Microsoft (MS) yesterday announced it was matching the original (C)$25,000 offered for information leading to the return home of a missing Canadian Xbox Live user, bringing the total reward to (C)$50,000.

Fifteen-year-old Brandon Crisp of Barrie, Ontario, was last seen October 13, following a dispute with his parents over what they considered excessive amounts of time spent playing online games on the MS Xbox Live gaming site. The situation apparently came to a head when his parents took Brandon’s Xbox away.

MS is reportedly cooperating fully with police in the search for the 15-year-old, Crisp’s father told reporters yesterday. That apparently includes making a rare exception to the company’s own Xbox Live player privacy policy, releasing Brandon’s account records to police.

A Web site has been set up to aggregate news and information about Brandon Crisp’s disappearance.