hope there’s some XBLM specials to justify that price.
eXp
October 12, 2010 at 10:16
What’s the deal with the increased prices? Makes NO sense. Will keep my UK account, will save me a tonne of cash.
al360
October 12, 2010 at 10:19
no its just for psn to have local hosting servers come on guys we all jumped behind the xbox group for a local server now its time for psn
LaOnda
October 12, 2010 at 10:20
There is a god!
RSA-Ace
October 12, 2010 at 10:23
Does this actually mean that MS have local hosting servers here? I highly doubt you’ll be able to use a local only connection to log in to Xbox Live (I’d love to be wrong though).
AC!D
October 12, 2010 at 10:24
Great now i can finally pick up some great arcade games and DLC i skipped out on till Local Live was released. Ill be sticking with Xbox silver though. Im not wasting R600 for one feature i.e playing online.
LaOnda
October 12, 2010 at 10:27
Now that I actually noticed the price increase, I’ll be hanging onto my US account for a few months before migrating. If it does turn out to be local servers I might just make the jump.
Raymond
October 12, 2010 at 10:34
This is going to open a whole new can of worms… Don’t migrate and still keep Zune, Facebook and Twitter for only R399, or migrate, lose all those applications and pay R599 – all for the ability to get local content and servers?
Month-to-month the price is R49 a month, but at what cost? What will the local content be? Will it justify a migration? How will Microsoft enforce their R599 pricing if you can by a worldwide subscription from EvoPoints for R399?
There are a lot of pros and cons – but I think before we get too excited, we need to really look long and hard at all the factors.
Lupus
October 12, 2010 at 10:43
Why is everything released in South Africa done at a premium, you know the public who use Live aren’t stupid, we’ve been using Live for 4 years already, R600 is no where near competitive pricing for Live… I’ll stick to my UK account.
Kale
October 12, 2010 at 10:54
That’s fantastic news but I have to agree with Cleric. Those prices are a bit steep. Even at an exchange rate of R13.00 to the £1 those prices are still very high.
I will support that if they are using that extra cash to implement local servers though, and improve online performance.
SojournZA
October 12, 2010 at 11:05
Ummmm am I missing something here? Why is it R600 for Live subscription? If you buy the Gold subsription you get it for Global and not for a country. Hence you still migrate but dont purchase who ever is selling the R600 live sub and get it else where, or am I missing something?
Raymond
October 12, 2010 at 11:14
You see, that is just the thing. We don’t know exactly how things are going to work. There is still too little info out there. That’s why I said that people should look beyond the hype and sudden onset of happiness, and actually evaluate the situation more clearly.
If I migrate, will I still be able to play online with my friends in the USA? Who will be selling at R599 and who will be selling for less? What implications will there be if I don’t migrate?
These are all questions that we need answers to before we make a decision. I have a feeling that most people will be staying on their UK accounts through…
Uberutang
October 12, 2010 at 11:20
I will stick with my Free PSN.
It only does local.
SojournZA
October 12, 2010 at 11:25
As far as I understand “Live”, is global. As this is a new thing in SA they will force shops that purchase from the local distributers of the keys more, were as other places (hopefully Evo points) will still import there keys from the UK and USA and the prices will stay the same. As for the networking side, I would think this local hosting will not stop anyone from communicating to other countrys, it will just allow for local hosting of games. Hence if you say search for games, you will now get at the top of your listing SA games with the best pings and underneath the other regions games with the worse ping.
WeRRieS ZA
October 12, 2010 at 11:26
Well MS always have a way of breakin something…so you never know what might get lost along the line!
WeRRieS ZA
October 12, 2010 at 11:27
And will prolly be a gimped version, so I’m sticking with my US account for now.
SojournZA
October 12, 2010 at 11:28
Why when ever there is a XBox discussion there is some “random” comment from a PS3 fanboi?
no offence
Fox1
October 12, 2010 at 11:28
There is talk of BCX hosting a local server.
RSA-Ace
October 12, 2010 at 11:35
Cause the same thing happens in the PS3 Discussions.
Uberutang
October 12, 2010 at 12:46
LOL
I have more GS than GT, so a fanboi of both, just stating the bloody obvious.
piet
October 12, 2010 at 13:17
it only does random comments
Bobby Kotick for Dummies
October 12, 2010 at 13:37
Odd that xbox live would increase by $10 in the States and also for us ($60 = R600). I think I’ll stick with my UK account, create a local test account (destined for silver), and see what we actually get or whether it’s really worth it. My guess is, we’re getting vanilla xbox live but at a premium.
Nice one Microshaft. 🙁
SojournZA
October 12, 2010 at 14:48
Like I said I meant no offence and havent bothered/cared to look up your history. Just didnt see how your comment was relevant to the topic, “just stating the bloody obvious.”
Just got a PS3 btw to see what its like, lets hope the social aspect is as good as the Xbox’s 🙂
Uberutang
October 12, 2010 at 15:06
LOL, it is Higher Grade compared to Live, but once you get it, it is awesome.
WeRRieS ZA
October 12, 2010 at 21:44
I don’t even bother to comment anymore…Oops
sean
November 5, 2010 at 18:04
howzit guys how much does it cost per month in rands to have xbox live