XBL Games on Demand may be incompatible with retail versions

by Richard Mitchell on Nov 30th 2010 2:30PM

Some unsettling news now for fans of convenience: That Xbox Live Games on Demand title you just bought may not work with its retail counterpart. Specifically, CrunchGear reports that the On Demand version of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is incompatible with the retail version. When attempting to play a cooperative session over Xbox Live, the game returned an error asking that players insert the Rainbow Six Vegas 2 disc. This error occurred regardless of who hosted the match.

A call made to customer support later revealed that this is apparently a problem with several older titles. Additionally, users on the LEGO Rock Band forum report that the On Demand version of the title doesn't allow songs to be exported to other versions of Rock Band. This is understandable given that On Demand games have no manual (and thus no export code), though Harmonix notes it is "looking into" the issue.

The moral of the story, as noted by Co-Optimus: If you're planning to pick up an XBL On Demand title in order to play online with someone that has the retail version, do some research first.

Via: Co-Optimus
Source: CrunchGear

Tags: games-on-demand, lego-rock-band, microsoft, Rainbow-Six-Vegas-2, xblm, xbox, xbox-live-games-on-demand

Reader Comments (39)

You're better off buying a used version of the game for less money anyway for most of the On Demand Games

@XFactor

Used? Even some of the still shrink-wrapped copies of these games can usually be found for less then what they're selling for here.

@XFactor

How has it taken this long for this issue to be discovered?

@XFactor I second that. I can trade a game on Goozex for a $1 and the cost of shipping. My 20GB hard drive is too small for Games on Demand anyway.

That's okay, XBL Games on Demand has been incompatible with my wallet since it launched.

@Exu Haha! Good one! I have looked at the prices and apparently Games On Demand hasn't ever heard of Wal-Mart. Those prices are WAY over the top. TimeShift is $10 at Wal-Mart and I think they were asking $30 for it on GoD....for less product. No book, no jewelbox, no disc...no thanks.

@Exu Zing!

Good thing that the time it'd take me to download a full-disc game would be longer than buying it from the store discouraged me from using such a service. But, ouch, for those who do buy the On Demand versions of 360 games...

@BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam

It's not all the games, right now its only Rainbow Six Vegas 2. For some reason Ubi soft released a second version of the game a while after its initial release. The first one I believe had a game id of Tom Clancy's Rainbow six vegas 2 and I believe the second one is Rainbow Six Vegas 2 dropping the Tom Clancy.

I'm just curios to see if this happenes with both versions of the retail release as well

@BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam

@BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam

It's not all the games, right now its only Rainbow Six Vegas 2. For some reason Ubi soft released a second version of the game a while after its initial release. The first one I believe had a game id of Tom Clancy's Rainbow six vegas 2 and I believe the second one is Rainbow Six Vegas 2 dropping the Tom Clancy.

I'm just curios to see if this happens with both versions of the retail release as well

@KingOfGods Are you referring to the ID on your gamercard?

I don't think that was a different version of the game being released, that was something updated on the XBL servers for all of the Tom Clancy games because I have launch copies of all of the 360 Clancy games (except H.A.W.X. 2) and the game names changed for all of the games going back to the original G.R.A.W. on my Gamercard.

I downloaded an Ubisoft pack on Steam quite a while ago and none of them work online.

That's unbelievably stupid. Thankfully I've only bought one game off the service and it actually worked.

I have purchased one On Demand game, and that was an Xbox Original. When Halo CE was on sale for 400 points a few years back, I picked it up and gave my disc version to a friend.

I love the Rainbow Six series and want I want another sequel. Doesn't have to be in Vegas again, was a great setting for shootouts.

Just some fictional place this time would be a lot better than real areas.

Games on who the what now?

@CaptainProtonX live under a rock much?

@shopping bags

You can get live under a rock now ?

wow.....Thats how I got ME1 on 360...glad it has no online component

yeah ever heard of spongebob? apparently captainproton lives with Patrick star.

God bless PlayStation Network.

@eNriqeu
???

probly common knowledge but if a game had online pass and was put in games on demand you gotta buy that to play it online

I've never had a problem with games on demand.
Sounds like a bunch of fanboy BS to me.

Phantasy Star Universe works, GTA 4 works, Halo 3 works, DDR Universe 3 works.

I have a lot more games on demand games that I can't think of at the moment, but none of them ever had this issue.

Sounds like a patch in 30 days.

MS needs to fix this bad enough they cost a lot more than the disc versions.

my assassin's creed save file worked. so i was bored and could finish finding all the flags for a retail game i no longer had :)
sucks you cant play vegas 2 co-op tho. it's a great game

yeah i have never bought a game from games on demand and don't plan on it anytime soon. there is just not enough value there. for example i just bought borderlands game of the year edition from amazon for 30 dollars yesterday. if i wanted to buy it on games on demand + all 4 dlc packs it would cost me 70 dollars. that is more than double what i paid for it and mine is brand new. no thanks!

This is BS. There is no plausible reason for the incompatibilities. If a game called Shadowrun can get Xbox 360 players competing against PC players, then all Xbox 360 games should work together, whether they are on disc or downloaded.

Meh I only bought 2 single player games on demand (Ninja Gaiden Black and San Andreas)

Do people still play R62? I may have to pick it back up. I loved the MP.

ONE game is incompatible online, and ONE game can't export songs. That's it. Shame on TWO developers. The rest have no such problems. Use your heads, people, even when the joystiq guys don't use theirs, and they come up with craply named articles like this one.

@c0bra95

plus they clearly mention, Lego Rockband, just can't export (and for obvious reasons), that doesn't mean it can't be played...to say it's "incompatible" is sort of specious...that implies it won't even work whatsoever...

that and the guy below you says R6V2 GOD actually does work online...

That's actually false about Vegas 2. My friend bought the game on demand cause he's too lazy to go to the store, while my roommate & I both have retail copies. All of us were doing terrorist hunt & campaign no problem.

For a company that thinks digital distribution is the future and thinks that they can lead the charge, MS sure has done an awful job of using their best platform for doing so.

Extremely high prices, a lack of even semi-new releases, and now possible compatibility issues? That sure is a lot to give up for the convenience of not having to put in a disk.

Oh well, I bought Halo just last week when it went for 400MS.

Luckily it has no online component so who cares.

This isn't true unless something has recently changed. My friend and I played Rainbow 6 Vegas 2, story, terrorist hunt, and multiplayer. He has the downloadable version and I had a used copy I got from gamestop. I would've tested this out before you re-posting it and potentially giving people some inaccurate information.

Not sure if my comment went through, but I think this is false. I've played with my friend who has the on Demand copy and I had a disc version. Did you guys test it before you re-posted this?

Do some research first?? Why would you ever think that it wouldn't be compatible?! You're paying more then if you bought it retail, it damn sure better be compatible. They should've called Xbox Support and demanded their money back!!

Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

XBL Games on Demand may be incompatible with retail versions

Reader Comments (39)

Posted: Nov 30th 2010 2:34PM XFactor said

Posted: Nov 30th 2010 2:49PM MystileArmor said

Posted: Nov 30th 2010 4:16PM superklye said

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Posted: Nov 30th 2010 2:44PM Deezul AwT said

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Posted: Nov 30th 2010 3:04PM CaptainProtonX said

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Posted: Nov 30th 2010 3:09PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

Posted: Nov 30th 2010 8:57PM shopping bags said

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