Xbox Gaming in South Africa

One year today, Microsoft officially launched Xbox LIVE - the Xbox 360's online gaming service - in South Africa. After years of pleading, petitions, and fake US/UK accounts, South Africa was finally on the map. But has the service lived up to expectations? How has it matured since launch, and what can gamers expect in the future? XG takes a look back at the local service's first year to find out.

Pricing

Since launch, local pricing has remained largely the same. We have, however, had a flood of great deals, including the 50% off 12 Month Gold special which works out far below even the US prices at around R299 (or less, depending on the retailer). While the overall local pricing has continued to be more than any other Xbox LIVE region, it hasn't been a problem for any gamer who's willing to do a quick Google search. That's because UK MS Points and Xbox LIVE subscriptions work on South African accounts, and there's plenty of online stores to purchase prepaid time cards from, including local stores such as MSPoints.co.za and EvoPoints.co.za which are selling SA-compatible subscriptions and MS Points at far below the cost of even buying them in the UK. So while there hasn't been a change in local pricing, gamers are still able to purchase subscriptions and MS Points at rates that rival those internationally.

Exchange Rates: £ - R13; $ - R8

Games Marketplace

Easily the biggest criticism with the South African Xbox LIVE service at launch was the availability, or lack thereof, of both new and old downloadable content. So how does the local Marketplace compare to other regions a year later? To put things into perspective, we compiled the following charts using Xbox.com data:

As we can see from the charts above, the UK is clearly in the lead when it comes to overall content, but this is to be expected considering their Marketplace has been going for 10 years now. A better comparison is Brazil and Poland, two new Xbox LIVE regions which launched on the same day as South Africa. In both cases (full games & game add-ons), Poland leads the new regions, however, this isn't at all surprising considering that Poland uses the PEGI rating system, meaning there's no need for content to be re-certified - something that has been highlighted as a bottleneck for getting content onto the local Xbox LIVE service. Brazil on the other hand is in the same boat as us, and in fact, South Africa edges slightly past Brazil when it comes to overall full games. As for game add-ons, it's a different story entirely, with a large discrepancy of over 900 items between the South African and Brazilian Marketplaces, however, further investigation reveals that this is due to a large Rock Band library, something that SA is sorely lacking.

It's clear that organisations such as the FPB (Film & Publication Board) play a major role in the process of bringing new content to SA, however, more importantly, it's up to the publisher to ultimately make it happen. You just need to have a look at the local Marketplace to see that all new Microsoft, EA and Activision published content arrives on the same date as in the UK and US, however, you'll be hard pressed to find any content from the likes of Konami or SEGA.

The good news is that more publishers are bringing their content to our neck of the woods, and the Game Marketplace is starting to reflect some of the variety that our counterparts in the UK and US have enjoyed for so many years now. We might not see older games hit our Marketplace, which means we'll always have less content on offer when compared to the US and UK, but if the last few stragglers come on board, we should at least be able to keep up to date with all of the most popular content.

TV & Entertainment Services

In October, Microsoft announced that nearly 40 new TV entertainment serices were coming to Xbox LIVE, cementing the position of the Xbox 360 as not just a gaming platform, but a complete entertainment package. Unfortunately, South Africa has yet to see anything closely resembling the media services available in other regions, such as the Zune Video and Music Marketplace, or streaming services like Hulu or Netflix. The reason for this, once again, is due to content restrictions and the complicated process of working with content owners to clear the rights for each show or film in each region. There's also likely going to be stiff opposition from local content providers like DSTV who would be losing out if such a service became available, so it's debatable whether any of these services will ever make it to South Africa. Of course, the question is then: why doesn't someone like DSTV work with Microsoft to offer their services through Xbox LIVE? It's certainly a viable option considering that DSTV already has the rights to show the content in South Africa, and who wouldn't want to watch rugby live through their Xbox 360, especially with the increasing social features on Xbox LIVE. Hopefully this is an area that Microsoft will be focusing on going forward, and one that I'm sure many local gamers will want to see as part of the local Xbox LIVE service.

Local Xbox LIVE servers

While Xbox LIVE is predominately run on peer-2-peer networking, more and more games are shifting to dedicated servers to provide a better overall experience for players. For a long time, however, it looked like South Africa would be left in the dark, having to rely on international servers, even with our official Xbox LIVE stamp. But things are finally looking up. In October 2011, Microsoft and Mweb joined forces to bring us our very first local Xbox LIVE dedicated servers in the form of Gears of War 3 ranked servers. While it doesn't mean we're going to get local dedicated servers for all upcoming games, as it still depends heavily on the publisher (here's looking at you EA), it's a clear show of intent by Microsoft SA and local ISPs such as Mweb that it's time to take Xbox LIVE in SA seriously.

Xbox 360 dashboard channels

Over the past year, we've seen improvements in many areas of the local Xbox LIVE service, but the same can't be said for the Xbox 360 dashboard which still sports basically the same limited channels that we started with barring the addition of Twitter and Facebook, which, let's be honest, never gets used anyways. A good example of a channel that should be added is the Inside Xbox channel which provides the latest news, tips and previews from a range of top gaming sites, including an Inside Xbox crew. First prize would be locally created videos, of course, but the UK channel would work just as well, and would give a much needed boost to the current offerings.

Conclusion

It's no secret that many local gamers were disappointed with the Xbox LIVE service that launched in South Africa back in November 2010. After years of waiting, we were offered a service that not only cost more than any other region, but offered far less too, and without any discernible benefits. But a year down the line, and a different picture is starting to emerge. Yes, officially our prices are still more than any other region, and yes, the overall content, while significantly better than what we started with, still falls into the minor leagues when compared to the US and UK, but there's a clear sense of growth, a sense that the local Xbox LIVE service is finally maturing into the full online gaming and entertainment experience that we all know is out there, but so far, has been out of reach. There's no denying that the service still has a long way to go, but looking back at Xbox LIVE South Africa's first year, and seeing how it's progressed, it looks like things are finally on track.