Interview: SA Xbox Manager Yvette van Rooyen
Yvette van Rooyen is the new head of Xbox in SA. We caught up with her to find out about the current state of Xbox in SA, as well as the ever present question of local Xbox Live certification, and more.
Hi Yvette, thanks for your time. Would you like to start by explaining your position with Microsoft.
I am the Product and Marketing manager for Xbox 360 in South Africa.
I’ll cut straight to the chase. The burning question on everyone’s mind is when are we getting Xbox Live?
I know that everyone has been hearing for the past 3 years that it is coming… I can go one better than that now and tell you, we are on the current rollout plan and it is coming soon.
You are well aware that there are thousands of local gamers currently using UK or US Xbox Live accounts. What will happen to their gamerscore, demos, and bought games when local Xbox Live becomes a reality?
We are hoping that we will be able to migrate these accounts to local accounts, however we haven’t had confirmation yet on this – I am assuming that as soon as they give us a date they will give us a bit more insight into the extent of the service that will be provided.
How do you feel about Sony’s steadily gaining local market share in SA? I refer to recent GfK stats that indicate the PS3 has seen a 54% local sales rate increase over the past year.
Competition keeps us on our toes ensuring that we constantly strive to provide bigger and better offerings/service to our customers. PS3 has had some great announcements recently and it was inevitable that they would gain marketshare, but now it’s Xbox’s turn, watch this space..
Do you think Natal will play a large part in Microsoft’s plans for Xbox in South Africa in the near future?
Not necessarily for our core gamer audience but more from a broadening perspective. It will appeal to the more casual gamer.
The RROD is largely a problem of the past, but what has Microsoft done locally to improve customers’ feedback when their consoles break?
Powercare has done a phenomenal job in managing this process. If you have a faulty console, all you do is phone Powercare and they will send a courier to collect your console and replace it with another one within 3 to 4 days. The feedback from our customers has been extremely positive.
How badly do you think piracy affects Xbox 360 game sales in SA?
Piracy is a problem in South Africa, but we are embarking on a stringent course of action to curb piracy. In addition, once Live is launched that will also help manage the piracy problem as you get blocked from the service if you attempt to play a game online that is pirated.
Thanks again, anything else you’d like to say to Xbox 360 gamers in SA?
Thanks for the support and Keep the faith!! Xbox 360 is set for their biggest year since they launched in SA back in 2006!!!
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Comments (19 posted): Comments (19 posted):
Subscribe to comments feedPiracy is a worldwide problem and while it's big in SA it's bigger in other parts of the world, if that was their mentality then they would stop producing games altogether.
to curb piracy action is needed and Microsoft will follow up with it, and that's why you get banned from XBL if you have pirated games on your xbox, so it's a great reason to bring it into the country.
Which offerings/services? I'm pretty new to the Xbox community but all the "offerings and services" I've ever seen are those provided by individuals/small companies and absolutely nothing by MS SA.
SA only recently got its first taste of a Subway (Gautrain) while other countries have celebrated centennials and bicentennials for their subway systems. 3 years is a relatively short amount of time to wait in contrast dont you think?
Personally, I don't care if we get Live here. I have the current system working just fine, apart from a few region blocked items.
So we can only hope.