Fall Xbox 360 dashboard update revealed: download Halo December 2
by Scott Jon Siegel 
{ Nov 13th 2007 at 5:55AM }
Let's say that one more time: come December 2, you will be able to download full, original Xbox games to the Xbox 360. The initial list of available games includes Fable, Indigo Prophecy, Crimson Skies: High Road To Revenge, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath Of Cortex, Burnout 3, and, of course, Halo: Combat Evolved.
Games will cost approximately 1200 Microsoft Points, or $15 USD. Microsoft plans on re-releasing as many Xbox 1 titles as possible through Marketplace. Look out, Virtual Console.
Update: The CVG source has been removed, but Eurogamer has posted a similar report, dating the update for December 4th.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Jake B @ Nov 13th 2007 6:03AM
wow
Digi Smalls @ Nov 13th 2007 4:38PM
hows that for backward compatibility.
Kizzle @ Nov 13th 2007 6:05AM
Awesome times fifty! Plus six.
Better move on to that 120 GB hard drive though. The 20 GB deal isn't gonna cut it for long if you want to download more than a few of these.
shadowprophet @ Nov 13th 2007 6:17AM
I think you mean 13GB :(
Jtenma @ Nov 13th 2007 8:34AM
Yeah, its the same with the ps3 and wii...on my 60 gig ps3 its actually a 55 gig....
Conspiracy...no, just formatting.
FrankTheCrank @ Nov 13th 2007 9:06AM
Since I didn't own XBOX1, weren't the XBOX games originally shipped on DVD? DVD's are 4.7GB single layer and 9.4GB in dual layer flavor.
With a premium XBOX2 system, you only get a 20GB HDD.
You guys better get ready to pay up...120GB drive is $179.
I just threw in a 160GB drive into my PS3 and it cost me $75.
You see what I mean about Micro$oft! Just keep buying into it.
Synner @ Nov 13th 2007 9:50AM
Frank as usual, you are a douche.
AirIntake @ Nov 13th 2007 10:00AM
@Frank,
You still have the option of going to EB and getting your Xbox 1 games for $5-$10 used instead of downloading them. Or in your case, you also have the option of killing yourself in order to give us all the gift of silence.
Emophia @ Nov 13th 2007 10:16AM
He's right though...
Still this makes me kond of jelous for my 360 owning bretheren...
I want PS3 titles on PSN Sony..
James @ Nov 13th 2007 10:43AM
Wait, I like the 360 and all but Frank is right (barring the price). But he gets marked down? What a bunch of twunts.
Dale @ Nov 13th 2007 10:47AM
@Frank: That is the capacity of the disc, it does not necessarily mean that's how large the game is.
So yes, some games are going to be beasts to download, but not all games. Thankfully, a 120GB HDD is top of my Christmas list.
Mez Jr @ Nov 13th 2007 10:54AM
The media does not dictate the size or amount of content, unless its too small. Not a single Xbox 1 game even made it close to 9 gb. If I recall correctly the largest one was some driving game at 4.5gb.
Slaziman @ Nov 13th 2007 1:36PM
Halo PC came on a CD, and was under 700MB, so yeah...
Sam @ Nov 13th 2007 6:14AM
Whoop-de-doo more money making features for MS
But where is the xvid/divx support?! :*(
Kamizar @ Nov 13th 2007 6:16AM
You need to read more news.
Marc Federico @ Nov 13th 2007 7:39AM
cool your jets, its coming, just not mentioned in this post. anyway, saw this comin all along, and soon the marketplace will unite with windows and we wont have to worry about retail disks anymore. download the game you own on both platforms with your gamertag and play wherever you want. what about playing at your friend's house, you say? bring the hard drive over or login there and download it to his. only the place where the gamertag was last recovered will allow it to work. problem solved, awesome idea. cant wait.
Erwos @ Nov 13th 2007 6:12AM
It's an astounding ploy to sell 120gb HDDs... and it's going to work on me. Damn them.
I'm betting that's not everything in the update, though.
Havgun 420 @ Nov 14th 2007 9:08AM
"I'm betting that's not everything in the update, though." O'rly!
Havgun 420 @ Nov 14th 2007 9:08AM
"I'm betting that's not everything in the update, though." O'rly!
albinogoldfish @ Nov 13th 2007 6:13AM
meh, not too shabby, but cn I play halo on live is the question...now that would make me piss my pants
rv @ Nov 13th 2007 11:27AM
Yes. If they had halo one playable on live, I would buy it 10 times!(not really)
albinogoldfish @ Nov 13th 2007 1:23PM
I'd buy it 20 times...beat that...but yes some halo 1 action would be nice on live, we'd need some balancing though...that fucking scorpion on any map owns everything...
dan stabbingworth @ Nov 13th 2007 1:32PM
This would be incredible, but given MS, it's more likely that Halo 2 WON'T be able to use Live than Halo 1 actually being able to.
That said, I'm sure Halo 2 will be Live-usable, and Halo 1 won't.
albinogoldfish @ Nov 13th 2007 2:21PM
shhh....dont kill the dream dan...dont kill the dream
john @ Nov 13th 2007 6:21PM
Until Halo 3 came out I only played Halo 1 online, on my computer. 16 player CTF on Blood Gulch (that's with the "new" flamethrower).
