Xbox Live India launches Nov. 5
by Alexander Sliwinski 
{ Oct 24th 2007 at 2:27PM }
Apparently a key difference between India's Xbox Live and others is the "educational content." According to those at the event held at the Shangri-la Hotel in New Delhi, Microsoft announced India will be the first country with learning aids for grades 1-12. We have no idea at this point what that means, but if they being offering XBLA Number Munchers or Oregon Trail in the States, that's an automatic 400 to 800 MS Points spent right there. And, of course, Bollywood productions will be available through the Xbox Marketplace.
Read: Xbox Live, Games for Windows launches Nov. 5
Read: Microsoft India launches Xbox live
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Neebs @ Oct 24th 2007 2:32PM
I seem to remember a story a while back about a bank selling second mortgage 360 financing plans for India, because the income (and cost of living) is so low there.
Joe Schmoe @ Oct 24th 2007 4:35PM
So who is India going to call if they need their Xbox 360 replaced? We ususally call India.
Count Noobula @ Oct 24th 2007 4:58PM
@ Joe Schmoe
They call the US for tech support, where some American pretends to have an Indian accent. The inverse of what we get.
Word of the street(IDF-Digital Ruler). @ Oct 24th 2007 2:37PM
I just hope Bollywood movies make it to the Xlive globally, those movies are great.
T3H WICKERMAN (FDF) @ Oct 24th 2007 3:18PM
I am inclined to agree.
rv @ Oct 24th 2007 5:34PM
Hahahahaha. You can't be serious. I am Indian (who was born in the US) and I hate those movies. Most of them have no semblance of plot whatsoever. Many movies will change plots completely halfway through. Also, I hate the fact that all of them are musicals. The rare times that I actually watch them I always fast forward through the songs. True, there are a select few that have a good plot, however the majority of them are movies that make no sense whatsoever.
archie91s @ Oct 24th 2007 11:22PM
im indian also, born in the u.s too, and while sometimes bollywood films are entertaining, they are usually complete crap.
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Oct 24th 2007 2:41PM
Oh great, now they're exporting all the 12 year old trash talking on live to india too.
*ducks*
Neebs @ Oct 24th 2007 2:44PM
And when you're done, and your 360 RRODs maybe, you get to talk to 21 year old Indians.
Antonio @ Oct 24th 2007 2:44PM
Will they call America for tech support?
Matt B @ Oct 24th 2007 3:09PM
LOLZ
+1
Cyro @ Oct 24th 2007 4:23PM
I work in tech support my friend and that is the funniest thing I've heard all day! LOL!
gwangi @ Oct 24th 2007 2:45PM
Oregon Trail Achievement:
15 - You Have Died of Dysentery
DemonGSides @ Oct 24th 2007 2:49PM
50 - You have died of a broken arm
That was always a good one.
Sean @ Oct 24th 2007 3:27PM
My roommate and his friends used to bet on Oregon Trail, trying to guess who would die when and by what.
Shig @ Oct 24th 2007 2:50PM
Wow, aren't you an ignorant bigot.
harrison_schaerr @ Oct 24th 2007 2:55PM
that's harsh. I was being serious, a vast majority of people there have no electricity, and recent attempts to supply electricity to the region met with failure because no one could pay their electric bills.
i'm not a bigot, i'm a realist. i'm glad to see ms attempt to expand the gaming industry into new territories, but i really think it's going to be a tough battle.
Hikaru @ Oct 24th 2007 2:55PM
So Xbox Live! Is practically free in India because you know when you cut grass or look under stones there are lots of rupees...I know...I know
mike @ Oct 24th 2007 3:21PM
actually, cutting grass and removing stones from people yards does earn you money in real life. The money is just not hiddin under the rock but paid to you as a service for doing yard work :)
Word of the street(IDF-Digital Ruler). @ Oct 24th 2007 3:40PM
What about digging wholes in people's yards in the middle of the night for rupees?, does that get you money because last time that get's you arrested.
