Peer back through the hazy mists of time. You may remember that in December, dad Lance Perkins discovered charges of over roughly £5,600 ($8,000) to his credit card as a result of his son using FIFA micro-transactions. Now, it appears Microsoft has agreed to a refund.
At the time, Microsoft told Perkins that there were more than enough parental locks and safety features in place on Xbox One to stop mishaps like this from occurring, and said that the transactions were therefore legit. Lil’ Master Perkins (17) claimed that he thought it was a one time fee, and not a series of transactions that would climb to such a dizzying height.
However, after finding out that the teen in question was a minor (in the US anyway) Microsoft said it would look into the charges further. On January 25, Lance got his full refund, much to his delight.
This debacle hasn’t come without a price for the Perkins’ household though. An understandably pissed off Lance has vowed there will never be another gaming system in his home.
It’s Mr Perkin’s hope that his story will act as a warning for other parents out there, and he suggested that more safeguards be put in place to stop anything like this happening in the future. Personally, we’d just lock our kids in a small, windowless room so shit like this didn’t happen.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.