Get 400MSP free in Xbox LIVE Arcade December Bonus promotion

Microsoft has announced the Xbox LIVE December Bonus promotion in which participating Xbox LIVE members who purchase two select Arcade games will receive 400 MS Points back for free.

That's the good news, the bad news is that this offer is available "worldwide, excluding Italy, Japan, Russia, Poland, Brazil, South Africa, Greece, Columbia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Chile, and Slovakia." I suspect the South African service was left out since we only have about two of the eligible Arcade games on our local Marketplace anyways.

Those with UK or US accounts, however, should register their Gamertag to qualify before purchasing anything:

To take advantage of this great deal, you must download the free Arcade Offer Gamer Picture. You can queue this gamer pic up for download to your console right here:

Go to Xbox LIVE Event Registrations

Select Arcade Offer from the list and select Download to Xbox 360

Select Confirm

You'll see a Congratulations! This item has been added to your download queue message.

You can also access the free gamer pic via the banner ads running on Xbox LIVE, or in the Gamer Picture section of the Xbox LIVE dashboard.

Once registered, you can purchase any of the two eligible games below to qualify for your 400MSP:

Comic Jumper
Super Meat Boy
LIMBO
Plants vs. Zombies
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
Castlevania Harmony of Despair
Hydro Thunder Hurricane
Monday Night Combat
Blacklight: Tango Down
Toy Soldiers
Trials HD
Shadow Complex
Marvel vs Capcom 2
Battlefield 1943
Deathspank
Deathspank 2
Sonic 4
Costume Quest

The Xbox LIVE December promotion will run from 7AM (GMT 2+) on December 1 to 7PM on December 20, 2010. After purchasing two eligible Arcade games during the promotional period, the free Points will be either be deposited automatically into your Xbox LIVE account or sent to your e-mail via a token, which can take up to four weeks for delivery, on or around January 17, 2011. Winning Microsoft Points must be used by June 30, 2011.