I’ve been on the Xbox Live Update Preview now for about a week and… unfortunately there’s really not that much to report. There’s no new “experience” to be had. It’s far from the update we heard about at E3… the one we’re really waiting for: with instant on HD video streams, social media and netwoking integration with Facebook, Twitter, and last.fm; as well as other goodies.
The primary goodness here comes from the Games On Demand service and the Avatar Marketplace. They both could prove promising down the road. Games On Demand seems most enticing… it makes sense, and I can see it being successful if they price the games right. At the moment, Mass Effect is priced at $19.99 and both BioShock and Oblivion are each going for, a whopping, $29.99. I say whopping because last month, on July 7, 2K Games released a bundle pack for the Xbox 360 with BioShock and Oblivion for a suggested retail price of $39.99. BioShock, which is three years old, can be found on Amazon for $16; and Oblivion, which is two years old, can be had on the same site for as little as $12.72. Microsoft needs to keep in mind that, if they want to sell old games, they have got to be priced appropriately… meaning that they are competitive with the resale value of the title (since you can find most older titles for around $10) and, if they ever make first run titles available they should also be cheaper than retail (think iTunes). Considering that they can save a ton of money in distribution costs… this would make sense for everyone (again, like iTunes album sales). While there are obvious benefits to downloading games and being able to run them directly from your hard drive, they don’t outweigh the bottom line unless they are able to meet somewhere in the middle. MS is still somewhere around the three-quarter mark.
Currently the top five downloads via Games On Demand are: Oblivion, Halo: Combat Evolved, Need For Speed Carbon, BioShock, and Call Of Duty 2. While Assassin’s Creed and Mass Effect top the list of recent titles available, 24 of the 30 titles that will be available to the general public at launch, August 11th, are:
- Assassin’s Creed (Ubisoft)
- BioShock (2K Games)
- Burnout Paradise (EA)
- Call of Duty 2 (Activision)
- Dance Dance Revolution Universe (Konami)
- Fight Night Round 3 (EA)
- Kameo: Elements of Power (Microsoft Game Studios)
- Karaoke Revolution American Idol Encore (Konami)
- LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (LucasArts)
- Mass Effect (Microsoft Game Studios)
- Meet The Robinsons (Disney)
- MX vs. ATV Untamed (THQ)
- Need for Speed Carbon (EA)
- Need for Speed: Most Wanted (EA)
- Perfect Dark Zero (Microsoft Game Studios)
- Prey (2K Games)
- Rainbow Six Vegas (Ubisoft)
- Ridge Racer 6 (Namco)
- Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis (Rockstar Games)
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega)
- Test Drive: Unlimited (Atari)
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
- Viva Pinata (Microsoft Game Studios)
- Viva Pinata 2: Trouble in Paradise (Microsoft Game Studios)
Microsoft says new titles will be released each week, and a user’s purchase history will be saved so titles can be re-downloaded at the users leisure. The good news is that they’re actually using real money (via credit card purchases), so no MS points b.s. to deal with.
The company also announced some additional brands joining the Avatar Marketplace, a hub where players can outfit their avatars with branded apparel and props. Users can purchase gear from Adidas, Quiksilver and Roxy as well as clothing and accessories tied to games such as Halo 3, BioShock 2, Gears of War 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction.
In addition to the major new updates above, there are also some additional goodies like, new and improved party reconnections & party invites, and User Ratings. In addition, there are several enhancements to the following areas:
- Account Management
- Avatars
- Netflix
- Video Display options
- UI Improvements
- Console Settings
Click here for the full Feature List screen shot.
While I love the updates… this one does seem a bit lackluster once you’re in the “experience”, but I think they’ll both be money makers down the road. That is, if Microsoft gets the pricing right for their Games On Demand service… which at this point in time, it isn’t.
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