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Joystiq

'Games on Demand' section arrives on Xbox.com

by Alexander Sliwinski on Jun 18th 2009 10:55AM

It appears the "Games on Demand" section has replaced "Xbox Originals" on Xbox.com marketplace. We're not exactly sure if this is a rebranding of Xbox Originals, but the title of the section would imply that all downloadable games -- which will include Xbox 360 titles in August -- will reside in this section. However, if you click on the "Xbox 360 Games" on the left navigation bar, there's a clearly marked "Full Game" download section, which is currently empty. Also, Xbox Live Arcade titles have a separate section as well.

Perhaps the downloadable Xbox 360 games will reside in two locations on Xbox.com? We've contacted Microsoft for clarification and we'll update as soon as we hear back.

Update: We're aware the Xbox Originals program has come to an end, we're just caught off guard by the lack of an official statement accompanying the change on Xbox.com (especially with no change on the 360 itself).

[Thanks, Nathan]

Tags: microsoft, Xbox-360, xbox-live, xbox-originals, xbox.com

Reader Comments (29)

All hail GoD!

You meant ZOD!

I have 41 games in steam (i counted bundled things like the half-life opposing force etcs).

Tell me how I can do that on my Xbox and I'll be there buying the games. Aka, I don't think the remaining 6 giggle bytes on the drive will hold more than one game at a time. I might as well buy the real copy.

agreed, even with the 120gb drive, its just not enough space for all of the stuff they are putting out, unless you want to keep redownloading everything. i really hope its true about the bigger harddrive bundle.

I hope they do rentals, put the final stake in Blockbuster's coffin. Netflix isn't doing it fast enough.

Amen.

If they start doing rentals it would kill of Gamefly as well. I would gladly pay a monthly fee for 1 rental at a time no time limits to Microsoft instead of Gamefly. No shipping issues, no wait times (except to download), no out of stock games. And the ability to purchase if you like it right there.

^This is a really good idea.^

That's a hell of an idea Michael. I too would pay a montly fee, providing it's around gamefly's range, to have the ability to download 1 or 2 rentals at a time and have the ability to buy it if it's really good.

They'd have to put out much bigger hard drives for that though, like 1TB. Sadly, they'd probably charge $400 for a drive that big.

I'd but a 1tb drive in a heartbeat if it cost less than my firstborn child.

Wouldn't renting it be the same as buying it to MS. If you rent a game for a set monthly fee, then play it, delete it and rent another, then you could go back and rent the same game again. What would the big difference be to MS here? They would basically be giving you unlimited games for that monthly fee and undercutting their retail side by a hell of a lot. Yeah, downloading and deleting over and over would get old for some of us, but a lot of people would exploit the hell out of that rather than pay 60 a pop for games. For this reason I wouldn't expect to see a DL game rental option appear.

Michael, thats a freaking awesome idea. submit to MS now.

@ Duke: I was thinking more akin to how they handle movie rentals. The idea of a single charge to download an unlimited number of one-at-a-time rentals is pretty off. Because, not only would they need to cover bandwidth costs, but also get enough return to pass to developers.

Even though I wish it would happen, I know it won't. Much more feasible to charge a smaller amount based on days wanting to rent and give it an auto-delete patch for when time runs up.

Still waiting on Jet Set Radio Future....

I still have my disc version that came bundles with my original XBOX. The game is easily one of my favorites.

Jet Set is all over Half.com

My 120gb drive is coming today so I can finally have all my originals I bought at once. Can't wait for full game downloads too, I heard there's gonna be 30 at launch but the only ones that I know of that I'll be getting right away is Assassin's Creed, Bioshock, and Mass Effect.

My internet provider is going to send someone to murder me. That's around 18 gigs to download all at once.

Who is your ISP? These bandwidth caps these bastards keep proposing suck ass.

I have road runner, but I don't have caps (yet) because I live in a pretty rural area with a lot of poor people.

But I really use up a lot of bandwith. My computer's always on, and I'm usually downloading something. Then you have to add the ps3, 360 and even my psp which I use to download a lot of things. If I was in a more populated area I have no doubt I'd have a cap.

Great, now how about some sort of realistic price structure. $15 is way too much for all of the originals (except maybe Psychonauts, which isn't as easy to find used as, say, Halo:CE.)

Any ideas on pricing structure or if new releases will eventually launch on here as well. Off the top of my head I imagine a pricing structure where older games are cheaper maybe around $20-$30 and new titles are $50? Shouldn't they be cheaper to download because there is no cost for production of the physical media, packaging, or delivery? Unless you count bandwidth as delivery, maybe? Would 3rd party titles be available as new releases or would MS charge for distribution making the price exactly the same as the physical copy? If that was the case I would rather have the hard copy. Just wondering out loud.

They haven't ruled out putting new games on there, but it won't happen for a while because they have to prepare their infrastructure for a mass of people downloading a big new game, something like Modern Warfare 2.

I wouldn't expect much of a discount, if any. Printing and packaging costs are not very expensive relative to the cost of developing the actual game. Combined with shipping and lowered cost to the retailer, you're talking about 10 to 15 bucks per game, maybe a bit more. Most of that saved cost is nearly offset by the cost of buying and maintaining server farms and bandwidth. You're likely to only see $10 price reduction, if anything.

They better release a new hard drive soon. My 120HDD is already packed with XBLA, DLC, Xbox Originals, game saves, music, etc...

I can no longer "burn tracks with reckless abandon."

I'd love to have, especially, multiplayer games like Halo3, Gears2, and so many others permanently on my hard drive without having to stick a disc in, but for a guy like me, even the largest hard drive is seriously becoming an issue.

I was hoping to see more games on the Originals. Why stop? It cant take that much manpower to put digital copies on the Marketplace.

So sad that PS3 and 360 are dropping Backwards compatibility.

I still say XBox Originals would have sold a Hell of a lot better if the games had come with achievements! That's the only reason I never bothered and just found the games I wanted cheaper (but used) on Amazon or Goozex!

THere was supposed to be one more Xbox Original game. How much you wanna bet it's Halo 2 with all the maps? It would make the most sense.

now that it is rebranded, if I bought GTA: San Andreas through xbox Originals, can I redownload it if its called "Games on Demand"?

Yes.

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'Games on Demand' section arrives on Xbox.com

Reader Comments (29)

Posted: Jun 18th 2009 11:06AM StormEagle said

Posted: Jun 18th 2009 11:59AM Obienator said

Posted: Jun 18th 2009 11:11AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 18th 2009 1:11PM Rhamsey said

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Posted: Jun 18th 2009 11:19AM redjack said

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Posted: Jun 18th 2009 11:47AM Prox said

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Posted: Jun 18th 2009 12:26PM Duke said

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Posted: Jun 18th 2009 11:18AM Temidien said

Posted: Jun 18th 2009 12:00PM Funkmaster General said

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Posted: Jun 18th 2009 11:24AM (Unverified) said

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Posted: Jun 18th 2009 11:27AM baby sea tuna said

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Posted: Jun 18th 2009 2:31PM Deezul AwT said

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