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New Xbox Live Game Every Week

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the it's-like-candy dept.

Eurogamer reports that, with Xbox Live Wednesdays already a hit, Microsoft intends to continue releasing a new XBLA title every week for the near future. The company has announced their intention to have 160 titles for their next-gen console available by the end of the year, and some 30 of those may be Xbox Live Arcade titles. From the article: "The idea is to allow Xbox 360 owners who do not own hard disks to store downloaded Live Arcade games on memory units, which allow for 64MB of data. However, with PlayStation 3 in particular likely to allow for much larger downloadable games, Microsoft runs the risk of losing out on bigger releases despite the impressive momentum Live Arcade has already built up. Erickson admits that the company is already considering the possibilities of larger memory units, but there's no word on hard-disk-only Live Arcade games or other digitally distributed titles - although it's important to note that the latter, which Microsoft is certainly considering, would fall outside his remit."

61 comments

  1. Xbox Live almost too good by the+computer+guy+nex · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Very good way to spend your money is to spend the $60 saved up for a new 360 game and buy a whole slew of XBL games. They are a great compliment to the major 360 titles.

    360 games are selling like crazy in the US. Few weeks ago 7 of the top 10 games sold in America were 360 games (PS2 had the #10 spot with Kingdom Hearts, New Super Mario Bros #1, DDR for Gamecube somewhere in the middle).

    360 also has the highest games sold/console ratio of any major console. Have to chuckle at the people who say the system has a limited library.

    1. Re:Xbox Live almost too good by Donniedarkness · · Score: 1

      I've gotta agree. I don't even have a 360, and I've already heard tons of good things about XBOX Live Arcade. With the promise of a new game a week, it's definitely something to look into.

      --
      Earn a % of cash back from Newegg, Tiger Direct, Walmart.com, and more: http://www.mrrebates.com?refid=458505
    2. Re:Xbox Live almost too good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you sure those were 360 exclusive titles? Not to bitch, but the last time I heard this it turned out most of the 360 games on the list were also released for the PC, whose market is about 1000 times larger than the 360 market. (Oblivion was one such title where the numbers weren't exclusive.)

    3. Re:Xbox Live almost too good by DDLKermit007 · · Score: 1

      Well thats because theres Xbox 360 new games right now and really no new games that are worth much on the other systems outside of the DS. Everyone is working on 360, Wii, PS3, DS and to some extent PSP games. It's fairly eaisy to sell allot of games when theres no current gen competition.

    4. Re:Xbox Live almost too good by Keeper · · Score: 1

      Cross platform games are still tracked by platform, not as a lump sum. (though some "gaming news" sites do not make this clear and/or just show game sales total [ie: game sales = sum of each platform])

    5. Re:Xbox Live almost too good by lubricated · · Score: 1

      despite what you may hear. The computer gaming market is much smaller than the console market.

      --
      It has been statistically shown that helmets increase the risk of head injury.
    6. Re:Xbox Live almost too good by ClamIAm · · Score: 1, Troll

      360 games are selling like crazy in the US. Few weeks ago 7 of the top 10 games sold in America were 360 games (PS2 had the #10 spot with Kingdom Hearts, New Super Mario Bros #1, DDR for Gamecube somewhere in the middle).

      It's impossible to accurately track video game sales in the US. Where did you get these numbers from? If they're from the NPD Group (which is likely), they are not representative of all sales. NPD does not get sales reports from all retailers (including a little place called Wal-Mart).

      360 also has the highest games sold/console ratio of any major console.

      Link plz thx.

      Have to chuckle at the people who say the system has a limited library.

      Have to chuckle at people who think sales data represents a broad, diverse library. Have to chuckle also at people who can't write complete sentences.

    7. Re:Xbox Live almost too good by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      Yes but it's not smaller than the XBox 360's market which is ~3 million worldwide IIRC.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  2. Barely news by Donniedarkness · · Score: 1

    The only NEWS here is that the 360 is considering bigger memory cards. We've known about the whole "new-game-a-week" thing for a while, now; there was a story about that two weeks ago on here.

    --
    Earn a % of cash back from Newegg, Tiger Direct, Walmart.com, and more: http://www.mrrebates.com?refid=458505
    1. Re:Barely news by i+kan+reed · · Score: 5, Funny

      Haven't you heard? this is part of slashdot's new dupe each article once a week program.

    2. Re:Barely news by Keeper · · Score: 1

      Even that isn't news. They talked about a 256mb card during E3 if I recall correctly ...

