Just a few weeks back, players of Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition who didn’t own HD TVs were disappointed to find out that one of this version’s biggest draws—four-player splitscreen multiplayer—was only available to their HD-capable peers. In response, Microsoft claimed there would be no refunds, even though the Xbox LIVE’s game feature list failed to make this clear beforehand. Needless to say, many Minecraft players were saddened and confused by this, and several forums erupted with questions and complaints about this lack of transparency on the part of Microsoft and 4J Studios.
Well, it looks like Microsoft has recently decided to have a change of heart.
In an email sent to gaming website Kotaku, a Microsoft spokesperson stated: “We updated our pre-sale notification to inform customers that an HD screen is required for the split-screen multiplayer feature on Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition. If a player does not have an HD screen and purchased this game prior to the notification update, they are eligible for a full refund through customer support.”
The changes to Minecraft’s product description page are live already. But one must wonder why Microsoft was so slow to act on this issue. Perhaps they wanted to keep those initial sales figures inflated to preserve the game’s record-breaking numbers? Or maybe there was just a lot of red tape for the suits at Microsoft to go through before such an arrangement could be made.
Either way, it’s nice to see this issue finally being addressed and gamers getting the refunds they deserve. Hopefully Microsoft’s PR department will be a bit more careful when writing up those Xbox marketplace game feature lists from now on.
Source: Kotaku