Looks like those whom purchased content from Xbox Fitness on the Xbox One console are in for a refund.
In late June of this year Microsoft announced their plans to shut down the Xbox Fitness program that was available on Xbox One since its release.
The news caught users off guard and many questions came up about the content that was purchased, how the program would be phased out, etc.
In response Microsoft advised users of their plans to wind down the program:
- Beginning today, June 27, 2016, Xbox Fitness content will no longer be available for purchase. For existing users of Xbox Fitness, the content you’ve purchased will be available to play for a year, through June 30, 2017.
- On December 15, 2016, we will be removing our “Free with Gold” offer. Until then, Gold members will still be able to access and play the over 30+ workouts available for streaming as a part of this offer for free.
- On July 1, 2017, Xbox Fitness (and all associated content) will no longer be available for download/play. This includes content you’ve purchased. At that time, Xbox Fitness will no longer be available for download from Xbox Marketplace and content will not be available for play from the Xbox Marketplace nor within the game. Xbox Fitness users will no longer be able access Xbox Fitness and the associated workouts/programs.
As you can see in those three steps above from Microsoft there is no mention of refunds for content purchased by the services users.
Well, it now appears Microsoft has decided to issue refunds to those users for the content they purchased and will no longer be able to use after 01 July 2017.
This afternoon users started to receive this message from Microsoft in their Xbox Live message account:
When I saw this I went to my Microsoft Account page and noticed the following refund was in my account:
As you can see these refunds are being issued through the Xbox Live Rewards Program.
Although my purchases were quite minimal, I have read of others getting full program refunds upwards of $70.
Good move by Microsoft to make a negative situation a little more palatable with their customers. When they announced this closure in June the overwhelming reaction was the lack of refunds for purchases made in the program.
This step will help with those concerns for sure.
Update:
Shortly after publishing this article emails began to arrive explaining more about the refunds that were being issued:
Did you get a refund for your Xbox Fitness purchases?
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