XBLM deals: Mass Effect 2 and Microsoft Studios DLC, Gamertag change

by Richard Mitchell on Jul 26th 2011 6:15PM

Major Nelson has posted the Xbox Live Marketplace schedule for the next few weeks, including some good deals and one strange one. This week's Deal of the Week is for Mass Effect 2 DLC. Gold members can snag "Lair of the Shadow Broker" and "Kasumi -- Stolen Memory" for $3.50 each, half the usual price. "Arrival" is also half-price at $5.

DLC for several Microsoft-published titles is also on sale, including content for Halo: Reach, Gears of War 2, Forza 3, Fable 3 and Alan Wake. This sale is not part of the Deal of the Week promotion, and appears to be open to both Gold and Silver members of Xbox Live.

As for next week's deal, well, it's a bit strange. Microsoft is offering the ability to change your Gamertag at a discount. It normally costs $10 to change an Xbox Live moniker, but next week's "deal" drops the price to just $7. So, if you hate your Gamertag but not quite enough to justify ten bucks, next week's deal is for you.

Source: Major Nelson

Tags: deal-of-the-week, Mass-Effect-2, microsoft, xblm, xbox, xbox-live, xbox-live-marketplace

Reader Comments (90)

"I saved $3 and all I got was this Gamertag."

@ItsameMatt03

Hopefully the Gamertag is better than "ItsameMatt03" I assume there were two other "ItsameMatt"s

;)

So pretty much stuff everyone probably already has?

I'm considering that Gamertag deal, I swear I have the blandest GT in all of the XBL community. I still don't get why it costs so change it though.

@philmcfail I change mine about 3 times a week on steam! shameless PC gaming master race plug

@ShadowSoldier89 Difference is that Gamertags are also your username instead of an alias like on Steam.

@philmcfail - "I change mine about 3 times a week on steam!"

A better explanation as to why it costs money to change your gamertag than I could ever come up with...

It costs money, because some people would end up changing it three times per week. You're supposed to be attached to your online identity.

@philmcfail They charge it because they know you'll pay, heck your already paying for a free service why not for changing your name? Long live Steam and if the Vita is any indication PSN should be pretty equal to XBL next round, only free.

@philmcfail Ya, or at the very least make it so after like 3 or 5 years of being a loyal gold member you got a freebie name change redeem code. Come on MS, it ain't gunna bankrupt ya.

@philmcfail - My gamertag is blander. I'm the worst at picking out usernames for things.

I wanted "SniperWolf" but of course that was taken. Then I figured I'd try "SniperSmurf", but that was also taken. In my frustration, I tried "BulletSmurf" and it wasn't taken, and I went with it because I just wanted to start playing (little did I know that it cost money to change it).

I've yet to bother changing it. I don't hate it enough to pay $7 to fix it. I do kind of hate it though. What is a BulletSmurf? The Smurf in the village that manufactures and tests bullets? Is his personality bullet-esque?

@BananaBoat
BulletSmurf is GrumpySmurf pushed too far

@BananaBoat

lol Yours is not bad, at least it seems somewhat clever and there was a pretty funny story on how you got to it. Mine is ph2802, literally my initials + my old address, not even an ounce of creativity in there :P

@damnreds - "The Smurfs woke up to a beautiful morning. Little did they know that Smurfette had rejected the advanced of one Grumpy Smurf during the night, and that he hadn't taken it well....

From the creators of Transformers and Bad Boys comes: Smurficide: Judgement Day."

@BananaBoat

I ended up with MOOD4LUV. A cookie to anyone that gets the reference. I've been called "mod for love" too many times. Is it really that hard to see the extra O and pronounce the word accordingly?

@Mcmax3000
but if they are discounting it, it means that microsoft WANTS you to spend money to do it. also why not implement a system where you can change it once every 2 months or something. ill tell you why its because they like to make the money

@Colorfuljosh - Of course they do. Why wouldn't they want to make money? Only non-profits don't want to make money, and I'm suspicious of some of those anyway.

