At a luncheon following their media briefing today, Microsoft announced an upcoming new digital distribution service coming to Xbox LIVE Marketplace this August, called "Games on Demand."
This new service will allow users to purchase full Xbox 360 retail games directly from their Xbox 360, games that will act exactly like their retail counterparts -- achievements and all -- simply without the box. 30 titles will be available when the service launches. While titles weren't mentioned by name, some titles shown in the demo included Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, and BioShock.
It sounds like pricing will be in line with other retail channels, with Mass Effect being displayed for $19.99 in the demo we were shown. Good news? You won't be locked into using MS Points -- credit card purchases will be accepted. Right now it appears we're looking at back-cataloged items, but the future is open for day-and-date "Games on Demand" and brick and mortar retail releases.
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Contest:
2:46 PM on 06.01.2009
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Isn't Mass Effect going for $20 anyway? On Amazon it is. Why would I buy a digital copy when I can have the physical one for the same price?
Unless ofcourse, I really am that lazy and don't want to leave my house.
I bought two Xbox 360s when the largest HDD size was 20 GB--why should I have to spend an additional $300 now to upgrade them both to 120 GB units so that I can actually enjoy this content? Why can I get a 2.5" 60 GB HDD for $16 + shipping online, but a 2.5" 60 GB HDD in some shitty proprietary plastic housing costs me $100? Until I can get a reasonably priced drive for my Xboxes, I won't be touching retail game downloads.
I could definitely see the appeal of this for catching up on backlogged games that I never got around to buying.
I'm really hoping they'll announce some HDD price drops, or else I'm screwed.
So there's no way in hell I could use this( not being on xbl is also an issue).
I prefer having a pile of boxes, much more cooler.
I know, I know... that's not the point. The point is the small hdd's to begin with and the outragous cost of upgrading. It'd be nice if MS would release a tool which would let us format our own hdd's and lock it's content to use with the 360.
Myself, I'd prefer digital over a hard copy anyday. I'm more for functionality than "oh how big my weiner will be when someone see's how many cases I have stacked on a shelf".