Microsoft ‘Points’ Currency

Candace Lombardi, reporting for CNet on today’s Zune details:

There will also be the option of purchasing individual songs through a system called Microsoft Points. The new Microsoft cash system will work by adding money to an account, as with a prepaid phone card. Points will then be deducted from the account with each purchase. A single song will cost 79 points, “the equivalent of 99 cents,” according to a spokesman for Microsoft.

So they’re creating their own currency? This seems crazy to me.

Update: Apparently they already use this crazy Points currency for Xbox Live stuff. I still say it’s a stupid idea — they obviously hold their customers in contempt, thinking that they’re stupid enough to think that 79 points is “less than” 99 cents even if it costs 99 cents to buy 79 points.

★ Thursday, 28 September 2006