AfterDawn: News

Xbox 360 to feature downloadable demos?

According to an article at SPOnG the upcoming Xbox 360 game console will have a variety of downloadable game demos available online the day it hits the stores. The content would be available via the Xbox live service. Microsoft is expected to introduce the service in the upcoming pre-E3 event.

Should the service become reality, it could potentially, over time, revolutionize the way games are delivered to consumers. At first the service would be used to deliver demo versions of upcoming games to consumers, but there's a huge potential beyond that. With the prices of the games constantly in the rise -- some estimates put prizes of next generation console games at around $100 -- there's demand for cheaper alternatives to distributing games.



The current "pay once, play forever" scheme will be around for quite a while, but game developers are looking more and more into concepts that "lure" people into paying, for example, a monthly fee for playing a game. Online multi-player games are just the beginning. Purchasing extra content to games will be the next step. The Sims games series is a prime example of this. However rather than buying a new disc for every added part, people will be able to purchase the content online and "plug" the extra content into their pre-existing game. Eventually you might be able to download, for example, a first level of a platform game for free, and then purchase additional levels as you go on.

Source:
SPOnG

Written by: Jari Ketola @ 31 Mar 2005 12:59

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• 20 comments

• MXGzX

  I HATE MONTLY FEE'S....
  
  yeah...just another way for big business to make money

  31.3.2005 13:14 #1

• RedAnt

  yes...buy the game($50.00us)and then pay them a monthly fee forever.
  I don't think so!!!!!

  31.3.2005 13:44 #2

• jimmyjojo

  Could this be circumvented somehow? Under the current method; you could DL a game (or game-updates), save it via Memory card, then upload that same content to your buddy's xBox at another location (this is ofcourse IF the memory cards can hold that much information). Otherwise, we'll have to rely on the "mod" community to help us out on this one.

  31.3.2005 14:00 #3

• gozilla

  games already cost $100($AU) where i live. (and they wonder why people pirate games)...i'm sure that montly fee along side $100+ initial cost is going to really intice players :P

  31.3.2005 14:04 #4

• abhim89

  Just some speculation, but maybe microsoft will use this service to distribute other content like movies/music.
  
  Or, they may try something like a rental scheme (similar to Napster's To Go) where you can rent a game for a lot cheaper but you don't actually own it.

  31.3.2005 14:09 #5

• wheelman7

  Quote:Or, they may try something like a rental scheme (similar to Napster's To Go) where you can rent a game for a lot cheaper but you don't actually own it.But then Microsoft would have to put a huge hard drive into the consol and I don't think their planning on putting enough GB's of memory just so the few people who would do that will.

  31.3.2005 14:16 #6

• SGSeries2

  So I guess Xbox 360's its official name now? :)
  
  I usually avoid mmorpg and the like because of the monthly fees. I just can't justify it. I'm not exactly sure how the downloadable content can really expande aside from additional material since you can't put it in one xbox and play it on another with the current system. I don't like that. Games themselves have alway been mobile. What, you go to a friends house and log onto their machine to download the same data just so you can play it on another machine? You can't fix accounts to xbox machines like now. It'd all have to be server-side, or do they expect me to carry my xbox wherever I go? It just gets too messy, and creates a pitfall of the possibility that some games just never get completed, even though you already paid for half of it. Then there's updates to existing levels. "I just finished that level, and you want me to go through it again? Could you just, keep it clean for just 5 minutes? Huh?" :)
  
  Sounds like longer load times if they have to do something like that too. I don't like that model at all. Reminds me of The Matrix.
  
  The thing that always bugged me about downloadable content was what if my system or their server fries? I'd have to download everything again. The thought of rented/timed downloaded games bugs me. They probably like that model because then they can judge whether a game is going to be a hit or not before it's "finished", and then redirect their resources elsewhere if it's not.

  31.3.2005 17:43 #7

• denzilla

  Whoever estimated that next gen games will run close to $100 is on crack. That would be finacial suicide for any game company! No one will pay $300+ for a console and then shell out that much for one game. SNK tried that crap with Neo-Geo and it didn't fly, neither will this. Granted, the Neo-Geos games were more than that, but it doesn't matter.

  31.3.2005 17:49 #8

• nastynath

  Well if we are to DL a game content etc, that means they will have a HD right? Either way I'm happy for the news!!! ;)
  
  Mmmmmmmmm another cheap console :P

  31.3.2005 18:48 #9

• punx777

  I like the idea of the napster-to-go type plan, its obvious xbox isnt planning on putting a big hd, but perhaps if you could buy a hd and the xbox would have a slot where you could simply insert the hd.
  
  perhaps if you could go to blockbuster, plug your hd into a portal, and choose what games you want to rent for x amount of dollars a month/week. and when your times up, you will have the choice to pay for more time, or the game will simply erase its'self from the hd.
  
  Transporting 10-20 gig games along a meg/sec (max) line doesnt sound too fun to me, it would take forEVER! thats why my idea is best HA lol
  
  
  (im going to get made fun of now and called stupid)

  31.3.2005 18:53 #10

• Ofnir1

  Quote:(im going to get made fun of now and called stupid)Hey, what's that word I'mlookin' for......oh yeah, stupid! lol
  Quote:Transporting 10-20 gig games along a meg/sec (max) line doesnt sound too fun to me, it would take forEVER!I think that if they did have that kind of service, they'd better have Internet2 equipped, if they had a shatload of customers using that service. Last I heard, Internet2's transfer rate was like 9 gigs per second, but only available to corporations though, but I don't see why they shouldn't be able to get it.

  31.3.2005 21:24 #11

• spooky2k

  As much as I dislike this idea, i think as long as its an OPTION it'll be awesome. by thtat i mean, if people have the option to download/buy the game, or they can rent it. A very good way of eliminating business' like blockbuster and other game rental stores. Plus, we all own games that we play once, complete, nand never go back to, but others we do. It'd be great to be able to 'rent a game' until say, you complete. Something like that would be brilliant.
  Dan x x x

  31.3.2005 23:25 #12

• Ketola

  Of course this all, including the name of the Xbox (Xbox 360, Xbox 2, Xenon) is pure speculation. We'll see in time.

  31.3.2005 23:32 #13

• Toiletman

  You know what would be more surprising? That you are all actually wrong and $100+ games work out very well.

  1.4.2005 11:24 #14

• denzilla

  Sorry, not gonna happen.

  1.4.2005 11:28 #15

• gambiel7

  I'll hack every game made, money hungry mongrels. M$ should have learned better by now........

  2.4.2005 08:20 #16

• niallmc

  the companies know people will pay up to €75 (bout $70) because thats how much the special edition of halo 2 (with dvd) cost in ireland, and plenty of people bought that. so why wont people pay $100 dollars for a game? the price of games is always going to rise

  3.4.2005 15:37 #17

• wheelman7

  Quote:the price of games is always going to riseThat's not true, N64 were $60 when they came out and now PS2 games are only $50 or sometimes $40 ex. Jak and Daxter and Ratchet and Clank.

  3.4.2005 17:49 #18

• GiantMike

  dont let them do this to me. i cant afford a monthly fee.

  3.4.2005 20:14 #19

• skillzi

  $40,150(cdn).that is the price of monthly fees and $100
  games for the xbox 360. this is if you uy games every month and pay for xbox live, and if that is the price for games.

  19.4.2005 14:12 #20