Xbox Bans New Zealand Kids From Live Downloads

Australia may not allow adults to access adult games, but at least we’re not New Zealand. There, kids can’t even access G-rated games, demos and other downloadable content on Xbox Live.

After the recent Xbox Live update, some New Zealand gamers discovered they could no longer download content from Xbox Live Marketplace. But that was OK, we all had problems.

Unfortunately those problems have continued for certain New Zealand Xbox Live users, specifically those with child accounts. Weeks later, a thread on the NZ Xbox.com forums is full of people unable to access any Marketplace content because their Live accounts are marked “child”.

The Microsoft Help and Support page verifies the problem exists, labelling it with the error code “80153065”:

Symptoms: When you try to download content from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, you receive the following error message:
Can’t retrieve information from Xbox LIVE. Please try again later.
Status code: 80153065

Cause: This problem may occur if you use an Xbox LIVE Child Account, and if your account region is set to New Zealand. If the regional requirements are set to New Zealand, Xbox LIVE does not allow Child Accounts to download content. This is true regardless of the settings for content rating or for parental control.

Forum posters have reported varying explanations from Microsoft customer support – anything from a technical issue to Microsoft being forced into the action by the New Zealand government. Some have also claimed Microsoft has been unable to reimburse them for previously purchased or redeemed Microsoft Points left sitting in child accounts.

On Sunday, NZ Xbox.com moderator “Teljam” posted to say he had spoken to Microsoft New Zealand about the issue and “yes they are working on it”, before locking the thread. The thread has now been unlocked.

We’ve contacted Microsoft for comment. Meanwhile, any Kiwi readers out there, feel free to relate your experiences in the comments.

[Thanks Josh S]


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