Towers @ Nov 13th 2007 8:51AM
Really cool news. I never owned the original xbox so I missed out on a few games. Panzer Dragoon, Fable and Psychonaughts being the 3 off the top of my head. And 20gig drive is gonna fill up very quickly. How bigs an average xbox game? 900mb?
Jonah Falcon @ Nov 13th 2007 9:03AM
Gee, Microsoft wouldn't be trying to get you to upgrade to the 120MB hard drive, WOULD THEY?
Naaaaaaaaah.
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Nov 13th 2007 10:47AM
9000 mb, you mean.
And Panzer Dragoon isn't that great. Its ok, but very strange. The original was a much better game (on the saturn).
Traveller @ Nov 13th 2007 6:16AM
Why would u need Halo 1 on live when there is Halo 3???
albinogoldfish @ Nov 13th 2007 6:30AM
why halo 1 you ask? I retort, because its awesome...my logic is flawless..
Papa @ Nov 13th 2007 7:03AM
Exactly. They pretty much end the same way.
Vince @ Nov 13th 2007 8:31AM
Because Halo 1 is much better than Halo 3?
Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Nov 13th 2007 8:39AM
ugh, no it isn't. There is absolutely no difference between Halo 1 and Halo 3. scratch that, Halo 3 rapes the shit out of Halo 1 in both the single player and multiplayer portions.
Here's the reason why you think differently. One had hype, one didn't. People generally like the one that surprised them more than the one Microsoft was pumping to be the greatest game evar!!! Sure Halo 3, or 2, weren't the greatest game in existant, but they beat the pants out of Halo 1.
Dale @ Nov 13th 2007 10:50AM
Why do Bond fans need to watch The Man With The Golden Gun when there is Tomorrow Never Dies?!
Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Nov 13th 2007 12:48PM
lol. You can -1 star me all you want, doesn't change the fact that I'm right. If Microsoft hadn't paraded the sequels around like they were the messiah of FPS games, I really doubt alot of you would be saying the same thing about Halo 2 or Halo 3.
DWells55 @ Nov 13th 2007 1:16PM
Single Player:
Halo 1 > Halo 3 > Halo 2
Multiplayer:
Halo 1 > Halo 2 > Halo 3
Give me a 720P Halo 1 with Xbox Live support and I'll fork over $60 in a heartbeat.
Wolfrider @ Nov 13th 2007 6:15AM
...
*Blinks*
Holy $&^$!
Damn... looks like I'm buying an Elite. Oh well. Black looks cooler anyway.
Sam @ Nov 13th 2007 6:22AM
@Kamizar
wa choo talkin bout Willis?
There's been nothing announced or even hinted at by MS regarding xvid support, and seeing as they've announced movies on demand I can only see that as a reason for them NOT to include better codec support grr. Please enlighten me as you seem to know something...?
J.Goodwin @ Nov 13th 2007 8:42AM
http://www.deeko.com/news/?p=5347
Divx (the company) apparently has some sort of action brewing with Microsoft and it's down to hammering out license issues. The Divx codec on Windows is also capable of decoding Xvid (unsurprisingly since one is more or less an open source reworking of the other).
Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Nov 13th 2007 10:30AM
The Divx/MS workings you mention are to bring the Divx codec to media center extenders. While the 360 can operate as an extender, it doesn't necessarily mean the 360 is getting Divx.
I mean, It probably is, and I sure hope it is, but I won't be holding my breath.
Well, I'll be holding it a little.
J.Goodwin @ Nov 13th 2007 11:10AM
True, possibly, and possibly not. However, it's worth mentioning that the 360 supports certain types of H.264 files and media center extender doesn't at the moment.
It's a frustrating situation. And Matroska...GRRR. Those guys can't even get off their ass and support x64 on Windows so god only knows if that will ever make it to any console (if you're not providing mainstream support on a PC, why would the console makers integrate it?).
smellytim @ Nov 13th 2007 6:38AM
the only way I will buy halo again is with full online support. that means coop and multi
Gangsta Smurf @ Nov 13th 2007 11:32AM
DITTO.
Mike-453 @ Nov 13th 2007 6:38AM
Would be even better if these weren't direct ports, but also had added features such as online stuff.
neal @ Nov 13th 2007 6:40AM
my god.. halo on would be so SO so SOOO good
pupd @ Nov 13th 2007 6:47AM
No more changing to SCART from VGA to play Halo. Surely it will be universal 60Hz.
Jacob @ Nov 13th 2007 6:48AM
Does this mean that instead of adding to the backwards compatibility support, MS will make you buy the games again through Marketplace? Sneaky.
tcc3 @ Nov 13th 2007 8:46AM
Theres no benefit there. Most of the games on that list are already on the backcompat list. With all the work theyve put in to the emulator it would be more work to port every title, then just let the 360 emu do the grunt work. These games will be available because they are backcompat not in spite of it.
PhydeWice @ Nov 13th 2007 6:50AM
Hmmm... Could be good. Could be bad.
Good:
* Getting a game I don't already own and not to have to hunt for a used one.
* If it gets ruined somehow,I can download it again free of charge. Can't do that with a disc.
Bad:
* I could find some of those games on a disc for less than 15 buck; the cost of downloading it.
* What about the games I own on disc that are not yet backwards compatible? If any of those become downloadable, would Microsoft then bail on making a patch for the disc version?
Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Nov 13th 2007 8:41AM
Remember my friend, you're paying for convenience. And besides, $15 a game is a pretty sweet deal.