    3. Re:Barely news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know it's a joke but...

      I'm having a hard time parsing that...
      Are you suggesting they're cutting back on dupe's to just one a week (hah!) ... or that they will actually just go ahead and dupe each article deliberately.

      -sk

    4. Re:Barely news by OK+PC · · Score: 1

      Dupe Wednesdays?

      --
      Did you get that thing I sent ya?
  3. Another monthly fee? by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

    Last I heard (though I'll probably be proven wrong in the replies below), the free version of Xbox Live was almost useless... So my question is this: is there really that many people paying yet another monthly fee on top of their internet connection? How about numbers for countries other than the USA? I mean, I don't know anyone who actually has an Xbox 360, everyone simply rents them.

    1. Re:Another monthly fee? by revlayle · · Score: 1

      Downloadable games, IIRC, do not require an XBOX gold membership... just requires XBOX Live marketplace credit (and a place to store the downloaded game, of course).

    2. Re:Another monthly fee? by aesiamun · · Score: 5, Informative

      Other than the lack of playing games online, you have access to the XBL Arcade which has a bunch of games that you can buy and play. Some of these are classics (frogger, galaga, uno, etc) others are more independent (cloning clyde, outpost keoki X)...Also, you get the XBox live marketplace which has videos, music, demos, trailers, themes, background images, avatar images, etc.

      So unless you like playing against others online, you can get by with just the free silver account.

      The gold account is cheap anyway, less than $8 a month or less than $5 a month if you pay for the whole year. I used to pay more than that per day when I smoked cigarettes.

    3. Re:Another monthly fee? by RoadDoggFL · · Score: 1

      Xbox Live Silver is only useless if you want to play online. That's it. And I've already heard of one free play weekend (might be mistaking it for claims of future free play weekends from pre-launch statements... but I'm pretty sure about this), but Xbox Live is more than that now. You don't have to play to have friends lists and message and things like that, just about everything you can do online without a game in the disc tray is available for free (on that note, I don't know how it applies to XBLA online games, I'm guessing online play is still a no-go for these).

      Is it perfect? No, but it's still cool and lets people access the content without paying an extra fee (unless the content's not free... but we knew that).

      --
      "This is considered plagiarism."
    4. Re:Another monthly fee? by CaymanIslandCarpedie · · Score: 3, Informative

      The only thing the free version cannot do is play on-line games against others. Live arcade, along with evertyhing else is available with the free version.

      --
      "reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert
    5. Re:Another monthly fee? by AcidLacedPenguiN · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Actually the free version of XBL serves its purpose. . . You cannot play games online, but the market place is still wide open to you.
      As far as I'm concerned, the market place is much more valuable than people would have you believe.
      I have yet to buy an X360 game, but I've probably spent about twice the value of a new game just on XBLA games, map packs and car packs for games that friends/family own.
      Currently I have the pay-for package, but I hardly spend any time playing online what with all the lamers, flamers, and greifers.

      --
      disclaimer: I've been known to store numbers in my ass for which to dig out when quantities are required.
    6. Re:Another monthly fee? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I have yet to buy an X360 game, but I've probably spent about twice the value of a new game just on XBLA games, map packs and car packs for games that friends/family own.
      Ya spending $300-$400 for a console to do what a PC running MAME can do for free. Also why waste money on simple game mods for games you don't even own?
      Currently I have the pay-for package, but I hardly spend any time playing online what with all the lamers, flamers, and greifers.
      And the major problem with Xbox Live!. All of the Xbox kiddies. At least if I play on the PC I'm not playing just to play the game online, especially since most the Xbox Live Servers are little more than match making and the games are hosted on the consoles.
    7. Re:Another monthly fee? by bigman2003 · · Score: 1

      I hate ACs, but you are a particularly stupid AC, so I'll respond.

      Xbox Live isn't full of kiddies..in fact in the last 3 months of fairly heavy Live usage, I've probably run across 5 kids that were annyong.

      That's why god invented the 'mute' button. Selective mute is great, you never have to hear from that person again.

      Another great thing about Live- there's no such thing as an anonymous coward.

      --
      No reason to lie.
    8. Re:Another monthly fee? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Really? You own all those arcade boards for which you downloaded the MAME ROMs? Wow, I wish I had your bank account.

      Oh. Piracy. Never mind.

    9. Re:Another monthly fee? by zeroduck · · Score: 1

      Also giving feedback helps--give negative feedback to the kids, and you'll be less likely to come across them again.

