Video: Xbox 360 Games on Demand service

Joystiq wrote: "Curious how the Xbox 360's recently announced "Games on Demand" service is going to look in your Dashboard? Microsoft made this helpful video, walking you through the entire process. First off: Buying Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, for $19.99 (note: no Microsoft Points here, folks). Next: Booting up the already purchased BioShock. Simple as pie, no disc needed. And the cherry on top: Quick Launching Mass Effect from inside BioShock. Looks like a great feature ... "

[KingKionic]

Looking pretty good now.

[Rob0g0rilla]

Game rental service. I could see it now.

[kewlkat007]

Everything is moving to Online/Digital at a very slow pace. Services are being offered but it's not like they are closing doors on traditional methods. Which is the right way to do it.

I totally forgot about this feature...

[cherrypie]

"At a slow pace"?

Huh? The post above you is 100% correct. Their is *VERY* little that keeps this from becoming an rental service.

Or, perhaps even a "ALL TITLES" subscription, call it "Xbox Pass". Where I pay $20(?) per month and can download and play *anything* I wish.

I imagine both services are being worked-on.

[Sonyslave3]

look awesome.

[green]

Great addition.

[Traveler]

Really cool features.

[ChrisGTR1]

that would just be so badass for a rental service. 5$ or something and you download it right to the hdd. the only problem is downloading that 7 gig file. but hey at least its not on ps3 where id have to be a 30 gig file :)

[Mc Fadge]

Why would it be a 30GB file on the PS3?

[PotNoodle]

Because when developers are making games exclusivly for the PS3 they don't compress anything because they don't need to because of blu-ray.

[dogmeat eater]

you know everything

[MGOelite]

lol at the 5.71 gb download. i remember when i downloaded siren bc of ps3 store 10 gb ffs, not doing that again

the average american 360 gamer will take about 5 and half hours to download the batman thing lol and you cant trade it back in lol. what a pointless service

[PotNoodle]

This is the best feature to recently be announced for the 360, they should of shown that at their keynote.

Hopefully sony follows, even if it is just multiplatform games - since we know exclusive PS3 games don't compress their stuff and are usually 25 - 40+ gb.

[jakethemuss]

Alot of full game titles already downloable on psn.

[PotNoodle]

I know, but apart from burnout paradise and GT5p the others are online only and are not really full games on the scale of Mass effect, bioshock, assassins creed etc.

That is what i mean, i know sony are willing to do it - just hoping they see microsoft have caught up and decide to carry on with what they started.

[ShiNe-Box-]

Leaving ur 360 on for 6+ hours to download a game!?

NO thanks

[MGOelite]

cant play online while downloading as well so its not like you can start download then go on cod or summat

[dogmeat eater]

but how will this work for a 20gb hdd? Even the 120gb hdd is to small for this. The 20gb hdd is only 12gb actually. So damn.

[pansenbaer]

I was gonna say, kiss your hard drive goodbye. My 60 gig PS3 only has 15 gigs left. I don't even have any full games on it, or and games that require installs. I wouldn't use this feature, but I'm sure many will welcome it. I like tangible media, but this is the way of the future.

[dogmeat eater]

The US broadband services need to improve before downloadable games are the standard. Only 40% of the US has broadband so... Yeah, its going to be a long time before that happens.

[pansenbaer]

Agreed. A full fledged 'downloadable-future' is very far off. And I'm glad. It will take a lot for me to be content with no more physical media.

[Simon_Brezhnev]

what M$ really tying to do is force everybody to upgrade they hard drive

[dogmeat eater]

They want you to pay for those over priced hdd one way or another.

[xino]

this is a good feature, people who hate using disc to play games won't have to worry now.

Although in 100% of xbox users, 70% out of the 100% xbox users will not buy games on demand! Because buying games from people like Microsoft will sell those games at full retail price meaning £49.99 or £59.99!

Whereas you could get a better deal, combo deal, cheaper deal, and special deal at your local gamestore or e-commerce sites.

This feature will ONLY be worthy if we could download games that are region locked only. Take for an example, Demon's Souls only available in Japan. We could just demand that game and download it rather than importing it.

[green]

Microsoft is only selling xbox 360 classics, and the classic titles retail for a maximum of $19.99.

[Nelson M]

It's not to Bad with a 120g HDD
But if your a BoT with the 20g Model
Then i cant see you wanting to get rid of your Full Back Catalogue of BackStreet Boys Video's to make way for Mass Effect or some other Crap Game thats on Offer !!
Come to think of it
It dont matter if you've got a 120g or 20g Xbox
Your all Screwed !!
Because
You've all Got an Xbox
And that sure does Suck !! Real Hard !!!

[KingKionic]

Its a option.

LOL

Your acting like this is mandatory.

[DailyAddict]

I personally like the idea of being able to download games. As someone who's dvd, blu-ray and game collection is taking up way too much space, anything I can do to get rid of disks is a huge bonus. But, the 360 is not the best platform for this feature thanks to its limited options in storage. Sure, MS will allow you to redownload/delete when you see fit, but who the hell wants to do that? I'd have to continually delete games to make room for new ones because MS didn't have the foresight to reconsider how they went about hard drive space.

