Retail boxart for Xbox Live Arcade: Unplugged

by Conrad Quilty-Harper { Jun 29th 2006 at 6:40AM }

German site Gamefront.de managed to bag some shots of the relatively uninspiring retail packaging of Xbox Live Arcade: Unplugged. The pack includes offline versions of Geometry Wars, Texas Hold'em, Wik, Bejeweled 2, Outpost Kaloki X, Hardwood Backgammon, a free 1-month Gold membership, 100 free Microsoft points, and should be available in early September.

We realize that trying to package six games together limits the freedom you have to be creative, but maybe the design team should have taken a look at Microsoft's parody of their own box designs. Simple? Yes. Attractive? Noooo!!!

[Via BritishGaming]

Tags: art, Bejeweled 2, Bejeweled2, Box art, BoxArt, Darth Vader, DarthVader, Early September, EarlySeptember, Gamefront, Geometry Wars, GeometryWars, Gold membership, GoldMembership, Hardwood Backgammon, HardwoodBackgammon, Microsoft, Microsoft points, MicrosoftPoints, Ninth month of the year, NinthMonthOfTheYear, Nooo!!!, Outpost Kaloki X, OutpostKalokiX, Parody, Sept, Shizzle Games, ShizzleGames, Texas Hold'em, TexasHold'em, Wik, XBLA, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Online, Xbox360, XboxLiveArcade, XboxOnline

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

epobirs @ Jun 29th 2006 6:51AM

Can't people make XBLA purchases via Xbox Live Silver, the free portion of the service? Therefore, wouldn't the appeal of this package be almost entirely to people who cannot connect their Xbox or cannot get broadband to their home?

Yet here is Microsoft throwing in a month of Xbox Live Gold, just to tease those poor souls? Do they see it as something build anticipation while the 360 owner impatiently wait for someone to bring service to his area.

Insominia? Who, me?

Indiana Jones @ Jun 29th 2006 6:52AM

"Get all the fun of Arcade without using Xbox Live or an online connection!"

Then why the hell does it include 100MS Points and a Month of Xbox Live Gold which are only redeemable if you are online!

Neil @ Jun 29th 2006 7:09AM

This looks very fake. Notice there's no Xbox 360 banner along the top and there's also no PEGI or BBFC rating.

No digg guys!

IslandLife @ Jun 29th 2006 7:14AM

I saw that video quite awhile ago and it still makes me laugh. In fact I'm pretty sure I sent that in to joystiq. Hmmm. Anyway, it goes to show that Microsoft knows absolutely nothing about design.

Conrad Quilty-Harper @ Jun 29th 2006 7:19AM

Neil, we cut it down so it wouldn't take up too much vertical space. Click the link on the article for more.

Tim Marman @ Jun 29th 2006 8:10AM

I had the same thoughts as #1/2 when I first read this. If you can get online to use the 1 month and 100 MS points, why do you need to buy this in stores at all? Weird bundle.

I assume the games aren't any cheaper if purchased in retail - in fact, given production, packaging and distribution, you would actually expect it to be MORE expensive.

So why then? :)

shivr @ Jun 29th 2006 8:17AM

haha... the video is telling, but what really made me laugh was the video of steve ballmer (?) running around like an insane man on stage in the "related videos" section.

*ritualistic chant of "developers"*

Ahh, those were the days...

dvddesign @ Jun 29th 2006 9:45AM

(whispers) hey... neil... wrong website.
Just letting you know...

Digg is over there. (points)

Thomas Crymes @ Jun 29th 2006 10:09AM

From the packaging it appears like a stupid thing, but MS knows that the compilation will appeal to more than just the people without internet connections. The Gold Trial and MS Points are offered because there are people with broadband connections who don't think XBL is worth it, so MS bundles some good XBLA games and includes some free XBL service to entice more people to join.

XBL has only about 40% or 50% of 360 owners. I think there is a considerable percentage of the remaining users out there who have broadband, but have yet to sign up.

Even though Silver is free, not everyone with broadband will sign up for whatever reason. Bottom line is that it isn't as stupid a move as some would paint it to be.

that guy @ Jun 29th 2006 10:20AM

Microsoft has to make it even easier to get online. Even getting the silver subscription is a bit of a pain to do (they say you don't need a credit card, yadda yadda, but I'm pretty 'learned' in this stuff and I still had to call up MS support to get everything done and even then, the dude on the phone was telling how stupid one of the steps was).

All the power to MS getting people online. They should just make it easier to get connected - just my two cents.

epobirs @ Jun 29th 2006 11:18AM

Wait a minute. You're an adult but cannot get a credit card? They let guys in prison have Xbox 360s and broadband now?

that guy @ Jun 29th 2006 11:26AM

epobirs - I'm not sure if you're referring to me, but yes, I have two credit cards. You're missing the point though. I'm saying that despite 'not needing a credit card' as MS puts it, it's still not easy to set up an Xbox Live account (as it was supposed to be much easier when 360 came out).

Mavs Man @ Jun 29th 2006 11:44AM

It's really not hard at all to make a silver account, just use enter in email address, name and location info and you are done, silver does not require a credit card, and for the cheap asses that dont wanna pay $50 a year, just sign up for silver and they give you a free trial of gold, when that expires delete the account make a new fake yahoo email and use that for another free trial and just keep repeating.

Crabsmasher @ Jun 29th 2006 12:01PM

If you want Xbox Live enough that you keep signing up for silvers over and over again why don't your just buy a subscription. Signing up for so many accounts would be a pain and you would lose all your stats every time you signed up.

Signing up for a silver account was easy for me, I did it on my computer. I don't even have an Xbox 360, but my friend does so I used my silver account at his house.

Those orange boxes remind me of Windows Media Player before version 10.