Kael @ Oct 24th 2007 4:53PM
I really expected a Zelda Rupee gag in Joysitq's post. Mr. Sliwinski must have thought it too obvious, but it's not often video games and India's currency are mentioned in the same sentence, so you know you gotta run with it.
harrison_schaerr @ Oct 24th 2007 2:57PM
what am i saying, a vast majority of people there don't have a FRESH WATER SUPPLY.
i'm sorry, but do you know anything about the fucking region?
harrison_schaerr @ Oct 24th 2007 3:00PM
here is the ganges river, where people wash, eat, cook out of all at the same time.
what, did you think i was being facetious?
http://www.pbase.com/2112/varanasi
god every 5 year old and there knowledge of 3rd world countries. go read a book before calling me a bigot.
angryguy77 @ Oct 24th 2007 3:13PM
I say when they call here for help, we talk so they can't understand us. That will show them
aaron_k7 @ Oct 24th 2007 3:14PM
Hurrah...more noobs for everyone to kill in Halo 3...if you're into that sort of thing.
cade @ Oct 24th 2007 3:16PM
so now xbox live will sound just like xbox support .. great.
CaptainAmericaX @ Oct 24th 2007 3:26PM
I get what youo're saying harrison but I'll admit that your comments did come off as offensive and I'm just saying this as a minority in the US.
I'm glad MS is expanding its offerings to India and I hope that it suceeds. They deserve to have access to teh awesomeness that is LIVE!
vodshuggah @ Oct 24th 2007 3:32PM
Microsoft is trying to get there tech support some hands on time, "Steven" and "Susan" won't have to read so much script.
Jin @ Oct 24th 2007 7:38PM
Harrison's right. I've been to a better off town and I've seen some pretty gruesome things. It's a radically different world there, I love it. It's where the badasses live.
There are plenty of places in the US where you can't get clean water either. But freaking I don't understand why Nintendo doesn't release anything over there. No DS, no Wii. And the NES was pretty popular.
megaStryke @ Oct 24th 2007 3:37PM
I love Indian currency. The rupee...
Makes me feel like I should stock up on potions and refill my quiver of arrows.
Word of the street(IDF-Digital Ruler). @ Oct 24th 2007 3:38PM
I agree with CaptainAmericaX,yes the India is a poor country but man saying that stuff is offensive,true but still offensive.
Also you are being cruel to those guys man,not cool.
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Oct 24th 2007 3:51PM
Take your political correctness elsewhere.
I can't believe we're living in an era where "truth" should be shrouded because its "offensive".
Cyro @ Oct 24th 2007 4:25PM
Ohhhhh! LOL! That was harsh man.
Brian Burnes @ Oct 24th 2007 4:44PM
Cool, now we can play with Microsoft's customer service staff on live!!!
Starlord1138 @ Oct 24th 2007 4:48PM
India currently has the world's second-fastest growing economy, behind only China.
It has its share of problems but it also has an enormous population of *highly-educated,* literate, English-speaking professionals, and most of the larger cities such as Bangalore and Mumbai have all the amenities you'd find in the U.S.
The cell phone infrastructure, which is GSM-based, is widespread and cell phones are easy to afford. Visit any bazaar in the heart of a major city and you'll find models we won't see here in the States EVER.
Broadband Internet is also growing rapidly and is comparatively cheaper than what we fork out in the West. There's also this little thing called ELECTRICITY that powers the networks and computers connected to them, believe it or not. The MAJORITY of people actually have access to it (FYI - a "majority" means more than 50% and electricity is widely-available to more than 50% of India's population. Embellish much?).
Next time, champ, try VISITING the country you're blasting before spouting off like an ignorant tool.
I was born in India, have visited numerous times, and contrary to common belief, you CAN wipe your ass with something besides a leaf.
Too bad you can't wipe the shitstain of your ignorance off your own...
farfisa @ Oct 24th 2007 4:49PM
Finally I can afford to pay a room full of people to unlock my achievements for me!
Word of the street(IDF-Digital Ruler). @ Oct 24th 2007 4:59PM
Kudos to Starlord1138.
Crono see there is a difference between trash talking and honesty.
Focusing in the bad things just gives you half the truth.
angryguy77 @ Oct 24th 2007 5:01PM
The brits on line now have people they can talk down to. "I'm going to own you just like the colonial days'. Or they can discuss how they like their curry.
Sub continents ftw
Eddie @ Oct 24th 2007 5:19PM
Wow.
You guys are a bunch of obvious humored, faintly racist clones.
Welcome to Live, India. Congratulations on being the next step towards Xbox Live Global Dmination!
angryguy77 @ Oct 24th 2007 5:59PM
hey pc fun police, we are not making fun of their race religion ect. Rather we are having some fun with the obvious. Have a sense of humore man, its people like you that have killed common sense in this country and cannot take a light-hearted joke.
