Stimulus Package buyers get reward

By Ellie Gibson Published 6 April, 2010

Seven free days of Gold, courtesy of MS.

Microsoft is rewarding those who bought the Stimulus Package for Modern Warfare 2 with a week-long Xbox Live Gold subscription.

It's not compensation for the problems which occurred at launch, oh no, says Microsoft. It's all about giving something back.

"To thank you for your loyalty to Xbox LIVE and for buying the Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus package on day 1, we will extend your Gold membership for 7 more days of adrenaline-pumping action with your friends on LIVE," reads an on-screen message (as spotted by Kotaku.

Apparently accounts will be updated with the extra week by 1st May, so look out.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (25) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • MBar #1 2 years ago

    Well, that is nice, since the DLC is a rip-off realistically.

    Didn't stop me buying it though ...

    Although I did only buy it yesterday. Do I not qualify for this "Day 1" bonus?

  • LHH #2 2 years ago

    7 more days of adrenaline-pumping action

    hahaha

  • mashk #3 2 years ago

    WOW. They're offering a WHOLE weeks worth of live. Approximately £1.25 if you pay a fiver a month for LIVE or £0.76 if you pay about £40 for LIVE. (Let's forget about all those ultra cheap LIVE codes you can buy).

    Seldom have I seen such generosity.

  • LiveForever #4 2 years ago

    haha Ms is laughing at all the people who purchased it on day one with this.

  • fknetwork #5 2 years ago

    I bought it and got this "reward", I seriously regret buying it, the two old maps are now the best maps in the whole game, what does that tell you? I was a fool, I fell for the hype, not worth 400 points let alone 1200!

    I've been back on Bad Company 2 ever since!
    Edited by fknetwork at 06/04/10 @ 09:56

  • actionfitz #6 2 years ago

    "It's not compensation for the problems which occurred at launch, oh no, says Microsoft. It's all about"...
    compensation for the horrendous lack of value in 3 new maps for 1200 points? for day one purchasers only...
    still
    /no thanks

  • sfp_noodle #7 2 years ago

    ur kidding me right? 7 days? 7 frickin days?! i didnt buy it, and i wont buy it, but returning less than a quid of a loyal customers expenditure is hardly reward. if they gave a whole month away then the 'shitulus package' might just have worked out value for money.

  • daz_john_smith #8 2 years ago

    LOL. Don't you already have to technically have a LIVE subscription to actually be able to use the Stimulus pack to it's fullest?

  • Whatsfor #9 2 years ago

    I wonder if Sony will let me play free for a week when I buy this on my PS3...

    ...Oh right...

    /prepares to be marked down to oblivion!

  • CaptainQuint #10 2 years ago

    Haven't played MW2 for months. BFBC2 is more satisfying, and before that came out I prefered Uncharted 2, which I still play.

    All of the above will be brushed to the wayside of course, come Halo Reach.

  • metalangel #11 2 years ago

    A week of free Gold for a stupid DLC that didn't work?? Meanwhile those of us who bought Bad Company 2 and couldn't get online for three days due to server issues have got... a Veteran bonus weapon that won't unlock, stats randomly resetting, weapon stats not tracking and a team composed entirely of snipers ;)

  • ybfelix #12 2 years ago

    Well, so it seems a lot of people here would rather not getting this 7 days.

    MS doesn't even has to do this, pricing of the DLC is the call of Activision's.

  • Mnia786 #13 2 years ago

    Meh, if its a bout a tenner - going 5 ways on the PS3 will make it 2 quid each with me an dmy mates so will be worth the punt. Not sure if you can share dlc on the 360 but if not, MS sure got you lot by the balls.

  • sneetch #14 2 years ago

    @metalangel
    A week of free Gold for a stupid DLC that didn't work?? Meanwhile those of us who bought Bad Company 2 and couldn't get online for three days due to server issues have got... a Veteran bonus weapon that won't unlock, stats randomly resetting, weapon stats not tracking and a team composed entirely of snipers ;)

    In fairness, there's also the lone assault class guy who gets annihilated whenever he moves more than two feet from the base then quits after about 5 mins when he realises that he's the only one on his team attacking anything. ;)

    I had some weird issues with BBC2 over the weekend, connecting on Saturday was a PITA kept getting kicked from servers almost as soon as I joined them. The fun last night made up for it though, joined a multiplay.co.uk server with well balanced teams of people that were actually interested in doing useful things and had the nastiest and toughest fights I've had yet in that game over 4 or 5 rounds. Excellent stuff. However afterwards my rank appeared to reset back to the start then just as I was preparing my indignant outrage the bars filled up until I got back to my correct (but still embarrassingly low) rank leaving me thinking "Aprils fools was 4 days ago, jackasses!" Maybe it always does that but I never noticed before.

