Xbox 360 games on demand over Xbox Live

Advertisement (Why?)

Today saw the return of E3, back to its old roots in the L.A Convention Centre, where Microsoft were first to hold their conference. There were plenty of announcements made, everything from new titles to social networking and new ways to interact with games.

However, Microsoft didn't have enough time to announce everything they've been working on, and after the show made a rather surprising announcement, via Gizmodo.

Starting in August this year, Microsoft will offer Xbox 360 titles to download from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Some questions are still unanswered, but gamers will have access to games via the Games Marketplace in exactly the same manner as Xbox Live Arcade. Each week Microsoft will be adding more titles to the library. Gamers will have the choice between buying with Microsoft Points, or for the first time, using a Credit Card to buy directly.

When asked if there was a possibility gamers could rent games like they can movies, Microsoft would not comment but stated they were always looking for ways to evolve their services.

During the announcement, Microsoft used Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed and Civilization Revolution as examples. Pricing was said to be "retail-like".

It's not first party games only either, as from the photos taken we can clearly see a mix of old and news games from various publishers and developers.

Expect to hear more news on this in the coming days and look out for the service this August.

#1 +Xerxes on 02 Jun 2009 - 05:47

This begs the question, what are they gonna do about storage? it's great and all being able to download movies and now get 360 games but even with the 120Gb HDD (which is a rippoff anyway) it's gonna fill up fast. Unless they plan to release an adaptor that allows you to attach a normal laptop HDD to the 360, I'm not interested.

#2 brent3000 on 02 Jun 2009 - 06:43

agree... External storage would be great and it would allow one person to download the games and take it to a mates house and play it... under the same GC i would assume

#3 Aahz on 02 Jun 2009 - 07:08

Even with the 120gb drive that's only maybe 20 discs. The reason I say discs and not games is that most of the games with huge benefits from an install are multi-disc behemoths like Lost Odyssey which is over 24gb fully installed.

So that one game can't be installed on a 20gb, takes up nearly half of a 60gb, and a good chunk of a 120gb. Oh and don't forget that reserved system space and of course the fact that whatever the HDD is said to have in storage space is never ever ever what it actually has. (20gb drive only yields 13-14gbs and so on)

Yeah it's time to open up those USB ports properly Microsoft.

#4 ufis on 02 Jun 2009 - 07:57

All 360 games are the same size just filled up with dummy data if they don't use the space on the disc. Some games like the new sonic collection don't use up that much space. If it is on demand then the data would be streamed and not saved to your drive. Just the save game data. I live in the Midwest and i have no cap on my internet. Internet company's need to stop with the caps. If they cant handle the strain on there systems then maybe they should upgrade and stop being greedy.

#5 GP007 on 02 Jun 2009 - 08:42

Storage is key here, guess I'll save up for a bigger drive, hope they drop the prices and or let you use externals but I somehow doubt that.

(3 replies) #6 rajputwarrior on 02 Jun 2009 - 08:53

why would you buy a digital copy of something when you can go out and get the retail copy for the same price, save the disk space and if you don't want the game anymore go out and resell that game and recoup some of the costs? Makes no sense to me. And it's not like this is really convenient, because every xbox game measures at about a full dual layer dvd (~7.5 gigs). So by the time most peoples internet connections download the game, you can go out and buy it twice, make a sandwhich, go the gym and walk the dog.

#6.1 d3v on 02 Jun 2009 - 09:49

^ This!
The distribution costs of a digital copy are much much lower, yet we are expected to pay the same for less product, no case, no discs, no manual.
I will only buy digital copies when these digital copies are significantly cheaper than the retail version.

#6.2 Rev. on 02 Jun 2009 - 21:20

If they were $30 I would care less if I had to wait 1:30mins to play the game.

#6.3 Joshie on 02 Jun 2009 - 22:25

d3v said,

Please pass this complaint on to every other game developer on the planet.

I always have to look for a drink to spit out in shock everytime I see ANOTHER Blizzard game cost $40 in-store and $40 digital download.

Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!

Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.

Neowin.net