The Consumerist is reporting that Microsoft is making good on re-licensing downloadable content for Xbox 360 owners who got replacement machines. Finally.

At issue is the fact that the Xbox Marketplace’s content is tied to each Xbox’s serial number. When you make a purchase the Marketplace checks your serial number and generates a license. That license basically says that Xbox 123 has access to content ABC. If you get a new Xbox, say you get the Red Ring of Death and you get a warranty replacement, that serial number is different, and thus the license doesn’t work.


As it stands now, it’s a long process, but they are honoring re-licenses, so if you’re patient, you’re in luck.

News-Source: http://consumerist.com via (http://www.crunchgear.com)

A ray of hope from reader James—Microsoft was able to fix his broken XBOX Live account. Are they getting their act together? Maybe?

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Evening, Consumerist Editors (and hopefully readers)!

I'm sending this in due to my experience with XBOX LIVE Support and Microsoft's broken XBOX LIVE DRM (Originally posted here: http://consumerist.com/355519/microsoft-has-no-answer-for-their-broken-xbox-live-drm).
I too, like Kevin, sent in my XBOX360 for repair after the RRoD, and was sent a brand new XBOX360 as a replacement. Now, mind you, I had my XBOX360 registered on their website for warranty information, so I could see when they sent a brand new one, because the Serial Number on my warranty information was updated before they even had the new box on the truck to me. This was late December / early January.

So, when Kevin's story broke, I decided to check into whether or not my content purchased on the old XBOX360 could be accessed while I was offline, or by another GamerTag on the same console. Nope, it couldn't.

So I called XBOXLIVE support in February, and got the same runaround as Kevin- re-download it, restore your GamerTag, etc, etc, etc. They never once offered the re-licensing until I specifically asked for the points to re-download my content. Once they did, I got the same spiel as others in the previous thread; for those that weren't keeping up, Microsoft could "fix" the problem by re-licensing my old content to my new XBOX360's serial number. Of course, this lengthy process (CTRL + H being a difficult task for their XBOX LIVE department, but common knowledge to their warranty division) would take 20 - 30 days. Of course, having no other alternative, I told them to go ahead and do it and get it resolved already.

This was 32 days ago at this point. Monday morning I get a call from an unknown number, and the message on my voicemail was from XBOX LIVE, letting me know that the re-licensing has been resolved, and all I need to do is re-download my older purchased content to the new XBOX360.

Lo and behold, it works. And I don't even have to delete the old content. Just go under Account Management, then Download History, find the content and choose the "Download Again" option, and there it is, available for use online, offline, and on any GamerTag on the console.

So I just figured I'd drop this to the Consumerist to let you guys know that Microsoft might finally be getting something right.

Or maybe their XBOX LIVE Department took a class in Microsoft Office and learned Find & Replace.
-Starsmore
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