Accusations that Microsoft might be targeting the lesser able or lazy Xbox Live users have surfaced today, with the news that the company is charging players to download videos that show the location of COG tags in Epic Games' massively successful shooter, Gears of War.

The videos available for download cover Acts 1 through to five and range between 51MB and 150MB in size. For the privilege of finding the title's take on DOG tags, Microsoft is charging gamers 100 Microsoft Points ($1 USD) per video. Unsurprisingly, the availability of said videos have caused a little uproar amongst videogame players in the know, since all the information that they provide can be found simply and - crucially - for free on the Internet.

There are 30 DOG tags hidden away in Gears of War, for which players are awarded a total of 3 achievements and 60 gamerscore points for seeking out. Points and achievements are released after every 10 DOG tags are found, although to make your quest a little more taxing, there is no way to quickly check where each precious chain has been collected, forcing you to double-check every location - which, we suppose, is where Microsoft's cheeky little micro-transaction comes in to play.

Epic Games has previously been at loggerheads with Microsoft over extra content for Gears of War, which the developers wanted to release for free, so today's release isn't going to please them as much as it will gamers.