Xbox Live deals, XBLA releases and Games on Demand for January

by Griffin McElroy on Jan 12th 2010 5:00PM

Major Nelson recently peeled away the veil separating us from the knowledge of when stuff would be coming out on Xbox Live Marketplace over what remains of the month of January. This new knowledge includes the upcoming Deals of the Week -- on January 18, both of the DLC packs for the original Mass Effect will be marked down to 240

($3) each and Hasbro Family Game Night: Battleship will get rolled back to 400

($5); and on January 25, Portal: Still Alive will have its price temporarily reduced to 800

($10).

The Major also announced two new Games on Demand: Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, available now for $20, and Dead Rising, coming January 26 for an undisclosed price. For the rest of January's bounty, including discounted Games on Demand titles, XBLA releases and Avatar items, head past the jump.
XBLA Releases

January 13: Serious Sam: The First Encounter HD, 1200 ($15)
January 20: Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment, 1200 ($15)
January 20: Death by Cube, 800 ($10)

Games on Demand Releases

January 12: GRAW 2, $20
January 26: Dead Rising

Discounted Games on Demand (starting Jan. 12)

BioShock
MX vs. ATV Untamed
Prey
Saints Row
Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution

Deals of the Week

Starting January 18: Mass Effect DLC, 240 ($3) each
Starting January 18: Hasbro Family Game Night: Battleship, 400 ($5)
Starting January 25: Portal: Still Alive, 800 ($10)

Avatar Marketplace Items

January 14: Burton gear and Darksiders outfits
January 21: International attire, MX vs. ATV & university-style outfits

Source

Reader Comments (45)

That doesn't sound too bad for Battleship.

Another month, still no Perfect Dark XBLA. ;(

I thought that was set for February now?

I heard that, but then Xbox.com went back to TBA 2010.

I may pick up Portal to play what wasn't in the Orange Box.

That's my logic. I don't know how many extra episodes are in it, but meh, I can play Portal ONE MORE TIME!

It's just Portal with 14 extra, non story puzzles.

The G.O.D Prices are still unbelievably stupid. $20 for games I can get online or in a store for half the price. Plus the added bonus of a box,art,manual,ability to move the game and sell it. The point of DD is to sell games without the whole production cost. MS needs to wake the hell up.

From what I can tell the prices are even worse hear in Canada (and even worse in some other countries), yeah it sucks. 2/3+ year old games should not be $40.

The price of instant connivance is always higher than retail, e.g. $4.99 for pay per view when Redbox charges $1.

"The point of DD is to sell games without the whole production cost"

While true, thats also what's getting in the way. Games are still being made for retail consumption, so pricing of DD games still factors that in. Games that launch exclusively digital are cheaper most of the time, and it isn't like Microsoft is alone in their pricing... Steam products are the same price as retail as well (though granted, they have amazing deals all the time).

I'm more disgusted when GOD are more expensive than their retail versions, parity in pricing isn't too big an issue considering everyone operates that way. I'd rather buy a game digitally than used anyways.

Buddy use your bain. Not everyone is like you. Not everyone wants more things lying around the house. Some believe it's more convenient to have a game right on the hard drive. Some people, that aren't cheap don't think a 20$ game is a rip off, especially considering the benefits... and who actually looks at the manual anyways. Also you can look at the box art design when you buy the game on live too - you just can't touch the plastic that typically surrounds it. Not to mention you get to see all the art within the game itself still too. Finally who's seriously going to sell a 10$ game? come on. Your more or less giving it.

Yeah, you're right. I'm an idiot for expecting something physical for 20 dollars. And I'm a bigger idiot for wanting to be able to sell it in the future.

@ nasalbaton - What ARE the benefits though? It's more environmentally friendly, but that's all I can see. The problem is that you are paying more for less.

Looks like you need to have that bain of your adjusted.

As someone who never sells games, and as someone who hates getting his fat ass off the couch, digital games are actually more valuable to me than physical games. Discs get scratched and there's nothing worse than going to the store to repurchase a game you already own because your 360 drive tore it up or because a negligent family member left it out of its case. Digital distribution allows me to redownload games I own hassle free should anything happen to them, and that's worth a whole lot more to me than a meaningless piece of plastic or box art I never look at anyways. Games on Demand prices aren't that ridiculous. They're the same as MSRP, they just seem expensive because most retailers discount games further than that. For instance, Gears of War on amazon is a whopping $1.50 cheaper than it is on G.O.D. Not that big of a deal.

The real crime is Microsofts hard drive prices. I'd buy everything I could on games on demand if I could just throw in a 640gb HDD like I did with my PS3.

Oh but GOW on Amazon has all of the DLC for $18 , where as the GOD version has none.

lol... All the GoW DLC is free though.

That's kind of cool that Microsoft is starting to discount Games on Demand titles; like the Steam deals that occur every weekend.

