The promised Xbox 360 system software update that finally implements the long expected removal of the Microsoft Points virtual currency from the system's digital marketplace has now gone live on Xbox Live, with all prices now listed in the user's local currency.

Polygon reports that the update is live in North America, and we've checked this out locally ourselves and can confirm it's now in place for Australian customers as well.

The Microsoft Points system had somewhat obscured regional price disparity on the system, as games and downloadable content were advertised at the same MS Points value in all territories, but the amount of local currency required to by an ammount of points diverged from the true exchange rate.

The new system in affect now is much more transparent, and functionally similar to Steam or PSN, and product pricing appears to be set by the game's publisher.

Comparing the US dollar versus Australian dollar pricing on several items reveals that a disparate markup is applied to many items, such as Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops II Season Pass DLC package (US$49.99 versus AU$69.95), and Overkill's Payday 2 (US$34.99 versus AU$59.99) however others are actually equivalent.

Ubisoft's Flashback revamp can be had for US$9.99 on the US Xbox Live Marketplace, and it's only AU$9.95 locally, and Starbreeze's recently released Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is US$14.99 versus AU$14.95. Both of these had previously been priced at a single MS Points value globally, so are in affect cheaper now for Australians than they were yesterday.

You can compare more products yourself via marketplace.xbox.com/en-US and marketplace.xbox.com/en-AU .