On the other hand, Games on Demand I doubt will ever really be successful and it's meant more as an option. Consider this: why buy a Game on Demand for the same price as retail when you can't trade in the digital copy? It's great for developers cause they know you can't run back to GameStop to trade in your game when you're done. FOr that reason I don't see it being utilized too much since you can't trade it in afterwards. Would be cool if MS could let you trade in one digital game for another digital game (force delete the current one off your hard drive), but I don't see them going that far.

[iDystopia]

More features and options never hurts. :)

[dogmeat eater]

Nothing can beat it. Say if we finally do switch fully to downloadable games. What if my internet goes out or something? Then your screwed. With a disk you just pop it in and there you go. No waiting. But where not going to see that for at least another 20 years.

[Sayai jin]

The said the same thing about mp3's and cd's. It will only be another option. Some will want DD others will not

[San Frandisco]

well,wut happens if you buy bioshock of XBL service and then got bored with it so you decide you want to sell it???

EXACTLY!
Physical media FTW!

[ambientFLIER]

Well, you're probably getting it much cheaper in the first place, so then it evens out.

For example, you buy Bioshock on dvd for $40 new, play it, and trade it for $20, losing $20 in the process. Or you download it new for say $20, play it, and can't sell it, losing $20 in the process. Same thing.

[jarhead906]

I don't know what the limitations are for the XBLM downloadable games (non-retail games) but on the Playstation 3 you can download a title up to four or five times on any Playstation 3 (i.e. it isn't attached to an individual Account. Every Account can access the game that is now on the HDD).

So if you got bored with the digital copy you could 'give' the game to a friend or someone you know while also keeping the title for future indulgences.

Matter of perspective I guess.

[XLiveGamer]

from Bioshock to mass effect wow that was fast.

[hatchimatchi]

how is this a big deal?

sony has been doing this since the ps3 launched.

[dogmeat eater]

But I would rather have a disk. As would everyone

[SaberEdge]

Because Sony has only had like 2 or 3 full retail titles that weren't online-only games. Hardly what you would call a service. More like an exception to the rule.

[jarhead906]

Disagrees on a factual statement that can be proven easily? Why am I not surprised.

Note how the OP never stated that Sony was delivering titles consistently. He/she stated that Sony has been doing it since the Playstation 3's launch, which is correct.

[W S K]

ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!!!

i was going to say the exact same thing ;-)

anyway...

i think this is great!

though they´re upping only the classic ones, i see this as an test phase (to check out if people are byuing them)

many XBL users i know downloaded some of the Xbox Originals (including me... BLACK FTW!!! :D)
so this is an awesome option

[Cacic]

Good idea......not, I'm not using a credit card and downloading to my harddrive would make my system run even slower since the brilliant new xbox experience.

[jarhead906]

This doesn't make the feature any less cool but I find it kind of funny that a lot of 'news' sources and fans treat this as if Microsoft is going to be the first to successfully deliver full games on home entertainment consoles.

Warhawk? Socom: Confrontation? Burnout Paradise? Anyway, Sony would be foolish to not expand upon what they started.

Oh, and when this feature does arrive on the Xbox 360 make sure to look for $39.99 as the highest price. If it isn't, and the new game is listed at $59.99 then you know MS is screwing you over.

[Redgehammer]

i like the service, just like i like Steam for the same reason

[steve30x]

Looks like they just made piracy even easier on the Xbox360. No disk required eh.

[The real Why dis]

Another service Microsoft is giving their costumers thank you Microsoft you really care for your customers unlike another company *cough* $ony *cough*

[TheMART]

^^ Those above talking about slow downloads ^^

It sounds like you're living in 3rd world countries. Standard in The Netherlands is about 4Mbit nowadays and 20Mbit is even allmost standard which cost you 20 Euro a month or so.

With 4Mbit a 360 game needs what, 3 hours to get downloaded. With 20Mbit its done in no time.

This is pretty big, but know it would be done after XBOX originals. Question now is, will they only put games on it that are out already (for some time) OR for example will they give digital downloads the advantage to put a new game out on it first, lets say 2 weeks before the game arrives in retailshops.

That way they would get rid of some piracy of people that want to play first and then will choose to use XBL to download instead of the dark corners of the internet.

Not only that, I just saw that a bit older game like Mass Effect or Bioshock is 1600 points, while when I want to buy in shops I pay around 30 bucks for those, will brand new games then cost 3200 points or so? That would be great compared to 60 bucks for retail copies.

[MGOelite]

the average yank american download speed is about 200kbs and since america is the 360s main audience, your fuked

[SlumTheoRy]

This is a cool feature. But to me, the only people who would use this service, are people with a 120GB HDD and a fast connection. I can already imagine people with a 768K connection trying to download a game and waiting forever for it to finish..

[chavafx]

and i have 7.1mbps and i pay $34.99 so is not ms fault is cheap people tha want miracles