Xbox celebrates 5 years of Live

By Tom Bramwell Published 14 November, 2007

Free XBLA game, Xbox originals.

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.

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 (37) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • asphaltcowboy #1 4 years ago

    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!

  • Killerbee #2 4 years ago

    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...

  • MrFlintBlackman #3 4 years ago

    You can pick up each of those games for a least a fiver, stick it Microsoft.

  • lennon #4 4 years ago

    Will all these game work over the vga connection? If so then im trading my disc copy in.

  • woodnotes #5 4 years ago

    I reckon they'll tighten up the software emulation by tuning it to each game, a bit like Nintendo do with VC.

    I hope so, anyway. I want to play Psychonauts in 720p!

  • mattigan #6 4 years ago

    They will probably start puttung a bit more effort in now, seeing that they have a nice new revenue steam coming in.

  • Xerx3s #7 4 years ago

    Erm, in 2002, xbl wasn't availble in europe, was it? That's a rather unfair exclusion of europeans.

    8 million subscribers. 0_o If only 2 or 3 million of those sign up for live, it could easily be the most profitable enterprise of the ms HED.

  • Hypnopedia #8 4 years ago

    @WOPR

    +100000000

    It fucked my profile last night, and wouldn't let me recover it - it better work tonight...

    /seethes..

  • Xerx3s #9 4 years ago

    Shame that Xbox live is totally fucked at the moment then.

    Booted up this morning, seems oke again.

  • TriggerHippie #10 4 years ago

    Right oh, maybe if I send Microsoft Support an email they'll log on for me with my fucking itinerant console.

  • Royal Fool #11 4 years ago

    500 points as a "token of appreciation"... lol. Hilarious.

  • delbert #12 4 years ago

    Thanks give me a free game I already bought! Wouldnt a choice of 2 or 3 been more appropriate!

  • sickboy #13 4 years ago

    what's that GMT then?

  • skillian #14 4 years ago

    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 ;)

  • Avenger1324 #15 4 years ago

    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.

  • Tim #16 4 years ago

    That's odd - my 360 runs in 720p and I was playing Psychonauts using the disc just the other night. Seemed fine to me. Can't see why the downloadable one would be any different. Maybe it happens later in the game or something?

  • redlander #17 4 years ago

    What a load a bollocks!

    Charging for money for old rope.

  • Mildew #18 4 years ago

    Guess they're referring to those who signed up to live on the original black brick. Still i'm not grumbling at a free game :o)

  • homerramone #19 4 years ago

    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.

  • Fyzzu #20 4 years ago

    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 :(

  • GamesConnoisseur #21 4 years ago

    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.

  • Peew971 #22 4 years ago

    "between 12.01am PST on 15th November and midnight the following evening"
    What's this on GMT please?

  • Squig #23 4 years ago

    Indeed some of those games can be had for under of the same as the £10 asking price. Id rather track down disc copies if poss.

  • barnard666 #24 4 years ago

    500 points - come on!

  • brainbird #25 4 years ago

    PST = GMT - 8h
    Midnight PST should be ...hmmm... 8.00 in the morning then.

    Carcassone for free, thanks. And maybe some MS points. Is it confirmed all offers are for Europeans, too?

  • dllord #26 4 years ago

    Carcassone?????

    And there was me thinking of what game i was going to get! bastards made the choice for me now!

    Probably won't bother at all now

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #27 4 years ago

    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...

  • SirClive #28 4 years ago

    £10 for an Xbox original download! You can pick up amost everything for less than that pre-owned and get the phyical box, manual and disk.

  • Mechorpheus #29 4 years ago

    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.

  • SomaticSense #30 4 years ago

    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 :(

  • Rodney #31 4 years ago

    Are these straight ports/ or they are going to introduce new features, achievements and multiplayer etc

  • teabagger #32 4 years ago

    The more I think about my live subscription the more I think it just isn't worth the money, even if I were to use it more. I reckon I'm going to stop mine and if I want to play anything multiplayer I'll use the PS3.

  • jiveguy #33 4 years ago

    @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 by 1 at 14/11/07 @ 15:22

  • funkyd #34 4 years ago

    Shame my 360 went RRoD a few days ago :(

  • Downside #35 4 years ago

    @jive
    shame, I was beta bait too, no probs keeping my a/c alive - ur unlucky :/

  • Barry619 #36 4 years ago

    Great!

    Live wasn't about here in 2002.

    I bought Carcassone when it came out.

    I've been using some form of xbox for the past 4 years now... cheers for "rewarding" me MS, love you too!!!

    ... Wankers.

  • cyber_nicco #37 4 years ago

    Where's my fucking 500 points? I see nothing about it on the Xbox site...