View Full Version : Free Undertow? Who has it already?
blacksymbiote
01-18-2008, 11:38 PM
For those who haven't heard, Microsoft is offering up Undertow for free to make up for all the problems with Live recently. Personally, I don't have it yet, so the freebie is worthwhile for me. But how many people already have it? Just wondering what the reaction is in the TRS community.
hepcat
01-19-2008, 02:38 PM
I downloaded the demo a while back and was totally underwhelmed.
I wish they would have just given us however many points that is worth instead.
guagloves
01-19-2008, 02:40 PM
Free games are always good but it isn't available until January 23rd.
geeksunny
01-20-2008, 08:20 AM
I don't have it. I tried the demo and found it kind of boring, however, free is free! Maybe having the full version will help me spend more time with it and start to enjoy it.
By the way, if anyone has the game already, Microsoft has said that you can call customer support and get the 800 points refunded.
A friend of mine has been telling me to buy it almost every day. I thought It was okay but not worth 800 points. I'm glad it's free.
deviantsolution
01-20-2008, 12:09 PM
Granted, the response to the outage with a free game is a good move on Microsoft's part, but their limiting the choice to one game may not be a good move in the long run. The response to Undertow has been luke warm at best and with the litigation upcoming for the XBL downtime, it's just one more notch on a belt the company continues to flay itsself with.
lstone
01-20-2008, 06:04 PM
Considering Microsoft doesn't owe us ANYTHING at all for the downtime, I think its great they're giving us a free game. Undertow has a pretty good review on IGN so its all good.
deviantsolution
01-20-2008, 07:39 PM
Considering Microsoft doesn't owe us ANYTHING at all for the downtime, I think its great they're giving us a free game. Undertow has a pretty good review on IGN so its all good.
I was lucky. I was one of the few that didn't experience any major hiccups when Live was being wonky. And I agree with you, the fact Microsoft has given us anything at all is a good move on their part. Though I don't exactly blame those that are angry, since clearly this was an outage of XBL that Microsoft should have been prepared for.
stubadub
01-20-2008, 09:18 PM
Granted, the response to the outage with a free game is a good move on Microsoft's part, but their limiting the choice to one game may not be a good move in the long run. The response to Undertow has been luke warm at best and with the litigation upcoming for the XBL downtime, it's just one more notch on a belt the company continues to flay itsself with.
There is a huge financial advantage for them to keep the offer to one game. They can look at a game like Undertow, which has had good critical response and a small but dedicated fanbase, and make a great offer to the publisher. If the game has only sold 100,000 copies to date, they can extrapolate that it will likely not sell more than 150,000 in its lifespan. If they offer to pay them for another 500,000 copies in exchange for free downloads for everyone the company gets much more money than they would have from normal sales. Microsoft gets to offer millions of copies of the game out for a fraction of the retail price.
People that already own the game get free points for the minimal hassle of having to call support, and they get an instantaneous increase in the size of the online community.
I think Microsoft did well with this when they offered Carcassone for free online. That was another game that had good reviews but poor sales. I never would have bought it but my friends and I end up playing it pretty often.
deviantsolution
01-20-2008, 11:03 PM
There is a huge financial advantage for them to keep the offer to one game. They can look at a game like Undertow, which has had good critical response and a small but dedicated fanbase, and make a great offer to the publisher. If the game has only sold 100,000 copies to date, they can extrapolate that it will likely not sell more than 150,000 in its lifespan. If they offer to pay them for another 500,000 copies in exchange for free downloads for everyone the company gets much more money than they would have from normal sales. Microsoft gets to offer millions of copies of the game out for a fraction of the retail price.
People that already own the game get free points for the minimal hassle of having to call support, and they get an instantaneous increase in the size of the online community.
I think Microsoft did well with this when they offered Carcassone for free online. That was another game that had good reviews but poor sales. I never would have bought it but my friends and I end up playing it pretty often.
A benefit for the publisher, yes but not necessarily all of the users of XBL. Choice is very important to keeping users happy. Carcassone was a release celebrating 5 years of Xbox Live. Undertow is a response to a service that has failed to hold a consistent uptime every holiday season for the past three years. Most aren't going to think it's an appropriate response. Especially now that the litigation has made everyone at XBL go silent.
blacksymbiote
01-21-2008, 04:51 AM
There is a huge financial advantage for them to keep the offer to one game. They can look at a game like Undertow, which has had good critical response and a small but dedicated fanbase, and make a great offer to the publisher. If the game has only sold 100,000 copies to date, they can extrapolate that it will likely not sell more than 150,000 in its lifespan. If they offer to pay them for another 500,000 copies in exchange for free downloads for everyone the company gets much more money than they would have from normal sales. Microsoft gets to offer millions of copies of the game out for a fraction of the retail price.
People that already own the game get free points for the minimal hassle of having to call support, and they get an instantaneous increase in the size of the online community.
I think Microsoft did well with this when they offered Carcassone for free online. That was another game that had good reviews but poor sales. I never would have bought it but my friends and I end up playing it pretty often.
I think you're right. Since it's only free for a few days, not everyone will be able to get it. Especially new users from here on out. Offering it up for free means a lot more people will get it and there's a chance that could increase the word of mouth on the game and spur more sales down the road. Just like you said about Carcassone, now that you have it you can tell people its fun and now more might get it.