@BananaBoat
well derp derp, but why is ANYONE defending their actions as if charging you ten dollars, 14 in aus to change your name was something they did for you so that your friends wont be changing their names all the time. i swear console fanboys (not all console users mind you) could justify anything their company does. a simple system where you CANT change it every day would make much more sense .

@BananaBoat
i just hate to see so many loyal drones (once again not every console owner) who will throw stupid amounts of money for something as simple as changing you gamertag

@sonicspike41
Is it about cow sex?

Now give me my cookie, I'll have to be daring and gather up some milk to go along with it

@Colorfuljosh
I think $10 to change your GT is way overpriced. I definitely think Microsoft should let loyal customers change their name every few years at the least. But also, if you don't like the $10 pricetag to change your name, just deal with the one you have or start over with no achievements, and let the "loyal drones" spend whatever they want.

@imadogg im not stopping any of them.
i'm just here to tell them they are idiots and why when they comment on my gaming websites thats all.

@Colorfuljosh my favourite **

@Colorfuljosh Your argument failed the second you lumped anyone who agrees with the practice into being a fanboy or loyal drone.

@Colorfuljosh

Why not just go the PSN route and not let you change it at all then.

@philmcfail Because they can. It should be free, since it costs them nothing. However, I think it's to discourage people changing theirs all the time.

@sonicspike41
lol i always get called prodigy

@Epoque
im talking about the idiots defending it (see above).... not every one who has ever changed their gamertag. Maybe someone has had theirs for 3 years i can understand doing it but going onto forums and saying "god you people just dont understand why microsoft is doing this!!" they sound like those people on youtube who make videos defending justin beiber. get your facts straight mate.

@This Little Man Says His Name Is
or you know NEITHER!! :O I just blew your mind didn't I?!?!!? go the steam way and make your on-line alias different to your steam account. simple, free, effective because all your friends still have you added and oh my god you people are dumb.

@Colorfuljosh - Oh sure, they like money and I don't doubt that making money is part of the reason but I'd rather have the current system than one where my friends list looks completely different on a daily basis (See: Steam... I hate looking at my Steam list & having to ask myself who the **** is that every other day).

That said, I wouldn't be opposed to free name changes after a specified amount of time but I'd say more like two or three years than every couple of months.

@Mcmax3000 it aint that bad you can just view theyre other aliases and it shows all the names theyve ever been and theyre actual steam i.d. its truly flawless. i think once a month is fine , it costs the service provider nothing and isnt too often that people abuse it . I can change my steam i.d every hour if i want, but i dont because im not 12

@Mcmax3000 and to get this straight you would rather pay ten dollars every time you want to change the order of letter and numbers that is displayed as your name in games..... than be overwhelmed with the chaotic name choices your friends chose that creates absolute confusion that you just say "gosh i wish steam charged them money so they wouldn't do this so often!" if you answered yes to that... good day to you sir. please die.

i never knew u could change ur GT... its actually pretty usefull, is this possible with PSN? I'd like a change someday if i could, keeping all my trophies of course.

@PR0F3TA

No, you can't change your PSN ID.

@PR0F3TA I've heard you can on a Japanese account, but you can't for a North American or European as far as I know. I'd certainly welcome the option.

I would pay twenty bucks to rip a GT from someone else. I want Trey alone, and according to Xbox.com, the owner isn't even active.

@MGTrey

I know your pain.

@MGTrey
The recently culled a ton of inactive Xbox 1 era gamertags and released them for public use again. That's how I dropped the number from the end of my GT, the original of owner of which hadn't been active for years. They've started rolling through old, unused GT's, so you should check if the one you want is available now.

@aristokrat

Hey, I didn't realize they already did that! Maybe I can upgrade to just "Acosta"!

...or is that a downgrade? Hmmmm...

