There is apparently going to be a big announcement about Xbox 360 in the Middle East this week. It’s all very secretive at the moment but the rumours are going around about an impending Xbox Live release over there.
First let’s get the bad out of the way… I am sure that we in South Africa have a much larger Xbox 360 community than they do in the Middle East and this is just more proof that the bigwigs in Redmond are ignoring Africa.
I really wish they could come here on holiday and realise that we actually have a very advanced country and retail system and that Xbox Live would work here.
Anyway rant over, lets look at the good.
If Xbox Live is launched in the Middle East it’s one step closer to Microsoft covering the globe, which will have to include us. It is also a good sign that they are looking at releasing Xbox Live regionally and not just for a single country. If Microsoft just plopped some servers in Rosebank and called it Xbox Live Africa I would be happy. Every country doesn’t need their own server or dedicated service.
Actually all we really want is to be able to choose local billing and to stop being limited by the weird German laws. I don’t care if we get a server or not. Why is this so hard for Microsoft to implement?
Xbox News: Xbox Live to launch in Middle East soon? – ComputerAndVideoGames.com
[Again thanks to Doobiwan for the link]Last Updated: March 10, 2008
moegoe
March 10, 2008 at 11:59
hmmmm… how’s this for a coincidence… I’m moving to the middle east in about 3 months 😛
You know what’s even more scary? The fact that they don’t have much better broadband than we do here.
doobiwan
March 10, 2008 at 12:09
But they have bucketloads of oil money to spend on toys. 😉
I’m just really intrigued to hear the smacktalk between the Israeli’s and well, pretty much everyone else…
Evilredzombie
March 10, 2008 at 12:29
And still a huge STUFF YOU to sa xbox 360 owners
Evilredzombie’s last blog post..Asta La Vista 3rd party
J4NR1K
March 10, 2008 at 12:53
This is for all the US troops over there…
SlippyMadFrog
March 10, 2008 at 14:21
@Lazy
I don’t think they coming over here and seeing how nice SA is is going to change a thing. They have all the sales figures and Live stats over there which they use to make decisions. Money could be growing on trees here, if people don’t buy xbox360’s or joining live, then it doesn’t matter.
I think you should rant at people thats not on xbox live.
Thomeval
March 10, 2008 at 19:52
The oil price has skyrocketed recently… coincidence?
Lupus
March 11, 2008 at 09:10
The problem is that there are probably about 20k 360 users, but only 1.5k are registered on live. Why cause why should you have to try go through all the hassles when it’s not locally supported, this isn’t limited to 360 though Wii is the same.
LazySAGamer
March 11, 2008 at 09:34
@Lupus, 20k here or over there? We have a lot more than 20k and around 3k on Live locally
doobiwan
March 11, 2008 at 11:18
Apparently the issue with local live is more about broadband penetration than install base.
Echo16h20
March 13, 2008 at 20:50
Let’s hope the local price cut on XBOX 360’s (thanks to MS’s backing) bears good tidings for LIVE in ZA 🙂
lucario
November 19, 2008 at 19:05
there was a rumor that the reason for the price cut was that MS were going to release a server for us, whitch was clearly a load of HOG.
Abdulrahman
December 4, 2008 at 17:08
@Thomeval What’s that got to do with xboxlive launching in the middle east?
@Lazy First of all your talking about the whole middle east. and you still comparing Africa with the middle east
..feed your own people then come waste your money on live
LazySAGamer
December 4, 2008 at 21:37
? Seems a bit of a baseless attack since I wasn’t saying anything bad about the middle east?
But when my people wake up I will ask them if they think I feed them enough, but I can only do that for my people.. the rest of the continent may need to fend for itself.
khalid
August 19, 2009 at 23:16
I’m waiting for that