If the price is right, I I might pick up Civ: Revolution.

i agree. i welcome any sort of discounts and this is a step in the right direction. however, bioshock is currently 30 dollars and i imagine the price drop will make it 20. i can still buy it for cheaper than that like a poster above me said which is what i will end up doing if i want to finish it.

Dead Rising better be $15 when it comes to games on demand, because that's about what it was when I went to Gamestop today.

I know MS said they didn't want to piss off retailers, but that was regarding new games. Their prices for games that came out 2+ years ago suck.

I've never tried that game. Would love to.

Might pick up the Mass Effect DLC and try and whizz through it before Mass Effect 2 arrives

Bring Down The Sky is pretty good, and I like the way they had a 'pre mission briefing' from the Normandy VI. Pinnacle Station is okay. It's worth no more than 5, that's for sure.

Also, one of the guys working on the game hinted on the ME forums that the bad guy from Bring Down the Sky might make an appearance in ME2...providing you make the "right" choices in that DLC.

BDtS is pretty good and Pinnacle Station is a piece of junk ... but $6 for both will soften the blow.

Godamnit, I JUST bought Pinnacle Station last week!

I never got BDTS for some reason. I heard it was pretty good. Going to pick them both up since I only have 500 ms points. Might as well get those cheevos.

If you are a completionist, both are worth it. BDtS will take a little longer to complete. Pinnacle Station is a couple of hours max.

From being enjoyable, and fitting seamlessly into the game, BDtS just felt like a natural fit. Pinnacle Station felt like nothing more than a bolted-on test to see if an RPG could "do" FPS. Personally, and all-in-all, I thought Pinnacle Station was junk.

My $0.02 worth.

I picked up Dead Rising a few months back for like $9 used. Played it for a couple hours, but just didn't find it all that fun. The arcane save system discouraged exploration and encouraged unnecessary backtracking to the save points, lest all your efforts be wasted.

Agree - the stupid couch saves killed the fun for me too.

I understand people's complaint with the game but I for one loved it. I'm usually not a fan of games that have things that put pressure on every step (like a time limit) but in Dead Rising it was part of the fun. Save system was ok by me, added to the challenge. Once you get comfortable enough with the mall exploring it is easy. And IIRC there was a save point in every subsection of the mall so they were usually nearby.

Dead Rising is like a greatest hits collection of terrible game design. Escort missions with dumbass AI, breakable weapons and items, time limits, cheap bosses, respawning enemies, stun animations that make you lose control of your character, and unskippable text dialogue.

Truly awful.

@Cameron:

I agree about the AI, getting the 'Saint' achievement (save 50+ survivors out of 53) was a chore. If the items didn't break it would *cough* break the game, the whole idea is to use different weapons and such to survive. Plus you can get books that make items last longer, some items can be triple-booked and last 27x as long. Time limit is purely an opinion thing I suppose, can't argue with that. Bosses aren't hard at all, especially you do the Genocider achievement and get the Mega Buster. I think the zombies respawning in when you cross a friggen room is ridiculous, but when they come back after you leave it makes sense for challenge. Agree with the last 2.

But....but.....the ZOMBAYS! There was so many of them!

I love that game enough to marry it.

Almost got the Mass Effect DLC a couple of weeks ago. glad i waited, I guess.

I sincerely hope the additional University content is additional schools. Because right now it seems like EVERY state has a major school represented except for any of the ones in my state.

Hell, I think it's the only member of the Big 10 not represented...

Man, this makes me wish I had money (like everything else on the XBL marketplace right now...). I actually want to play Saint's Row again; I still haven't even played the sequel.

Sequel was FANTASTIC. I never played the first one.

I'm having a hard time imagining how darksiders outfits are going to be able to conform to Avatar's standards of "must appear human"

Yes Bioshock is now 19.99 , still not at a price that would make me pull the trigger on an impulse buy. I picked it up on Steam for 5 bucks lol.

I'll probably get the Mass Effect DLC and Portal for what I didn't play in the Orange Box.

If microsoft and retailers were smart! They would put NEW games up on games on demand. I would buy a new game online much faster than i would from a store.

Connivance factor!

That's what I've been saying since the launched this program. If MW2 was on games on demand for $60 day 1, I would never have left the house. Especially for multiplayer centric games like COD/Halo/Gears, it's nice to have it right on your harddrive so whatever you have in the disc tray doesn't matter, you can jump into a game with friends at any time. Having 3 year old single player games like Bioshock taking up 6gb of HDD space for a game you're probably only going to play through once is kind of ridiculous.

*Convenience

"Connivance" means something completely different.

Maybe he actually meant that… but I don't see any wrongdoing in wanting to not wait for a new game.

I wish they'd move this Games on Demand timeline up a little bit. Something a little more current would be welcomed. Something shiny from 2009 perhaps?

But while they're at in this archives mode...at least release a few more XBOX 1 games. They're old enough you can release a few bucketloads at a time. You know...try out the game you missed or play a game you've traded in long ago.

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Xbox Live deals, XBLA releases and Games on Demand for January

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