    10. Re:Another monthly fee? by AcidLacedPenguiN · · Score: 1

      I don't know why I'd want to spend $300-$400 for a console when I'd have to spend $400-$900 for a PC to do the same thing for free.
      As to waste money on simple game mods, I saw this storefront down town with a sign called "Blockbuster" originally I thought it was a store that sold tetris, but apparently you can "rent" or "pay money" to "temporarily own" a video game, then return it a week later. It's a totally amazing new concept, I'm so glad I wasn't born yesterday!
      My friends are glad too when I rent a game sometimes and download a few multiplayer maps to play in addition to the ones that come with it.
      Hell, even after playing some of these games I might consider buying them later on.

      --
      disclaimer: I've been known to store numbers in my ass for which to dig out when quantities are required.
    11. Re:Another monthly fee? by Makarakalax · · Score: 1

      I play lots of multiplayer, I've hardly come across any "kiddies", almost everyone I've played with is twenty-something. I think it helps to pick the right zone, recreation is not full of kids.

      As other people say reputation helps people are less likely to be a dick due to the lack of anonymity. It seems.

  4. I will probably get a wii, by Clockwurk · · Score: 1, Interesting

    but I must admit that MS has done a lot better job with Xbox360 than they did with the first Xbox. Everyone that has a 360 raves about Live and the Arcade and downloading demos. By the time PS3 comes out, the 360 will have a solid library of full titles and a ton of the arcade games. Developers will have had the system in their hands for a while and will be able to utilize the system better.

    If MS can deliver a solid price drop (maybe $250 to $300 for the premium system, dropping the core model) by the time wii and PS3 arrive, the other consoles are going to have a much harder time launching in the US and Europe. Japan will be a tough place for MS due to their lack of gay/jap games, and they should focus their efforts elsewhere.

    1. Re:I will probably get a wii, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For the last line the parent should be modded flamebait.

    2. Re:I will probably get a wii, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Truth hurts, huh?

      Actually, I suppose the gay part is a bit flamebait, since some parts of Japanese culture definitely seem gay to Americans but aren't really.

      But next generation is definitely shaping up to be XBox360 for the US and Europe, PS3 for the Japanese, and the Wii for all.

    3. Re:I will probably get a wii, by trdrstv · · Score: 1
      Actually if they had games targeted towards 'Gay Japanese', that would be a step in the right direction. Then they could publish games they could simply try catering to the rest of the 'Japanese'.

      What's popular in the US isn't popular in a country with a very different culture and values. Go Figure.

    4. Re:I will probably get a wii, by Troed · · Score: 1

      If MS can deliver a solid price drop (maybe $250 to $300 for the premium system, dropping the core model) by the time wii and PS3 arrive

      No such thing though.

      According to Bloomberg, Microsoft have stated that they will be not adjusting the 360's price in light of the launch of the PS3. An MS rep commented there is currently no schedule in place to cut prices.

      http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=8710

      --
      it's in my head
    5. Re:I will probably get a wii, by _xeno_ · · Score: 1

      Of course they said that. They'd be stupid not to say that.

      And it's probably true - there currently are no plans for cutting the price, considering that the launch date of the PS3 isn't quite set in stone yet. Once Sony has a specific date for the PS3 launch, MS will likely start plans to cut the XBox360 price just after the PS3 launch.

      The reason why Microsoft is saying that they have no plans is because if they did admit that they plan on dropping the price, they'd lose sales at the higher price. Think about it: if Microsoft gave an answer saying the price will be cut "at some point in the future" would you want to buy an XBox360 right now? Or would you rather wait until the price was cut?

      If they announced that they were planning on cutting the price they'd lose sales to people waiting for the price cut. So instead they say that they have "no plans" to cut the price (not that they won't, just that there are no plans, read the quote carefully).

      Microsoft would be insane not to cut the price right around the PS3 launch. They're likely going to do it shortly after the PS3 launches, so that they may be able to steal some of the spotlight from Sony's PS3 launch.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
    6. Re:I will probably get a wii, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not to rain on your parade, but the 360 is not exactly a raging success in Europe.

      According to MS figures, more than *2/3* of their sales are in the US.
      In fact (looking at XBox live 360 player numbers) the only other country where the 360 is doing well is the UK, which is like 1/6 of the western european market.
      Personally I blame the slow HDTV uptake there (they've just started broadcasting) and a generally colder attitude towards Microsoft.

      But I agree with you that the 360 will totally own the US market if they can deliver a price cut for christmas.

  5. Three simple alternatives by MBraynard · · Score: 2, Interesting
    1) After-market harddrives. Pretty cheap from 3rd parties.

