AfterDawn: News

Update: Microsoft announces on-demand games through XBL

In an update to our main Microsoft E3 summary article, it appears the software giant is set to put some added pressure on retail chains, announcing they will start "on-demand" downloads of games for the Xbox 360 through Xbox Live.

It's as simple as that. If you want to buy the game, simply log into XBL, search it, buy it, download it, and play.



The service will begin in August and will start with 30 games including Assassin's Creed, BioShock, Call of Duty 2, Crackdown, Mass Effect, and Oblivion. You can purchase the games using a credit card, or using Microsoft Points, and although the pricing isn't clear yet, it appears it will be similar to retail, only slightly cheaper.

It may be time to upgrade your HDDs as well, as these games will certainly eat up a 20GB or 60GB hard drive in no time.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 2 Jun 2009 21:54

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• 12 comments

• DXR88

  ah an MS classic maneuver, where the service of MS is nullified by the MS device. there is no way in hell this will take off, unless they do something about the ridicules HDD sizes, which they wont.

  2.6.2009 22:06 #1

• ZzeusS

  Probably makes sense as the low end stuff is being phased out of the retail chain anyway. Some of those items go for 10 bucks. Why bother stocking it on the store shelves.

  2.6.2009 22:26 #2

• lamain

  The Xbox 360 HDD might not be ready for this but I am. I for one will use it and I hope it takes off. I would hope and expect that if you buy a game you will be able to re-download it anytime. So no more scratched or lost disks.
  
  Correct me if I am wrong but this should improve load times on the games as well.

  2.6.2009 23:15 #3

• pcrazy99

  I won't be doing this. I don't want to use up my bandwith downloading old games and eating up my harddrive. Maybe I would if I was able to upgrade my harddrive like a PS3.

  3.6.2009 02:20 #4

• mostopher

  Great stuff, an end to resselling your old games, an end to finding your games cheaper in another shop and the added expense of buying a bigger hard drive. What a great idea for us gamers. Seriously though, the only real benefit i can see of DL games is finding rare or niche titles.

  3.6.2009 04:10 #5

• Interestx

  Now give us a 500gb HDD.
  
  With this and the other very cool stuff they showed (the Natal demo was amazing - and the scanning in of your own 'peripherals' could be the unspoken and outstanding part of it) we really need to go way beyond 120gb.
  
  I like to play all my games off of the HDD and I'm finding 120gb too small right now.
  I can of course dump games off of the HDD to make room but it's a PITA.
  Just give us a 500gb (or bigger) HDD.....or open up the USB porting properly and let us hook up the HDD of our choice.

  3.6.2009 10:26 #6

• Footie979

  I won't buy Xbox Originals online because I'd rather have a physical copy for the future. I won't buy non-disc games, only if they're Arcade or DLC. I bought the Tomb Raider: Anniversary add-on for TR: Legend, that's about all I'll do.

  3.6.2009 20:04 #7

• inagasake

  HDD space is already a big issue Post-NXE. This would make it even more of an issue. When I first considered getting a 360, I figured 20 GB would be enough. Boy was I wrong. It didn't take long to fill my 60 GB hard drive. Three of my games are multi-disc (Lost Odyssey 4 DVDs, Blue Dragon 3 DVDs, Infinite Undiscovery 2 DVDs) so you can imagine how annoying HDD space management is. I had to delete the Lost Odyssey (which I beat but will revisit later for side quests and achievements) and Eternal Sonata (returning to later) installs to make room for new installs.
  
  The only benefit to a 360 "on-demand" download service would be if they offered rare and expensive out-of-print games for a reasonable price. Games like Assassin's Creed, BioShock, Call of Duty 2, Crackdown, Mass Effect, and Oblivion are always going to be reasonably priced somewhere. It's the more niche games that go way up in price when they are out-of-print (ie. I've seen Beautiful Katamari go for $40 used but I'm sure that there are better examples of old 360 games going for inflated prices). I mean hell, you can still buy Fable and Halo (Original Xbox) brand new at Amazon and other mainstream places on the cheap much lower than what they sell for in XBL Marketplace.

  3.6.2009 21:58 #8

• Dr_Ni2

  Originally posted by pcrazy99: I won't be doing this. I don't want to use up my bandwith downloading old games and eating up my harddrive. Maybe I would if I was able to upgrade my harddrive like a PS3.Simple upgrade, snap off the old HDD then snap the new one on, no screws, not difficult.

  23.6.2009 13:26 #9

• MrPuffin

  Originally posted by DXR88: ah an MS classic maneuver, where the service of MS is nullified by the MS device. there is no way in hell this will take off, unless they do something about the ridicules HDD sizes, which they wont.
  
  i agree they need user upgradeable HDD like the PS3 but they wont do that wheres the profit behind that specialy since they only have like 20 billion dollars right now could always use more
  
  *not actual amount to clarify dont want someone saying thats not what they have*

  3.7.2009 02:36 #10

• howy_2005

  Originally posted by pcrazy99: I won't be doing this. I don't want to use up my bandwith downloading old games and eating up my harddrive. Maybe I would if I was able to upgrade my harddrive like a PS3.that merely depends on how the game is formatted....for games like mass effect and oblivion...yeah that will work fin and cut your loading times. but for games like halo 3 or call of duty 2...the game's partition part of the hard drive for their maps to work effectively. Currently the way everything is set up..if you install games that work this way to your HDD loading times are terrible. hopefully MS releases patches for these games that fix that.

  3.7.2009 13:27 #11

• Alternity

  That's true. I'm sure they'll augment the code to optimize load times, it's not incredibly difficult.
  
  And however said you can just pop a new HDD in you can't. You can't only buy a new MS Brand 120GB HDD for like $99 which is ridiculous OR take a particular type of WD hard drive and make a change to it allowing use in the 360 an even then you're limited to the allowed sizes. You can't actually use more than 120GB.

  31.7.2009 10:17 #12