When you think about making a video game-related purchase, there are a number of places that you might go. However, Dollar General is almost never one of those places. I admit that I don’t frequent those stores, but I do find myself in one on occasion, and I can’t recall ever seeing games or gaming hardware on the shelves. At least nothing related to modern consoles. Well for some reason, the company has partnered up to make Microsoft Points available to their customers.
What’s really interesting is that you aren’t going to find the usual cards for Live memberships or points. Rather, you’ll just go up to the register, and tell them what you’re looking for. They’ll scan a UPC, and the code you need will be printed on your receipt. This might seem strange at first, but it’s quite ingenious. You don’t really need the cards that you buy, as they just go right in the trash once you’ve entered the code. And you’re going to have a receipt, regardless. So why not just have the code printed on something you’d have been throwing away already? It saves Microsoft a little bit of money, and it’s one less thing you have to toss out. It’s a win for everyone.
There won’t be any sort of discount for buying points in this manner, just as there is none for doing it online, so don’t get too excited. This is great for people who live in small towns that might not have access to bigger stores that sell the points they need. I’ve seen Dollar General stores popping up in the tiniest of towns, so I can see a lot of gamers benefiting from this. There’s no word on whether the company has any plans to sell other gaming products, such as PSN codes, or Steam Wallet cards. I imagine the success of this joint venture with Microsoft will play a large part in whether or not they attempt to branch out further in this area.