Microsoft To Offer Xbox 1 Games For Download, Celebrates Live Anniversary

Joystiq is reporting that Microsoft's Xbox Live service will be offering some great party favors soon, as the company celebrates the service's second birthday. Starting at 12:01 a.m. EST on November 15th, and lasting for 48 hours, users will be able to download the most-excellent board game Carcassonne for free. They've also announced their intent to allow us to download original Xbox titles to the 360 console. "In its press release, Microsoft explicitly named Halo, Psychonauts, Crimson Skies and Fable as titles for the Xbox Originals initiative, but did not confirm exactly which games will serve as the jumpoff: 'This new service will launch with an array of blockbuster titles spanning the most popular genres from action-adventure to classic role-playing games.' Third-party reports claim the preliminary lineup will also include ... Indigo Prophecy ... Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath Of Cortex and Burnout 3."

Comments

Question

[Kingrames]

Does this include the games that don't work on the 360 from the disc?
That would be nice.

Correction:

[CaseM]

The summary is incorrect. This is XBox Live's 5th anniversary: Link

Re:Carcassonne

[mythosaz]

I'm forced to disagree. Carcassonne makes a GREAT 360 game. While you may like or dislike it for whatever reasons you may have, online play optimized by a computer scorekeeper and rule-manager is fantastic. No "mistakes" playing on a 360. You can't make an accident setting a follower on the wrong land, etc. It's good for a number of the reasons that UNO makes a good 360 game -- without the vastly higher luck factor in UNO.

I'm only upset that they're not giving something ELSE to those of us who bought Carcassonne already...

Re:After the Wii

[PixelScuba]

Sort of. Nintendo and the Wii found a way to charge us $5-$10 for games we purchased 15-20 years ago. I don't think the Wii network has Gamecube games available... which would be the most accurate comparison to what Live is doing here. Incidently, for the sake of honesty, it's actually CLOSER to what Sony has been doing with the Playstation Network and PS1/PS2 games.

The bigger news in this

[nuzak]

This means they're pushing digital distribution of actual games. These aren't Microsoft titles, so they've actually gotten agreements with the publishers. Meaning there's really no necessary distinction between these titles and new ones. Finally, a chance to put a stake in the heart of GameStop and their skeezy incompetent chain of pawnshops. No, I would NOT like to preorder, bitch!

And is this why XBL fell over last night? I had to unplug the goddam network just to be able to sign in to my own profile.

I don't think this is correct

[Itchyeyes]

"I picked up Gears of War for the PC last week only to find that it required me to PAY for a LIVE account to play it online"

This isn't correct. You can play online on the PC with GFW Live Silver (which is free). What you don't get with the free version are Microsoft's True Skill matchmaking services, cross platform play, and multiplayer achievements (details here). Still frustrating, but not the same thing.

I wish there were a way to do this with new games

[TheGeneration]

I wish there were a way to do this with new games. Right now I'm dealing with the stupidity of EBgames.com trying to get a game I preordered that was released yesterday...

I did pre-order on Super Mario Galaxy at EBGames.com at some point after I did the pre-order they attached a second item to my order, a cheap ass plastic "collectors coin" for the game that probably cost 1/100th of a cent to produce in China. Well, guess what, that coin is back ordered and as a result my game hasn't shipped. It's unbelievable.

I called their customer service and spent OVER two hours on hold waiting for somebody to pick up before I finally just hung up the phone. I can't believe they get away with this crap. Seriously.

I'm heading to Best Buy after work and I'm going to pick up a copy. It'd be nice if I could just download it directly from Nintendo.