@aristokrat: I know they did, and I checked daily since that announcement for like a week. No dice.

I just checked it today and it's still inactive.

@aristokrat

Yeah, when they started releasing the old names, they did so in phases. Eventually, I was able to get the Gamertag I had originally wanted. Apparently, it had been sitting idle, so I snatched it up.

@MGTrey
Bummer dude. I was super stoked when they released the one I wanted, so I wish you good luck in getting the one you want soon.

Wow that has to be the worst deal in the history of deal of the week, unless there has been a week where it was only avatar items?

@craigbo 180 There has, and once we didn't even get a deal.

Somehow, the gamertag change week is worse.

I appreciate you guys posting the real amount of money your spending instead of posting the points amount.

I know people who have had a 360 for years and still have no idea how much 80 points is worth.

Thanks a lot to Microsoft for making that purposefully confusing. Real class act.

@omgJOHN - While I'm sure that a large part of the reason for doing the points system the way they did is so that you end up with an odd number of points & have to buy more, you have to remember that there is more to XBL than the US.

It's much easier to advertise one price in Microsoft Points that is applicable globally than to have to advertise different prices for each region, so there's no way they could make it less confusing without having to switch to advertising a different price in every country.

@omgJOHN 80 MSP = $1 USD.
Not that hard of a conversion, really.

@omgJOHN

Oh know I might have 82 cents leftover on my account when all is said and done that I can't spend. What ever am I going to do?

Somehow, I think the fact that I've saved probably more than $100 on actually buying the points because points can go on sale and money cannot will balance that out.

When was the last time you saw a $50 bill on sale for $40? Because $50 worth of MS points go on sale for $40 all the time.

Why wouldn't I just want to keep the gamertag XBL generated for me for free?! Add me: Liverbiscuit7538 THANKS XBOX!

@MC Double Def DP

just a disclaimer, I came up with that name on the spot thinking it would be completely random & funny sounding. Decided to google it just now and found someone's youtube channel w/ Black Ops footage *sigh*

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Mass Effect 2

XBLM deals: Mass Effect 2 and Microsoft Studios DLC, Gamertag change

Reader Comments (90)

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:19PM ItsameMatt03 said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:30PM Rocket Raccoon said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:21PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:22PM philmcfail said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:26PM ShadowSoldier89 said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:41PM Once known as Shadsy said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:44PM Mcmax3000 said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:46PM Epoque said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:47PM The angry pro consumer gaming ga said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 7:11PM Raiderfan said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 7:16PM BananaBoat said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 8:51PM damnreds said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 9:51PM philmcfail said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 12:16AM BananaBoat said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 2:38AM sonicspike41 said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 3:03AM Colorfuljosh said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 3:34AM BananaBoat said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 4:17AM Colorfuljosh said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 4:25AM Colorfuljosh said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 4:28AM imadogg said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 4:34AM imadogg said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 5:04AM Colorfuljosh said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 5:06AM Colorfuljosh said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 7:31AM Epoque said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 10:09AM This Little Man Says His Name Is said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 10:52AM briscott said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 11:47AM Protege420 said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 12:24PM Colorfuljosh said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 12:27PM Colorfuljosh said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 6:58PM Mcmax3000 said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 7:54PM Colorfuljosh said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 7:59PM Colorfuljosh said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:23PM PR0F3TA said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:26PM ItsameMatt03 said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:39PM Epoque said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:26PM MGTrey said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:30PM Styli said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:44PM aristokrat said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:52PM Acosta02 said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 7:06PM MGTrey said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 7:09PM SisypheanLife said

Posted: Jul 27th 2011 12:18PM aristokrat said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:28PM craigbo 180 said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:58PM Exu said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:28PM omgJOHN said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:42PM Mcmax3000 said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 7:03PM SitriStahl said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 7:17PM Vcize said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:29PM MC Double Def DP said

Posted: Jul 26th 2011 6:33PM MC Double Def DP said

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