Games on demand

The new games on demand service on xbox live marketplace begins next week and microsoft have listed the opening games. No price as yet but is anyone interested in any of the following and what would you pay?

* Assassin's Creed
* Burnout Paradise
* Call of Duty 2
* Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
* Fight Night Round 3
* Kameo: Elements of Power
* LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
* Mass Effect
* Meet The Robinsons
* MX vs. ATV Untamed
* Need for Speed Carbon
* Need for Speed: Most Wanted
* Perfect Dark Zero
* Prey
* Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis
* SEGA Rally
* Test Drive: Unlimited
* Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas
* Tomb Raider: Legend
* Viva Piñata
* Viva Piñata 2: Trouble in Paradise

[Aragorn]

Maybe Assassin's Creed if it's a fiver. Some old games there - the kind you can get preowned from Game or ebay.
Not exactly champing at the bit.

[Callumpy]

Wow, very easy gamerscore games

[Matt D]

Apparently the prices will be "comparable" with retail RRPs.

I which case, I think MS can get stuffed!

Those are old games, available cheaply on the budget range or as pre-owned copies.

Surely digital distribution should mean they should be cheaper than whatever the RRP is, seeing as there is no packaging, shipping, store overhead, etc. You're just downloading a file...

I bought TR Legend pre-owned for £5. How much would it be via "Games on Demand"?

Also, any game you download via this obviously cannot then be re-sold/traded at a later date. When I had, e.g. Ass Creed & PD Zero on disc, I traded them in after completion. Can't do that with "Games on Demand".

[cimt]

There's a video on the Dashboard which shows you some features, and it shows you a game for 1600 points which would be less than £17 (the price for 2000 on Marketplace). I think the game may of been Mass Effect.

[Charlie_Bubble]

Originally Posted by cimt

There's a video on the Dashboard which shows you some features, and it shows you a game for 1600 points which would be less than £17 (the price for 2000 on Marketplace). I think the game may of been Mass Effect.

If it was Mass Effect, you can get that brand new in shops for around £12 and second hand for under a tenner.

Microsoft have now confirmed the prices:-

Downloadable titles going live as part of the console's autumn dashboard update will cost between 1600-2400 MS Points ($19.99-$29.99 / £13.60-£20.40), the company told Joystiq.

Probably stick to the bargin bin then!

[Charlie_Bubble]

Ok if you live in some eastern European countries where games cost a lot more than they do here, but pointless in big markets like the US and UK.

[Stuart]

It's not pointless at all. It has the advantage over shops that you do not have to travel to get the game. You also know that MS won't run out of stock. That's also an advantage over Mail Order (even Amazon run out of stock from time to time), and you also get the game a lot quicker. You also have to wait a couple of days to get your purchase. Even a large game should only take a couple of hours.

Of course, it also has disadvantages. It can be quite expensive. It's also very dependent on a good internet connection (something which few, if any, ISPs can provide all of the time). Also, as with any digital download service, products can be pulled with little or no notice. For example, when Google shut down the commercial Google Video service, a lot of people lost the rights to stream videos that they'd paid for. I also cite the fact that Amazon recently (apparently accidentally) removed 1984 from all their Kindle devices. At least with actual discs, no one can decide that you just can't play the discs you have bought.

[Matt D]

I can see the advantages, but IMO it is simply too expensive. No disc, no packaging, no shipping, no shop overheads, etc. etc... I always thought digital downloads were supposed to be cheaper?

Too pricey, can't be re-sold when you finish them... Not interested, personally.

[cimt]

All the games that are on there atm cost £19.99. Now, I've just checked the prices against some of the games on Play.com and you can get them for close to £10. Games on Demand looks like a ripoff imo.

[deathtrap3000]

I thought there would be a lot more titles available. I also thought they would be a little cheaper as well.

Still my prediction for the games on demand service came true. Albeit a year late.

[SB_07]

Well "on demand" is pretty much the selling point....

