Xbox celebrates 5 years of Live News
Xbox 360 Xbox News by Tom Bramwell
Microsoft is celebrating five years of Xbox Live by showering its eight million users - many of whom subscribe - with free gifts and introducing downloadable Xbox 1 games.
First up, any of you who venture online between 12.01am PST on 15th November and midnight the following evening will be able to download Carcassonne for free, while every active member who joined in 2002 - when the service first got going - will receive 500 Microsoft points as a token of Microsoft's appreciation for all the money/loyalty you've shown them.
And, as announced yesterday, the upcoming 4th December Dashboard Update will kick off a programme of Xbox 1 releases. All will be downloadable, priced at 1200 Microsoft points (GBP 10.20 / EUR 13.96), and Halo's among the openers.
The other games are Psychonauts (hurrah!), Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, Fable, Fuzion Frenzy, Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex and Burnout 3: Takedown. Fahrenheit was mooted yesterday, but seems to be absent from the official launch list.
Microsoft says it's "only the beginning", although it's worth bearing in mind that since Xbox 1 playback relies on software emulation there will be a few minor bugs to watch out for, helpfully detailed on the official Xbox website, the worst of which seem to be Fable's "random bursts of audio static" (wow, can we pre-order?) and Psychonauts not working in 720p on PAL Xbox 360s. "Running the game in 720p over HDMI will result in the game locking up for PAL users," says the website. "If you are using HDMI output, set the resolution to 1080i or 1080p (anything but 720p)." Hopefully they'll sort that out.
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Comments: 1-40 of 40 in total
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asphaltcowboy
14/11/07 @ 09:04
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Can't remember when I signed up... don't think it was as far back as 2002! Oh well, hopefully I can get my 360 online to download Carcassonne!
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Hmmm. Releasing these for download with bugs (or rather, "compatibility issues") in is a bit disappointing - you'd think they could sort those out with a little bit of effort. Plus I'd be interested to know how much space you need on your hard drive for each of these Xbox titles - I imagine Premium owners might start seeing the attraction of an Elite fairly soon...
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MrFlintBlackman
14/11/07 @ 09:06
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You can pick up each of those games for a least a fiver, stick it Microsoft.
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Hypnopedia
14/11/07 @ 09:19
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@WOPR
+100000000 It fucked my profile last night, and wouldn't let me recover it - it better work tonight... /seethes.. |
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TriggerHippie
14/11/07 @ 09:30
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Right oh, maybe if I send Microsoft Support an email they'll log on for me with my fucking itinerant console.
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I admit I never would have thought it would be a successful as it has been - I never thought that many people would be willing to pay a subscription to play online when people had been doing it for free for over a decade previously.
Whether that means that millions of people are mugs or I am a tightwad would depend on your interpretation ;) |
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Avenger1324
14/11/07 @ 09:52
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Nice idea being able to download xbox games, but you can already buy them cheaper from the shops. Also limited to owners of the Elite harddrive as I'd imagine having more than a couple of these along with your usual stuff will fill a standard 360 harddrive.
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homerramone
14/11/07 @ 10:21
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Charging for money for old rope.
Much as sony have been doing with PS1 games on PS£ and Ninty have been with NES, SNES, PCE etc games since the wii was released. Keeping up with Jones AFAICS. |
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Depends, I think. A few old games (not most of these, sadly) can be pains to come across. There've been a few I've resorted to Ebay for which have been about £20 on there, not counting shipping, as they're simply not in the second-hand bins in stores over here. Depending on what else comes up it might be quite useful. (I'll admit it was awhile ago I was looking for them, but it was under a year ago; it's possible prices have dropped massively and I've not noticed.)
I do wish they'd given us a choice of games, though. I've already got Carcassone, but I'd quite like Catan :( |
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GamesConnoisseur
14/11/07 @ 10:45
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Yes it is an old rope but it is the most newest compared to years old PS1 for PS3, and no later than N64 for Wii.
Again, dont buy it if you dont want it, so people who do download old Xbox games woud be doing it for a reason, other than just to fill up their 120GB hard drive!Those with bog standard 20 GB should just forget Xbox titles downloads! I had at one point thought that Sony seem to be doing BC better (more updates, more titles) but now with 40gb SKU BC-less (which is according to Sony going to be the standard) so thus PS3 will go no further than PS1. |
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Britesparc
14/11/07 @ 12:15
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Oh great, so the free game's one of the slack handful I actually bought.
Can't really complain, I suppose, as I've played it far, far more than any other XBLA title, but I wish it had been something I've been milling over, like Sonic 2, Bomberman, or Jetpac... |
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Mechorpheus
14/11/07 @ 13:19
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i really hope they can find a way around the whole VGA/50hz issue. I'd certianly buy Halo if they sorted that out. i dont hold out hope since it'll prolly just be a disk image or something which the emulator plays as if it were a real disk.
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SomaticSense
14/11/07 @ 13:55
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Ah crap.
I was there since literally day one, but had to make a new account for the 360 due to a combination of forgetting my details for the old one and a knackered Xbox 1. So I'm not going to get rewarded for my loyalty :( |
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@SomaticSense:
I'm in the same boat. I was on the beta when they were testing it in Ireland and I got a free years sub with the same gamertag after that, but when it came time to renew it myself itwouldn't let me and I had to create a new account :(.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 14/11/07 @ 15:22
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cyber_nicco
16/11/07 @ 01:04
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Where's my fucking 500 points? I see nothing about it on the Xbox site...
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Comments: 1-40 of 40 in total
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