Xbox 360 Games on Demand Revealed

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One big problem, MS then you have their DRM (STEAM) copycat that is MS will own you and your MS DRM infected games. NOpe, give my brick and mortar stores and a physical disk in my hand.
Then you the Crapbox 360s Hard Drive that is proprietary. The PS3 is any 2.5" SATA drive you want to stick in it. You can actually pull it and put it in a external HD encloser ($20.00 at Newegg) and back the whole thing up to another drive. 3.5" 1 Terabyte drives can be had for about $100 now.
 
[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]There will likely always be physical media, but when you load it to the hard drive you register it with the Xbox Live service and if you tank your HDD your registered purchase can be re-downloaded.Exactly.Like.Steam.Even if not, removing physical media and not having packaging, delivery trucks or other supply chain should drive costs down.Exactly.Like.Steam.[/citation]

Costs will be driven down but not prices.

New games on Steam still sell for $49.99 even without the additional costs of physical media. Bottom line is a fat profit margin but still the same or even higher (because they're the only one selling) prices.
 
would be nice if they either unlocked the hard drive system for user replaceable units or came out with larger capacity models themselves... even the 120gb model is tiny... come on microsoft... the idea is good but make it easier for customers to buy up those games with online storage capacity that reflects your will to sell them content!
 
[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]Right now, somewhere in Japan, there is a Sony executive making his way to the nearest window ledge, trying to aim for a nice car somewhere down below...[/citation]

What ever happened to seppuku?
 
I have just this past weekend put in a 500GB 2.5" 7200RPM HD into my PS3, I have a 1TB LaCie USB drive with 1TB capacity (931GB) as my backup and restore source for my PS3, restores work great, also my place for saving my trailers and pics for my PS3. MS should have done the HD scenario like Sony did., but alas they wanted to suck money from the user, hardly a new concept from MS.
 
Sounds like a good idea, unless of course you have just the Arcade or Core version of the 360 which means you gotta go out and buy a hard drive 😀. Anyway as long as it's cheaper than the boxed version at the store I'm sure people will spend money they otherwise wouldn't simply because it's convenient. It also sounds like a great way for MS to put extra server capacity to use and earn some more money, like they even need to.
 
[citation][nom]hopiamani[/nom]Costs will be driven down but not prices.New games on Steam still sell for $49.99 even without the additional costs of physical media. Bottom line is a fat profit margin but still the same or even higher (because they're the only one selling) prices.[/citation]

This is not true. Bandwidth actually costs money, servers actually cost money. The idea that they're fattening their profit margin by not selling brick-and-mortar is false. They release both on steam and through brick and mortar to sell more copies to more people overall. If you notice anytime a retailer releases an update, or wants to sell extra copies they can slash the price on Steam for a weekend and renew interest in a game. Offering customers multiple ways to obtain your product and giving them incentives to use your service is just good business sense.

That being said, who cares if you can do this on a 360? What happens when you RROD, or your crappy proprietary hard drive craps out? Microsoft has built a machine that is so utterly incomplete they will be nickle-and-dime-ing customers for years.

Does anyone else think it's funny that the article makes sure to not you can use real cash and not MS cash on the games you buy?

 
The only problem with this idea is that the 360 users will need to drop their pants and lean over twice. First time is to upgrade to a 120GB hard drive, then later when people start complaining, conveniently release a larger capacity hard drive thats even more expensive than the 120GB....

I wish microsoft went open standards like sony did. I hate it how i cant use a random mic with playing on xbl. Or be stuck with the 20GB hdd i bought from a pawn broker.

That being said, who cares if you can do this on a 360? What happens when you RROD, or your crappy proprietary hard drive craps out? Microsoft has built a machine that is so utterly incomplete they will be nickle-and-dime-ing customers for years.
Click to expand...

People capable like me can purchase rrod 360s @ ~AU$50 from the nearest pawn broker, replace x-clamps, cook it in the oven for 30mins and then sell as a repaired modded console for profit. So im grateful for the dicks who bought rrod ridden 360s as they provide good income for a couple an hours work.

If you couldn't tell, im a ps3/pcfanboi.....
 
Be great if they did something like this for the PS3, you know, the console with a hard drive that you can upgrade, the one that is bigger than 20Gb.
 
So just because the XBOX360 now allows digital purchase we call this "on demand"? Sorry, I don't see the revolution here. OnLive would be true "on demand" gaming. This is just Steam for xbox.
 
uh they are just now coming out with downloadable games? i dont own an 360 but i am confused....seriously just now coming out with downloadable games?
 
Fanboys - do you really think either Microsoft or Sony care about the fact you have an unhealthy relationship with your games console and defend them at every opportunity? No, they don't. Now grow the fuck up and get outside.
 
I think it's a lame excuse to say 'hdd sizes wil improve'the 20gb hdd that microsoft offer as standard if only just twice as big as my USB stick and the same size as the HDD my pc had.... .....15 years ago....

Look at it this way, the price difference between a 20gb hdd (~£20) and a 1tb drive (~£50) isnt that big, and certainly not proportionally related to the size of the drive, and that's at retail, id imagine at wholesale its a damn sight less
 
This has me pondering if one day there will be a "Zune Pass" style subscription service. Say $30-50/month... unlimited downloads with DRM attached to your current paid subscription. Would be like GameFly on steroids.
 
If MS plans this, They should release an update to allow a custom hard drive larger than the 120GB image. Also, Newer 360 consoles should come with an eSATA port for this purpose.
 
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