[Matt D]

But why would anyone give a monkey's about paying over the odds just to be able to get old games "on demand"?

If I'd never played e.g. Mass Effect, despite it having been out for nearly two years, I'd much prefer to order it online (cheap) & wait a few days for it to turn up in the post, or nip into town & buy it in my local game shop's 2nd hand section (cheap). I'd have waited since November 2007, I think I could bring myself to wait just a little bit longer if it meant saving money compared to buying it from the "Games on Demand" service. Plus it would also mean I'd have a manual, & a disc, etc. And if I didn't want to keep it when I finished it, I could sell it on...

Same with the others. Assassin's Creed came out in November 2007, PDZ was a 360 launch game back at the end of 2005, Oblivion & TR:Legend came out in 2006...


How many people, after having decided they want to play an old game, will be so impatient that they'll just go ahead & shell out a load of M$P to get it "on demand", instead of just waiting a short while to buy it cheaply (with the added benefit of a disc & a manual).


If these games were actually cheaper than the physical versions, then great. But so far it sounds like a rip-off to me.

If the service eventually gets to the point where new games are released at the same time on this as they are on disc, or at least soon after, then that could be a good thing...

... but I doubt the retailers would like that. Plus they'd probably cost the same, and - as above - you would be unable to sell or trade-in the games after you've finished them.


HDD space is another issue. At the moment the 360 is limited to 120GB. That could soon fill up if you keep buying "Games on Demand".


Digital downloads work fine for music, as the files are cheap and are relatively small.

It works fine for things such as the Xbox Live Arcade & the PSN, as the games are relatively cheap, & relatively small.

It works fine for movie rentals, as it saves the hassle of going to Blockbuster, the cost is comparable, and the HDD space used doesn't really matter due to it just being a rental.


But buying games to keep, with no disc, with no manual, with no ability to trade-in, with considerable HDD space taken up, and with a ridiculous price? No thanks, Microsoft. Not convinced.

[icestar2]

Originally Posted by Matt D

But why would anyone give a monkey's about paying over the odds just to be able to get old games "on demand"?

If I'd never played e.g. Mass Effect, despite it having been out for nearly two years, I'd much prefer to order it online (cheap) & wait a few days for it to turn up in the post, or nip into town & buy it in my local game shop's 2nd hand section (cheap). I'd have waited since November 2007, I think I could bring myself to wait just a little bit longer if it meant saving money compared to buying it from the "Games on Demand" service. Plus it would also mean I'd have a manual, & a disc, etc. And if I didn't want to keep it when I finished it, I could sell it on...

Same with the others. Assassin's Creed came out in November 2007, PDZ was a 360 launch game back at the end of 2005, Oblivion & TR:Legend came out in 2006...


How many people, after having decided they want to play an old game, will be so impatient that they'll just go ahead & shell out a load of M$P to get it "on demand", instead of just waiting a short while to buy it cheaply (with the added benefit of a disc & a manual).


If these games were actually cheaper than the physical versions, then great. But so far it sounds like a rip-off to me.

If the service eventually gets to the point where new games are released at the same time on this as they are on disc, or at least soon after, then that could be a good thing...

... but I doubt the retailers would like that. Plus they'd probably cost the same, and - as above - you would be unable to sell or trade-in the games after you've finished them.


HDD space is another issue. At the moment the 360 is limited to 120GB. That could soon fill up if you keep buying "Games on Demand".


Digital downloads work fine for music, as the files are cheap and are relatively small.

It works fine for things such as the Xbox Live Arcade & the PSN, as the games are relatively cheap, & relatively small.

It works fine for movie rentals, as it saves the hassle of going to Blockbuster, the cost is comparable, and the HDD space used doesn't really matter due to it just being a rental.


But buying games to keep, with no disc, with no manual, with no ability to trade-in, with considerable HDD space taken up, and with a ridiculous price? Not thanks, Microsoft. Not convinced.

. . . . . . .What he said