    I wish you could choose to split the server list up into regions or time-zones though, I keep seeing US and Australian servers for example. I'd rather have the option to just see the European ones (and maybe East Coast of the US) it would speed up the refresh in any case.

    Anyway, completely off-topic. Carry on guys (I have to say it's not much of a reward though).

  • Der_tolle_Emil #15 2 years ago

    The only downside is that most people have a subscription anyway and couldn't care less if they got 7 days for free or not - since they are having access to gold throughout the entire year.

  • TitusCrow #16 2 years ago

    Simpsons quote - " I'm a very rich man and I'd like to give something back, not the money! but something!"

  • Artemus #17 2 years ago

    I thought the reward was Bobby Kotick bending you over backwards?

  • metalangel #18 2 years ago

    @sneetch: What's the server browser like? On 360 you just get to pick what map and mode and then it randomly picks a game to throw you into. Sometimes that game turns into a lagfest and in BC2 that means your tank is unable to move forward...

  • CaptainQuint #19 2 years ago

    I never have any problems with the 360 version. I always get a game going immediately and very rarely get a laggy server. In fact the only problem I ever encounter is being put on a shite team, but that can happen in all online shooters.

    As with any game: personal connection quality makes a difference.

  • ignatiusjreilly #20 2 years ago

    What's the server browser like?

    Rubbish compared to most other server browsers out there, but it wouldn't feel like a Battlefield game if it wasn't ;)

    Basic functionality is there though - you can filter out full/empty/passworded/unranked servers, choose a map or a gametype, or sort by ping. Ocassionally ping just doesn't appear, and regularly servers with apparently 20/32 people on them are full when you try to join.

    Usually I just filter out the full servers and pick a server with under 50ms ping, as lag is much more important to me than map or gametype. In BF2 you used to be able to filter out all servers with >100 ping, and I don't really know why they got rid of that option.

    Edited by ignatiusjreilly at 06/04/10 @ 16:49

  • BobsUncle #21 2 years ago

    @metalangel

    Don't forget that you can't quit your game without first starting the next map, and choosing your kit, and starting the game!

  • sneetch #22 2 years ago

    @metalangel @ignatiusjreilly

    Another minor problem with it I feel (and this might be due to the fact that I'm running it in Win7 but not as administrator) is that it doesn't remember those settings, so if I search for not-full servers playing conquest and then get kicked or whatever the next time I go to search I have to reselect the options again, not a major problem by any means. The same happens with weapons load-outs, it always seems to reset them whenever I play the game for the first time in a day and you can't seem to specify them outside of a match. I normally forget this so I start into the game with the default weapons and equipment rather than my preferred load-out and have to wait for a death before I re-jig (mind you, that's normally about only 20 seconds due to my innate suckiness but if your medics are alert it can be ages before you get to do it). Does this happen to anyone else?

    I never get to see the servers ping - for whatever reason, might be my router or firewall - so I have to scan for servers with .co.uk or eu or some other geographical clue in the name. Otherwise I end up playing on some server in San Francisco or Sydney at play-by-mail pings. :)

    The refresh mechanism is daft too, it waits until it downloads the entire list before displaying any results, this increases the chances that the server they've reported as having 31/32 players will be full before you even see the results.

  • Derblington #23 2 years ago

    I got the mail about this, but I'm not really fussed. I pay for gold anyway, so I'm online 12 months a year regardless, it just means I have an extra 7 days before I need to renew it. Still, it's free.

  • NewbieZilla #24 2 years ago

    Nice of them to offer something with the price it comes at. Still, though, not enough. I mean, seriously, what is 7 days live worth in points to anyone here?

  • Seabeast #25 2 years ago

    If you paid 1200 points for that lazy map pack, take a long hard look at yourself.