    2) There is currently a device that slides between an Xbox HD and the Xbox that allows you to use storage on your PC. Why not a device that lets you share your PC's HD to begin with from a 3rd party as well.

    All XBs actaully will stream music from your XP PC's HD (and XP Media Center will stream video). Maybe just let you use storage space on your PC directly with a simple software update from MS.

    1. Re:Three simple alternatives by aesiamun · · Score: 1

      Where do you get these aftermarket Hard drives? I have yet to see them...and what is this about something between the hard drive and the console?

    2. Re:Three simple alternatives by MBraynard · · Score: 1
      I spotted an ad but can't recall it.

      This is a good starting point: Looky here

    3. Re:Three simple alternatives by aesiamun · · Score: 1

      that allows you to take your xbox drive and attach it to a computer, but not vice versa. At this point it's pretty much going to be the 20GB drive you get or none at all. That site also mentions a 20GB hard coded limit which will have to change once and if MS releases HD upgrades off the shelf. I think i'll just wait till they release a 100 or 200GB model.

    4. Re:Three simple alternatives by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      Right now, it's not possible to use aftermarket hard drives.

      There's a special hash put on the drives that tells the Xbox360 whether's an xbox360 drive or not.

      You can image the hard drive (it's just a standard SATA disk), but you cannot restore it over another hard drive, or a different Xbox360 hard drive. In fact, if you do the latter without imaging it, you'll lose the ability to use that hard drive in an Xbox360.

      And there are tools to rip out stuff from the hard drive and onto your PC. Check out Xplorer360 and the forums/tutorials. Tell you how to connect your drive/memory unit to your PC.

      The new version (b5) of Xplorer360 restores images without overwriting the hash now.

    5. Re:Three simple alternatives by The-Bus · · Score: 1

      I'm pretty sure that currently, the Xbox 360 only lets you store content like game saves, downloaded trailers, XBLA titles, etc. on either the official 360 hard-drive or a 64MB memory card. The easy solution is to sell the 20GB laptop drive that is the Xbox 360 drive at a fair price: $40 or $50. Then make the $100 hard-drive 80GB.

      --

      Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.

    6. Re:Three simple alternatives by badboy_tw2002 · · Score: 1

      I'm sure they are planning a remote storage device thing BUT:

      a) They want to make money off perephrials first

      b) They probably want to ship it with Vista where they probably trust the DRM a bit more. With remote storage of save games its just that much easier to soft-mod your box.

  6. Why Memory Units? by grumbel · · Score: 1

    One thing I don't get is why Microsoft again went with custom memory cards, SD-Cards are extremly cheap these days (1gb for 20EUR) while those 'memory units' are still horribly expensive (64mb for 30EUR), even Sonys memory sticks are cheap in comparism (1gb for 50EUR). Ok, Microsoft can make some money with those memory units, but given that XBox360 is all about Live and multimedia and stuff, wouldn't it have made more sense to actually add support for media that is both more widespread and compatible (inserting SD-Card from digicam directly into XBox360 for viewing images and such)? Anybody really interested in XBox360 will go with a harddrive anyway, so I can't image that those memory units sell all that much. So why force something rather useless an limited on the customer?

    1. Re:Why Memory Units? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you honestly think Sony will allow Memory Sticks you buy from best buy as a way of saving games? I don't think so, instead they'll take the same technology, package it in some proprietary case and sell it for as much if not more than MS is selling theirs. Sony will not pass up the chance to make money on the enduser after the sale.

    2. Re:Why Memory Units? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Since the Xbox Lovers on Slashdot mod down any and all criticism of their precious console, I'm sure to get modded down for saying this...

      But, what the hell does the GP have to do with Sony? All Xboxers seem to respond to every question about the Xbox with "Well, Sony will be worse!". Quite the defensive bunch.

    3. Re:Why Memory Units? by reverseclipse · · Score: 1

      I'm sure they didn't want to use any memory device that could connect to a pc. there would be all kinds of cracks and whatnot available from the savegame files like for the psp

    4. Re:Why Memory Units? by I'm+Don+Giovanni · · Score: 1

      You answered your own question. Microsoft can make money selling memory cards. Selling accessories is one of the ways to make up for selling consoles at a loss.

      --
      -- "I never gave these stories much credence." - HAL 9000
    5. Re:Why Memory Units? by SScorpio · · Score: 1

      Both versions of the PS3 will come with hard drives that will allow game saving. The premium model of the PS3 will include a built in card reader to support SD and CF. The cheaper model of the PS3 will be upgradable to support an external, probably usb card reader. The Wii will also support SD.

