The Unspoken Gap Between EA and Microsoft on Xbox Live.

Earlier tonight I was setting up an Xbox live account for my step-son. He plays on Xbox Live frequently at dad’s house, but we wanted him to have an account that he could play on anywhere (between dad, us, grandma and friends, he has access to at least 6 360’s), and one we could keep a better eye on him with.

I just so happened to have an extra 13 month card I’d been sitting on (I was given two for Christmas last year) and I figured I would use it to get his account started. We set it up using his birthday (1998) and that made Live prompt for my information to confirm that he has parental approval. This was all expected, because I had called 1-800-4MY-XBOX a few days ago and asked them about what I needed to know prior to setting up this account.

Once the account was set up, it automatically prompted me for credit card info to kick the account into permanent gold status, and I pulled the tab on the 13 month card without hesitation. Once we were activated, he immediately dove into his current game of choice, Battlefield 1943.

Here’s where we learned the almost hidden rule that EA has, and Microsoft doesn’t: EA requires account holders to be over the age of 13. Microsoft does not. This becomes a problem when someone with a child account registered under the age of 13 tries to play an EA game on Xbox Live, because gamers must have both an Xbox Live Gold account as well as an EA account (free).

As I understand it, EA is the only company allowed to run their own servers on Xbox Live. This is why they are able to maintain their own account requirements. As a result, account holders under the age of 13 cannot play EA games on Live.

I call it hidden because nowhere in the Xbox Live Terms of Use does it say that an account holder’s age will affect the level of interaction that the user will have:

 

By selecting “ACCEPT” below, you are representing that you are 18 years old (and have reached the “age of majority” if that is not 18 years of age where you live) and you are attaching your electronic signature to and agreeing to all terms in this contract.

…

You acknowledge that you are aware that some features of the Service, and some content available through the Service may contain or expose users to material that is unsuitable for minors, and you agree to supervise usage by minors whom you permit to use the Service . The Service is not intended for use by children under 13 , except together with a parent or other adult supervision;

These clips make things a little muddy. On one hand, it seems to indicate that people under the age of 18 cannot have Xbox Live accounts. On the other, it explains that while my step-son may encounter material that may not be appropriate for him, it is quite clear that with my permission and supervision, he is perfectly welcome to use Xbox Live.

In any case, it seems to make it sound like this is actually a legal agreement with ME, and not with my step-son. This makes me wonder why they even allow people to put in birthdays indicating that they are younger than 18.

Regardless, according to everything I have read so far, there’s no reason for me to expect any restriction on his account, which is why I went ahead and activated the card.

We were irked when Battlefield (somewhat-incorrectly) reported that “your gamer profile does not have the correct permissions to access xbox live functionality”. I had every permission to access Xbox Live, the problem actually lies with EA. I’m not the first person to run into this, either.

Reading EA’s ToS warrents something much easier on the eyes, but not much clearer to the mind:

EA does not knowingly collect data from anyone under the age of 13.

That’s it. That’s all it says about any kind of restriction based on age.

Now, I know this is just EA covering their ass from the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, but considering that the Xbox Live account seems to actually be a legal agreement between myself and Microsoft, it stands to reason that EA’s agreement would be between myself and them as well.

To rectify the situation, my first thought was to just fib his birth year. You see, the way Xbox Live Child accounts work, they are locked into ‘child mode’ which gives a separate ‘parent’ account access to set restrictions on what can be played and how other people see their child’s account.

It automatically converts to an ‘Adult’ account on the account holder’s 18th birthday (or at least whenever Microsoft thinks the account holder turns 18). I didn’t care if Microsoft thought he currently was 15, and honestly by the time he actually IS 15, he likely won’t need the level of supervision that we’d be using a child account for anyway.

Well, even Xbox support personnel cannot change the birth date on a child account. It’s one of the few (maybe only) bits of data tied to the account that cannot be changed. Our only choices were to cancel the account and make a new one, or live with the restriction until Xbox Live recognized him as being 13 years old, and would then pass it on the EA.

However, since we used a prepaid card, Microsoft said they could not issue a refund for the 13 months of service this child account now had, which is understandable. After all, I didn’t pay them directly in the first place.

What I didn’t understand however, is that they are also unable to transfer any amount of the 13 months of service to a new account. Believe it or not, 2 customer service representatives, 2 technical support representatives AND a Customer Service Supervisor later, Microsoft’s stance had not changed.

They understood that I was screwed, and they were sorry I was screwed, but I remained screwed. 15 minutes into 13 months of Xbox Live and I’m stuck in cruise control with a dead pilot at the wheel.

Image by Bill Plympton

As you can imagine, I have a few objections to this situation.

1) This is a pretty heavy restriction, considering how large of a studio EA is. This prevents people in my step-sons situation from playing franchises like Need for Speed, Burnout, Battlefield, Command and Conquer, Medal of Honor (maybe that last one isn’t so bad to miss out on…), and many others.

2) At no point in the Xbox Live account creation process did it indicate that we would have ANY kind of restrictions. Even when I talked to the Xbox Live rep a few days ago, asking about child accounts, there was no mention of anything like this.

I understand that Microsoft can’t be responsible for EA’s policies, however this is Microsoft’s house that EA is playing in.

Even if Microsoft didn’t want to mandate a standard (they should, to avoid people like feeling like I do–that they’ve been taken to the cleaners) it seems only fair that at the very least I should be notified of something like this before I put my money (or card) up.

It’s not like there are multiple studios with which Microsoft needs to track their rules–there’s only EA.

3) Seriously EA? I’m sure gamers 15-21 are your sweet spot, but you can’t tell me that gamers 10 to 13 that aren’t a significant target audience. When I was 11, Need for Speed was a keystone game for me. In fact, I’d go far enough as to say that if it wasn’t for Need for Speed, I wouldn’t be as much of a car head as I am today. With games like The Sims, Battlefield, Madden, and Burnout, there’s quite a few people you’re excluding, even if half of them played by the rules and used their real birthdays.

4) If I had $1 for every time they said “But since you used a prepaid card…” when inquiring about transferring the active service, I could have easily paid for a new year on BOTH of our accounts. This type of restriction on prepaid cards was also news to me. It will definitely be something I keep in mind when using prepaid account cards in the future.

5) Finally, I am astonished that when I’m talking to an Xbox Customer Service representative, they cannot transfer service from one account to another when you’re dealing with a prepaid card.

If I have gone through enough steps to verify my identity and have the authority to cancel the account, I should have authority to move service to another account that is also in my name. I even asked for a partial credit, canceling 13 months and getting 6 months on the new account, and they were unable to do that.

I’m not yet sure what we’ll do. I really don’t want to pay for more Xbox Live months, as we have an account now that can play anything made by anyone except EA for the next year. It’s really disappointing that even 15 minutes after the account creation, Microsoft was seemingly powerless to help us.

EA blazing their own trail and creating restrictions where there are none expected doesn’t leave me feeling good, either.

I really feel like we were taken advantage of due to the lack of information, and lack of positive resolution. If nothing else, I hope we can serve as a caution to other parents.