Live Marketplace hits web

By Tom Bramwell Published 12 October, 2006

You can browse it, anyway.

Microsoft has launched a website that allows gamers to explore Xbox Live Marketplace without having to turn on their Xbox 360.

Xbox Live Pipeline allows anybody to browse the listings for demos, trailers, themes and other downloadable content.

Although it's impossible to buy content using the web service, it's likely to prove popular with gamers frustrated by the console's own rather clunky browsing interface.

As well as listing all the service's content, Microsoft also uses it to push Xbox 360-related wares through an "Editor's Choice" panel, where new releases like the Xbox Live Vision camera are promoted next to adverts telling you where you can buy Microsoft points.

There are some drawbacks though. There is currently no way to list content by the date it was added, making it difficult to establish what's new, while the demos page also includes Xbox Live Arcade titles, cluttering the listing.

As with the console's own interface, which receives biannual upgrades, Microsoft is expected to refine Pipeline as consumers offer feedback.

It's also possible that the Pipeline service will one day allow PC owners to download software as well as browsing it - Microsoft has made a big show in recent months of its intention to offer cross-platform gaming experiences between Xbox 360, PC and mobile, under a campaign called "Live Anywhere".

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (20) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • EmiliasHorse #1 5 years ago

    Tried it..Didn't work, must be the work PC settings.

    Will give it a bash on home PC when the toils of work are finished for the day.

  • Aurifex. #2 5 years ago

    Looks ok for er, looking.

  • spongebob #3 5 years ago

    I like it. Now I am even more excited about getting an Xbox 360. Wahey!

    (I like Wii and PS3, too, honest).

  • peterfll #4 5 years ago

    Given inside the bowels of Microsoft they have a small army of people who specialise in user interfaces and information presentation, it continues to shock me how crap the information is laid on the 360 dashboard. The last dash update improved things, marginally........

  • IAmBatman #5 5 years ago

    And still they don't give you a way of previwing themes or gamer pictures.

  • Sorb #6 5 years ago

    Why is this not on majornelson.com? And what´s this Halo 3 beginning stuff I never heard about?? Maybe they have demoted the major or something...

  • ralphwolfenstein #7 5 years ago

    What they need to do is allow you to queue up your downloads from your PC at work. Then get home, fire up the old girl, whack on Geometry Wars, and watch all your downloads start in the background...

  • bloodflowers #8 5 years ago

    Doesn't work on Linux, probably needs flash 8 or newer. I hate flash, and Adobe.

  • PS3lol #9 5 years ago

    New Halo 3 pic there when you click game video and demos

  • BartonFink #10 5 years ago

    Great site makes things an awful lot easier to find.

    Now what would be really nice would be if it allowed you to queue up downloads for your 360.

  • SomaticSense #11 5 years ago

    Great idea, saves a tiny bit of hassle as it saves me having to switch the internet cable from my PC to the 360, which because they are incompletely different rooms, involves me threading the cable through my living room, through a fractionally open door (which is closed off as the PC is in front of it) in order to connect it to the modem. It can be a pain having to do that only to find out that bugger has been put up worth downloading.

    One problem though. Even though a few people (including the article itself) have mentioned about it being easier to find stuff, I disagree. While it is much easier to find the total listing of everything put up for download overall, there seems to be no way to filter out the new and the old. So it looks like it might be slightly annoying when trying to find out what exactly has been updated that wasn't there last time you checked, as you have to scroll down all the way through all the old stuff as well. Only minor points though.

    Not sure what's the problem with the 360 Marketplace menus though. The only problem I have with them is it kicks you back out of the seperate game DLC menus once you have selected something to download, which can be very annoying when you want to download multiple stuff from a single game (I'm looking at you DR and Prey......)

  • spookyzombie #12 5 years ago

    Wouldn't work for me either.
    Edited by 1 at 12/10/06 @ 13:35

  • Zomoniac #13 5 years ago

    And what´s this Halo 3 beginning stuff I never heard about??

    It's a big (350mb-ish) video in the Halo 3 section, got lots of interviews with Bungie dudes, behind the scenes footage, bits of the trailer from alternate angles, bits of discussion about the meaning of the trailer, how it relates to the game, where they're going with the game, stuff like that, it's pretty good, well worth downloading.

    Edit: Grammar fix
    Edited by 1 at 12/10/06 @ 14:00

  • oerhoert #14 5 years ago

    Doesn't work.

    I only get a blank canvas-like rectangle.

    Thank you Microsoft, for testing your web services well!

    (Firefox@Linux)

  • Xerx3s #15 5 years ago

    And still they don't give you a way of previwing themes or gamer pictures.

    <a href='http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/marketplace/themes.htm'& gt;theme's</a>
    <a href='http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/marketplace/gamerpics.htm '>pic's</a>

    You may touch me now. ;p

  • kangarootoo #16 5 years ago

    Doesn't work for me either. Firefox 1.5.0.7 on Windows XP. Hope you are reading this MS.

    "There is currently no way to list content by the date it was added, making it difficult to establish what's new"

    Ahh nuts. Thats possibly one of the most important browsing features. Hope you are reading this too MS.

  • kangarootoo #17 5 years ago

    Got latest flash shockwave player and now (after a a relaunch bit of refresh button high jinks) it seems to work.

    A bit cluncky, but I guess its new so it will get better.

  • oerhoert #18 5 years ago

    Cool that you can see previews of the themes on the web, but surely the main problem with those themes are the godawful interface elements placed on top of those nice backgrounds?

    Shame that the 360 dashboard couldn't be designed to look nice for a change, instead of the normal "Microsoft ugly". I love my 360, but I would have loved it so much more if they'd bothered to hire a designer.

  • ForburyLion #19 5 years ago

    Great, Now I can check for new content at work and decide whether I need to powerup the 360 when I get home!

  • Dodgymat #20 5 years ago

    The demo list is out of date already. NFS: Carbon, FIFA 07 or Tiger 07 nowhere to be seen.

    I really hope Microsoft don't employ the same people to keep this one up to date as they do for the main xbox.com website. The amount of mistakes and incorrect details on there are too many to even begin to list.


    It's a great idea, but please don't waste this golden opportunity...

  • Helios #21 5 years ago

    At least you can view themes and stuff before actually buying the sodding things now.

    At least, for the themes :|
    Edited by 1 at 12/10/06 @ 21:41