    6. Re:Why Memory Units? by grumbel · · Score: 1

      ### Do you honestly think Sony will allow Memory Sticks you buy from best buy as a way of saving games?

      They do so for the PSP, so why shouldn't they allow the same for the PS3 (MemorySticks already *are* Sonys proprietary technology)? Only obvious reason to not allow it would be that every PS3 has a build in harddrive, so there is no need for memory cards at all, since its simply not needed except maybe for transfering savegames.

    7. Re:Why Memory Units? by grumbel · · Score: 1

      SD-Cards actually do have build in DRM stuff which might be used to make haking impossible or at least a lot harder, however I have no idea how that actually works and never seen it in action.

  7. Bigger games != Better games? by MMaestro · · Score: 3, Insightful
    However, with PlayStation 3 in particular likely to allow for much larger downloadable games, Microsoft runs the risk of losing out on bigger releases despite the impressive momentum Live Arcade has already built up.

    I thought one of the biggest factors towards the Xbox Live success has been the fact that developers could quickly and easily make a low budget game, throw it up on Xbox Live for cheap and see where the market takes it. With larger budget, larger sized and larger 'content' (read: prettier graphics) in game demos, what makes them stand out from PC demos? (Which have arguably become oversized given their short length.)

    1. Re:Bigger games != Better games? by powerlord · · Score: 1

      I think in this case, the question is 'big' relative to the 64MB card in an Xbox360.

      If the games are 30MB each (pulling sizes out of my hat), then after getting one or two, I'd need another card. Good for people who have the money to spend on them, but for those who don't, or don't want to, it might make people not buy as much.

      If I have a release in this size range, I might be put off on the Xbox Live, since my prospective audience might not have enough 'free space' to get the game/demo. That might be an incentive to develop for Sony's network, all else being equal (such as # of units sold, price to use the network, etc.).

      --
      This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
    2. Re:Bigger games != Better games? by zeroduck · · Score: 1

      Then get the hard drive. Easy fix.

    3. Re:Bigger games != Better games? by MMaestro · · Score: 1

      Xbox Live Arcade is more or less focused on 'casual' gaming, that is more or less 2D games. With that in mind, if your game is 32MB or larger (half of a memory card), then chances are you're aiming at the wrong market. Don't forget, SNES and Genesis games often times ranged between 32MB to 64MB on average, and we all saw how much 'content' developers managed to squeeze into games. Throw in modern compression programs and its VERY easy to squeeze some Xbox Live Arcade games into a few MBs. Heck, they recently released Street Fighter 2 (I forget which version) on Xbox Live Arcade and the original SNES rom was roughly 3 MBs.

    4. Re:Bigger games != Better games? by powerlord · · Score: 1
      Heck, they recently released Street Fighter 2 (I forget which version) on Xbox Live Arcade and the original SNES rom was roughly 3 MBs.


      Out of curiousity, any idea how big the XBox Live version is? (just wondering)
      --
      This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
  8. 64 Megs... Why? Has that always been that way? by gmrc.2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I can understand the desire to allow folks the ability to transport their Arcade game(s) on a memory unit .... but *force* developers to adhere to that? Why?

    I mean, is it a "consistent user experience" thing? Personally, no one I know that has a 360 transports their Arcade games, except by HDD, and would rather have larger, richer Arcade games instead.

    64 meg games will be a HUGE disadvantage eventually .... *especially* if no one is transporting their games via memory card.

    Just let developers make the Arcade games they want, and let the buying public decide how big is too big.

    1. Re:64 Megs... Why? Has that always been that way? by badboy_tw2002 · · Score: 1

      Because there's no built in harddrive, so the "lowest common denominator" in this case is storing stuff on the cheap memory card. If they get rid of the limit, I'd say the number of games devs would work to keep under the 64 MB limit would be pretty small, and anyone without a HD would be locked out. I'm not sure where extra content falls under. A lot of games are small and have lots of extra levels to buy and add on (~$0.50 to $1.00 seems like)

  9. HDD should have been standard on 360 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They should have made the hard drive standard then. Seems more plausable now that the PS3 is going to be $200 more than the Premium 360. Just remove the Core, make the 360 standard with a hard drive, and we solve these problems! Why step back from the original Xbox?

  10. MOD PARENT DOWN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Have a look at this post http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=188582&cid=155 42305

    1. Re:MOD PARENT DOWN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Should also add, this reply has the correct information: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=188582&cid=155 48318

  11. Zonked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Too bad there is no 'zonked' rating for posts ;)