Xbox 360 Games on Demand

[Fishfingers]

Microsoft had too much news for the keynote, so they're taking care of the spillover now: First up, full Xbox Live games on demand. That's right, you can download Mass Effect, Bioshock and more. Using a real credit card—no Xbox Live points—with retail-like pricing. They're coming in August.

Not every game, but it is a mix of third-party stuff: Sonic, call of Duty 2, Crackdown, Bioshock Mass Effect and more. Dodged whether games will be downloadable the day they're released to retail. Also don't expect to use your credit card direct for anything now: "We're not getting rid of the point system." Booo.

Still, the disc's time is clearly ticking.

http://gizmodo.com/5274395/xbox-live-fu ... r-bioshock

Sounds good but those prices better be GOOD.

[Jax]

Might be needing a fuckoff massive hard drive then.

[Garth]

[SEP]

We're I'm gonna need a bigger boat hard drive!

[Iron Nan]

Call me cynical but this seems like an effort to control the prices more then anything else, if there's no over produced physical product then there's no need to discount it after all.

[Tragic Magic]

I won't be using this. I prefer DVD's.

[Sander]

Call me cynical but this seems like an effort to control the prices more then anything else, if there's no over produced physical product then there's no need to discount it after all.

Didn’t some Arcade games come down in price after a while? If a certain game doesn’t sell well (anymore) the publisher will try to lower the price to sell more.

[JiggerJay]

What the strawberry float! you can't have 2 different price schemes, 1 that uses your virtual money, and real values for full games?

I guess somewhere in the download thread I owe some banana split an apology.

[TheTurnipKing]

Call me cynical but this seems like an effort to control the prices more then anything else, if there's no over produced physical product then there's no need to discount it after all.

Didn’t some Arcade games come down in price after a while? If a certain game doesn’t sell well (anymore) the publisher will try to lower the price to sell more.

Interestingly, one of the things that Valve has found is that with a lower price-tag, some software gets INSANE sales spikes, hence their weekend promotions.

[Garth]

MICROSOFT: Global 'Games on Demand' service heading to 360
E3'09: New service lets users download newer releases direct to console

Microsoft has revealed that it will be offering a Games on Demand service for Xbox 360 in just a matter of months.

Games on Demand launches this August and will let console owners download 360 games direct to their console.

It's not yet clear if these 'full retail games' as they were described - the demo shown to journalists after the format holder's E3 press conference showed titles like Assassin's Creed, Burnout Paradise and BioShock - will have day and date release with physical SKUs or if the releases would be more staggered and allow titles to 'premiere' at retail first.

"Live has been super successful around digital distrubiton from XBLA to Originals and DLC," said Xbox Live's Marc Whitten. "This is a natural progression."

He added that new games will be added to the service every week.

The service also ditches the MS Points payment system, and instead allows players to purchase direct with a credit card in actual currency.

Games on Demand also offers an Amazon-like user-rating system.

Whitten confirmed to MCV that the service will launch worldwide.

"We 've talked lcosely with our retail partners on this - it is not a zero sum or win-lose situation," he said when asked about retail reaction to the service, saying that it just added a new way to purchase games.

Retail is "not going away - it's still really important" he added.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/34528/Games-o ... g-to-360rn

[Stig]

They'll have to release a bigger HDD surely.

At a reasonable price (going on current prices this is unlikely).

[Kiran]

The prices would need to be much lower for me to be interested. Most of these games can be picked up new for less than $19.99 and 2nd hand even less. Given that once you've finished with them they have no re-sell value, I couldn't justify spending more than about £5.

[Hexx]

Price too high.

You can get Mass Effect (new) instore for less that $20 (in pounds )

[satriales]

Call me cynical but this seems like an effort to control the prices more then anything else, if there's no over produced physical product then there's no need to discount it after all.

I think the main think they are trying to do is to get rid of the 2nd hand market. You can't sell a downloaded game once you've got bored of it.

[Dante]

I like the service on PSN, but the thing is - the Ps3 has at least a removal HDD that can fit all the games on; 120gb isn't going to be near enough to support this; unless they expect you to buy, play, delete and move on.

A rental service would be awesome

[Kiran]

unless they expect you to buy, play, delete and move on.

That is what they expect. Even with a massive drive, you'd still reach a point where you don't play the game anymore. What would be really excellent is some kind of service that would allow you to trade the games with other Live owners. Perhaps there could be a fee of which the publisher gets most of it.

[KK]

If they want this to take off, they're going to have to drop the price of the 120GB HDD. It's at least £50 too expensive.