E3: Games-on-demand service for Live

By Matt Martin Published 1 June, 2009

30 titles at August launch, CC and MSP.

Microsoft is to launch a games-on-demand service for Xbox 360, allowing users to buy full games such as Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed and BioShock over Xbox Live.

Around 30 titles are due for the launch of the service in August, with Microsoft accepting direct purchase with credit cards, as well as the standard option of using Microsoft Points.

The service was announced following Microsoft's E3 conference during a VIP lunch for select members of the press.

As with Xbox Live Arcade titles, Microsoft is promising to release new titles every week, and users will also be able to rate games using a star rating system.

The company would not commit to detailing whether titles will launch for sale online day-and-date with boxed retail copies, with the initial batch of games suggesting the service will act as a resale opportunity for older product.

The initial batch of titles will also include Sonic The Hedgehog, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Crackdown, Colin McRae DiRT, Call of Duty 2 and LEGO Star Wars.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 2 months ago

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  • jimbob101 #1 3 years ago

    How much? I'm going to guess about £20, when most of these are avaiable for about £10-20 new at retail, which you can then sell on.
    Edited by 1 at 01/06/09 @ 21:24

  • Razzajazz #2 3 years ago

    They are going to HAVE to release new HDD's soon, higher capacity, and bloody cheap, I hope. Or even better, just sell us a empty cartridge-type-thing we can put our OWN 2.5" HDD's in. FFS. :D

  • mattigan #3 3 years ago

    I thought crackdown didn't work off the HDD?

  • Steroyd #4 3 years ago

    Hopefully this encourages multiplat devs to do push more on PS3 PSN what Sony's doing on the PSP PSN, as far as retail games go.

    Although the lack of option to upgrade to any HDD is going to hurt users in the long run, especially with the option to install disc games on top of this.

  • midnight_walker #5 3 years ago

    I hope beyond hope that they won't impose the usual never-falling price premium that downloads seem to carry. You can get Crackdown for about a fiver now, pretty much anywhere, however I'm fully expecting a Live price to be in the region of £20, which is ridiculous.

  • Wayne #6 3 years ago

    This''ll just be MS testing the water. Next gen, all games will be delivered this way.

  • bad09 #7 3 years ago

    1200 for Xbox I expect them to cost a small fortune.

    Nice idea but once again (like Sony with PSN) they miss the ENTIRE point of 2nd hand, you know that thing they want to just ignore. Make it cheap MS or fail.....

  • Negotiator #8 3 years ago

    1200 for Xbox I expect them to cost a small fortune.

    Nice idea but once again (like Sony with PSN) they miss the ENTIRE point of 2nd hand, you know that thing they want to just ignore. Make it cheap MS or fail.....

    Shut up you nob head, MS are giving people the future in the palm of thier hands and the past, and you talk about 2nd hand.

  • Figgernaggot #9 3 years ago

    Man, my old 20Gb component dinosaur is looking so rickety these days. *eyes up Elites*

  • bad09 #10 3 years ago

    No Negotiator, I talk about gaming (not just the next "new" thing) and, more importantly.....MONEY!

    See I care about my money that's why I talk of price and yes those 'orrible old fart 2nd hand games, maybe you should to. It's people like you letting these people rip us! But carry on judging others like..

    Anyway like I said NICE IDEA. twat...
    Edited by 2 at 01/06/09 @ 21:54

  • comedian #11 3 years ago

    The freedom of choice is a marvelous thing.

  • Widge #12 3 years ago

    The screenshots I saw had $ next to them (Mass Effect $19.99) and not points. Maybe credit cards coming to the 360 for games?

    I think this stuff is great, readily available games from the HDD is a plus.

    And poor Bad09, learn never to say anything negative against holy box.
    Edited by 1 at 01/06/09 @ 22:39

  • XdarXideX #13 3 years ago

    I totally called this the other week... though I thought this would be a major announcement of the press conference.

  • bad09 #14 3 years ago

    "And poor Bad09, learn never to say anything negative against holy box."

    I know, I SHOULD know better by now... ;)

  • Widge #15 3 years ago

    or at least do it slyly

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #16 3 years ago

    I thought crackdown didn't work off the HDD?

    Given that they've committed to a sequel, they could probably have Ruffian make a title update patch for the original - or even do it themselves. It's probably just a matter of disabling the hard disk cacheing and amending some of the checks for cached data that prevent users without HDDs playing coop. Certainly during development, like all other Xbox 360 games, Crackdown played diectly from the HDD.

  • jimbob101 #17 3 years ago

    The cheapest prices from Gamestracker. I bet all the donwloads will be about £20, so what's the point?

    Mass Effect - £11.99
    Assassins Creed - £8.91
    Bioshock - £9.98
    Sonic - £10.98
    Oblivion - £14.99
    Crackdown - £10.79
    Dirt - £13.87
    COD2 - £9.98
    Lego Star Wars- £16.63

  • Darren #18 3 years ago

    @Wayne - "This''ll just be MS testing the water. Next gen, all games will be delivered this way."

    I very much doubt it given that the next gen of consoles are predicted to arrive within the next three to four years. That's far too early IMO to switch over to digital distribution only, particularly in the UK where currently a large percentage of the broadband population still have size capped connections of 2 Mbps or less. Imagine downloading 10 to 50 GB games on such a connection and what about storage? A disc allows unlimited storage so long as you have room for the cases in your house, no matter how big an HDD or SSD is, you'll be limited by the space on that disc.

    I have no doubt that digital distribution will increase in popularity as the technology improves and prices drop, especially for small games on XBLA and downloadable content, but I don't think any console manufacturer will drop optical media entirely for full games for at least another two generations myself. To do so with the next-gen consoles would be suicidal if you ask me as you instantly restrict the number of people who have access to them. Also as we know from Steam etc. it leaves people at the mercy of extortionate asking prices for new games, sometimes as much as £25 above internet prices, and I can't imagine that will go down well with the public, especially as these games will have no resale value.

    Personally, the day games go download only will be the day I hang my controller up for good...

  • XdarXideX #19 3 years ago

    I'm sure Microsoft WILL opt for at least a MAINLY digital distribution based console next. Think about it... there will be no disc data limits. Games can be as big or as little as they need to be. Episodic content will come to the foreground as a more profitable and quicker way to distribute games. People will get their games faster and expansions will be small as they'll just use the same game engine data as the first download... they could even update the game engines on previously released games.

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