Grant @ Oct 24th 2007 5:46PM
In every country you can find horribly depressed areas and large economic centers... with the exception of some African nations.
In general Harrison is right, India has regions without electricity and plumbing, more so than any other country that xbox 360 is officially offered in.
"India currently has the world's second-fastest growing economy, behind only China."
Your correct, when you have a practically non-existing per capita GDP, it's not too hard to grow from nothing. China is growing at an incredible rate because of their exports and the money that has brought in being re-invested.
India's main resource of their economic growth is skilled labor other countries have been off-shoring to them, and that has brought some decent wealth to the city areas, but it does nothing for the geographically unfavorable mountainous regions or smaller farming communities. These regions are still depressed and they are the majority of the population.
If you can't get over that, fly to Bangalore and buy and bus and drive people from the isolated and depressed regions into the city.
ThornedVenom @ Oct 24th 2007 6:34PM
I think it is wise to invest videogaming in non-serviced developing regions, but not like this: they should lower their prices instead of increasing it. It's one of the main reasons why people import and pirate the damned consoles (modchips)/games in the first place.
As it is, it will only service the elite minority, as it has always been without a targeted service.
harrison_schaerr @ Oct 24th 2007 6:55PM
i wasn't trying to say anything was fundamentally wrong with not having electricity or watching television.
frankly, we could do without fox news in our homes every night...
all i was trying to say is that it's a dramatically different culture, one where materialism is much less emphasized, and one where commodities that we rely on to survive are gone without, thus making it difficult to market a gaming console, much less a gaming console with an online service.
it's very difficult to say all that so i abbreviated and i'm sorry if it made me come off as archie bunker, but I assure you that's not the case. =)
harrison_schaerr @ Oct 24th 2007 6:59PM
@starlord
yes, i know india is the second fastest growing economy in the world due to the outsourcing of jobs from developed nations.
Starlord1138 @ Oct 24th 2007 7:16PM
"Your correct, when you have a practically non-existing per capita GDP, it's not too hard to grow from nothing."
It's one thing to "grow from nothing" (which is inaccurate, btw, but I'm using your quote) -- it's another thing entirely to MAINTAIN rapid economic development for *YEARS,* which India has been doing since 1991 when the government began to relax restrictions against privatization and foreign investment.
You're correct that most of India's population in the rural areas are still struggling to enjoy the benefits of these reforms, but that's not exactly relevant to the point of *this* article and the posts some people are making. The way they make it seem, people there are still learning to harness fire and communicate with smoke signals.
There actually are quite a few gamers in India who'll be able to experience the fun and features of XBL. It doesn't require 90% of the population to have running water or broadband Internet. Ninety-percent of the people in the *U.S.* don't have broadband. All it takes is a few thousand or hundred thousand for Microsoft to start making some inroads into the fledgling online consumer arena there.
India's urban population alone is nearly the size of the ENTIRE U.S.'s populace, so bringing XBL to them is not only *possible,* it's good business sense. Anyone who ignores an emerging economic power like India is a fool.
harrison_schaerr @ Oct 24th 2007 7:33PM
Star i agree with you, and i'm sorry.
even if only 2% of india's population had access to electricity, broadband, and the means to afford a 360, if those 2 % were interested in buying a 360, microsoft could have huge business there, and i completely agree that as india and china go through their own industrial revolutions that they'll no doubt overtake the united states and europe and might one day replace us as the permanent members of the UN.
it will be interesting to see if the gaming industry can flourish there...
how much do people care about video games in india, and can they be convinced to care? i'm too ignorant to know =)
Huey2k2 @ Oct 24th 2007 7:44PM
Wait a minute... India will be getting the live video marketplace and we here in Canada don't even have it yet?
WTF
Jeff Smith @ Oct 24th 2007 9:34PM
How are they supposed to carry that many Rupees ?
I thought it maxed out at 999 .... and that's after you quest for the Big Purse !
misterhearn @ Oct 25th 2007 11:48PM
I thought this already existed 1-800-4 my xbox
warriorrage @ Oct 24th 2007 11:25PM
People here just do not have any idea about what they are talking. India has a good amount of gamers only fact is many of them play pirated games since the games price are too steep.
There are many companies which does gaming services other than tech support.
FYI Orange Box in India cost only 23-25$ in retail.