I’ve decided that my solution to the issues I’ve been having with my 360 are to be resolved thusly:
- Buy a new 360 Elite
- Transfer data from my current Premium to the Elite
- Get Microsoft to do the seemingly impossible and “flick the switch” to make my downloaded content and XBLA games playable on my Elite playable when I’m not online
The sticking point is with 3. Almost everyone who has transferred their stuff from one machine to another (whether it’s due to “upgrade” or repair) has been unable to play downloaded content and Xbox Live Arcade games unless they’re connection to the Xbox Live service. I can’t have that. Live is unreliable at the best of times, especially since Christmas, so I need a permanent fix.
To make completely sure this was all possible, I rang Microsoft today. Oh dear. How hard can it be to get my question across?
Me: Hi there. I’ve got a Premium 360 and I’m looking to buy an Elite. I want to transfer everything from the Premium to the Elite.
“Mark”: Hi. Yes, we can help you with that.
Me: That’s great! The thing is, I have a lot of downloaded content and Xbox Live Arcade games and…
Mark: That’s no problem. What is your serial number?
Me: Er, I don’t have it just now, I’m not going to do this yet as…
Mark: Can I put you on hold for a second while I check something?
Me: I, er, suppose?
… very loud crap music …
Mark: Right, yes – we can help you. So you have the Elite now?
Me: No, I don’t. I want to make sure this is possible before I buy one.
Mark: OK. So you will need to ring back when you have it and we can talk you through the data transfer process.
Me: I think I know how to do that – I need a cable, right? That’s not the problem. I want to be sure I can play my downloaded content on the Elite.
Mark: Oh, yes, you can.
Me: But I’ve heard I can only play it when I’m online. I want to know if that’s possible to change so I can play downloaded content while I’m not connected to Live.
Mark: So let me get this straight. You have games you have downloaded on your Premium. You want to transfer these to your Elite and play them?
Me: Yes.
Mark: Then yes, you can do that.
Me: Even when offline?
Mark: Offline?
Me: Yes. Can I play the games on my Elite even when not connected to Live?
Mark: Yes, you can play games when not on Live.
Me: But can I play downloaded Xbox Live Arcade games when not on Live?
Mark: On your Premium, or your Elite?
Me: On my Elite! That’s why I’m ringing!
Mark: I’ll just check. Can I put you on hold a second again?
… very loud crap music …
Mark: OK, yes. You can play games you downloaded on your Premium, on your Elite.
Me: Even offline?
Mark: Offline?
Me: Yes! Can I play the games I downloaded on my Premium, that I transferred to my Elite, ON my Elite, while not online?
Mark: (confused) Erm, yes? Let me just look this up…
… silence …
Mark: Yes. You can. You can ring us and we can sort that for you.
Finally! So there you have it – it CAN be done. They said so! They gave me a reference number so that when I get my 360 I can just pick up the call where we left off and hopefully they can just do the thing they need to do. Hurrah!
I saw a post about this today – this might be of interest :
http://consumerist.com/372215/update-microsoft-may-slowly-be-fixing-their-broken-xbox-drm
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA….. yes, and you recorded that conversation so you can play it back to MS when they tell you that it can’t be done after all? Good luck with that one mate.
I do sometimes wonder why support staff have so much trouble understanding these simple concepts. It makes you want to tear your hair out in frustration with their inability to understand the most basic things and gives you no faith in their competency to resolve anything for you.
Well, it CAN be done. I know people who have had it done – the difficulty is in getting MS to understand what it is they need to do.
As outlined above 🙂