Microsoft Clarifies Gamerscore Policy

Filed in archive Xbox Live on February 2, 2007

Microsoft, by way of the Gamerscore blog, has made public their new Gamerscore policy:

1. All regular disc-based games MUST have 1,000 Gamerscore in the base game. This means that any consumer who buys a retail game will have the opportunity to unlock the full 1,000 Gamerscore without having to pay for any add-on content. Note that a publisher may decide to deliver a portion of this Gamerscore via add-on content, but the add-on content will always be free to the consumer.

2. Game publishers will have the option to deliver another 250 incremental Gamerscore on top of the 1,000 via add-on content from Marketplace. This add-on content could be either free or paid. So if you complete a game and earn the full 1,000 GS, you could by getting new add-on content earn up to a total of 1,250 points from a game.

3. Xbox Live arcade games will operate in similar fashion, but given the size of these titles they will allow you to earn up to 200 Gamerscore from every game and up to another 50 points from add-on content.

Fine and dandy, I suppose, but how about a policy where Gamerscore actually means something? Call me when I can trade Achievement points for MS points, or use them to unlock bonus content. Right now, they're just an Internet pissing contest -- and I don't want to play.