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Xbox Live Volume 2 Released
Xs writes "As if the first Xbox Live Starter Kit wasn't selling well enough, Microsoft has released a new Starter Kit. This time the kit includes demos of MechAssault and MotoGP. Plus, a complete online version of Tetris Worlds. To make things even better, they are no longer bundling in Whacked! I hope to be picking one of these up soon. Full stories at Xbox IGN and GamerFeed.com."
So here's the question: How will Microsoft price the second year of Live service for first-adopters?
See, if they price it at $10/month, as has been tossed around from time to time, then it seems to me that people would just give up on the whole GamerTag value-add and get another $50 starter kit. Heck, with different games added in and a spare headset, that might not even be a bad idea. Is it really worth $70/year to current subscribers to keep the same handle within the service? Maybe...but I imagine a few will see an advantage to using that $70 savings on a new game (or a couple of used or budget-priced games).
If, on the other hand, they price it at $5/month, then for only $10/year over a starter kit you get to keep your online handle. That's getting much closer to the point at which people might pony up the extra dough.
My prediction is that they're going to shoot for somewhere in the middle, say around $7/month ($84/year) and just count on getting the $50 from the starter kits for those people who can't stomach the full price.
One thing I don't know (and yes, I'm too lazy to research it right now) is whether a Live kit is tied to a specific Xbox. Or, perhaps I should say, once an Xbox has been online with a specific Live kit, whether it can be reinitialized with a new kit (allowing the $50 choice I mentioned above).
Anyway, this is one of the more interesting announcements that I'm looking forward to at E3. Microsoft has apparently put together a good service; now, can they find the right price point to keep people using it?
Curmudgeon Gamer: Not happy
Tetris worlds online may be the killer app that online console gaming needs. Online FPS and racing are fine, but Tetris is the "common gamers gaming crack".
I would love to see how many parents suddenly are willing to play the kids system online for the first time with this one. If this works, console online gaming could become a normal everyday thing.
Sig under construction since 1998.
I'd like to see Bomberman come to Xbox, and Live enabled would make it that much better. Also, a good RTS is needed, like a Starcraft or Myth.
Just goes to further prove you cant judge a game by its demo. The full verison has a lot more features and is a great party game. Its got funny characters and some really inovative level designs
Fry up a pig, put it in a can SCRAPPLE!
That's exactly why I'm waiting for both the console price cut AND a definitive word on where this Live pricing is going before I get anywhere near the Xbox.
My brother already has one and lives a few towns over, would love to play him online, but can't go into it blind like that.
Can we get the new DVD? I'd like Tetris worlds but I have a first gen xb-l
Anyone who ever played online with the Dreamcast knows why console gaming and online play don't really work well together. There is nothing more frustrating than getting 3/4 of the way through a football game and having the other person quit because they were losing. Games with more players and cooperative play games have a better chance of succeeding. It seems like the quality of gamer on the console side just isn't up to the same standards as PC online gamers.
The only benefit I can really see to console gaming online is that it would be much more difficult to cheat. I finally quit playing Counterstrike (which I loved, btw) because it seemed like every third person was using a hack of some sort.
n/t
I thought that MechAssault was a really lame online game (and single player too)...I got bored of it after my first deathmatch, though maybe CTF will bring me back. Anyway, RtCW is shaping up to be a HUGE Xbox Live hit. Comes out in less than a week! Plus, there is Crimson Skys, True Fantasy Live Online, PSO, Capcom vs SNK 2 EO, Midtown Madness 3, and a few other promising Live games. The real XBL games this year will be RtCW and Crimson Skys, IMO. Maybe Perfect Dark Zero will be online? That would be sweet!
Tetris is a good start, but what the service really needs is a bunch of simple multiplayer games to suck people in. Casual gamers love simple games.
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
I hate their new clickthroughs. If you add ?fromint=1 to any IGN URL, there's no clickthrough. Please remember this when linking to IGN.
- Cloud
I really think the solution to that is to have more stats. If central servers just crunch numbers, the bandwidth usage can't be that expensive for the game maker/publisher. If you have stats, people will be less likely to quit out early. And also, the only way to allow a player to quit out early is through a resign command, thus giving victory to the other person....it would still suck that the game was over, but I bet it would lessen it a bit.
PaleHour
Yes that's what they should've bundled. And why did they cancel this game? It was really fun during the beta test. Unlike other games, we actually had time to have some interesting discussions going on during gameplay. In my opinion, ReVolt brought the best Xbox live experience.
I'm still angry about that one. Release the damn game, I will purchase it.
I remember being asked to shell out $50.00 for the beta kit that supposedly had Revolt. I was going to, but figured the final release would have it and I wouldnt have to deal with lag or whatever might be beta.
Well the final release didnt have it.
It was one of few games I couldnt put down on the Dreamcast and would love to see a online version whether its Xbox or PS2.
Anyone know?
This is exactly what Microsoft were recommending at Xfest. They gave a great seminar about using stats and leaderboard rankings to influence matchmaking and one of the things they heavily suggest is that games penalise quitters and cheaters in terms of matchmaking and overall ranking.
You can easily do this for quitters by chalking a stat at game start and at game end; the difference between these numbers is how many games they bailed out of.
Now that game developers have gotten to grips with the technical issues of supporting Xbox Live you'll see much more time spent on these sort of issues as well as on user interface things like lobbies.
Graham
Just like the XBox console needed that must-have, XBox-only game (Halo), XBox Live needs one. I would guess that the two games that have the best chance of being that game are Halo 2 and Doom 3 (If MS gets the console-only rights). What does everyone else think?
The important part of Live! is your gamertag, which is kept as a file. You can have up to 7 stored on the Xbox, and 1 on each memory card you own. You can delete them.
The new-kit method (which I thought about when a local retailer blew out their Live! kits), would require you cancel your old account + delete your old tag. The new one will be automatically put on when you enter the new validation code + your CC number.
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Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
I'm waiting for xbox live games worth playing. Aside from mechassault which I'd like to play but don't want to invest that much money in, what is there worth playing? Tetris worlds, that's nice, it comes with it, but I'm sure as hell not going to pay to play tetris online. Think about that. There are any number of free online networked tetrises, and any asshole with any programming ability could write one.
I think the killer app for me would be a networked version of Sega GT. That's something I would really be interested in playing. Like many other PC gamers I play my networked FPSes on my PC, which has a keyboard and mouse attached to it and is really much better-equipped to handle that kind of punishment, having an athlon xp and a gf4ti. There are simply not enough xbox live titles to justify buying in at this point unless you are the kind of gamer who must buy things just to have them.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
there is a networked Sega GT on the way, I read it at one of the gaming sites.
Argh, those of us who took a gamble on another one of microsofts video game products are screwed again because of a newer, better release. I would like tetris for free, but I get motogp and Wacked... I bought Ghost recon, I love it, and Mech assult, not so much. I guess it was worth the extra 4 months of playing thou