Xblive update(Eu/UK gets ripped off over on demand games)

[Haggis and tatties]

So the new update for xblive hit today and along with it a little kick in the nuts for anybody not living in the US.

Below are the US MP prices for some games on demand..
Burnout Paradise - $20
Fight Night Round 3 - $20
Need For Speed: Most Wanted - $20
Prey - $20
Rainbow Six Vegas - $30
Rockstar Table Tennis - $30
***Sonic The Hedgehog - $20

And now the EU/UK MP prices..
Burnout Paradise - £20
Fight Night Round 3 - £20
Need For Speed: Most Wanted - £20
Prey - £20
Rainbow Six Vegas -Unavalible
Rockstar Table Tennis - £20
***Sonic The Hedgehog - Unavalible.

And it gets better with the release on demand of Mass effect.

US MP...1600MSP
EU/UK MP...2400MSP.
Australia/New Zealand MP........wait for it.......6000MSP.

Im so glad digital distibution has curtailed the rise of high games prices and made the gaming community one big happy family, especially after the same debacle that was Fat Princess on the PS3 PSN.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

So, basically, the downloadable Mass Effect will be $16 in the US, almost $40 in the UK, almost $34 in the EU, $50 in Oz, and $40 in NZ.

Well, based on today's exchange rates, anyway.

 

[StolenThunder]

Hmm. I see what they did with those prices there.

 

[Yoda]

Half assed and overpriced. Microsoft may as well just go to war with retailers, and put games out the same day they release at retailers and for cheaper. Until that day comes it's amazon.com for me.

 

[PKerr]

That is a feature I will never, ever, EVER use anyway.
I want disk in hand for that kind of loot.

 

[Yoda]

That is a feature I will never, ever, EVER use anyway.
I want disk in hand for that kind of loot.

I don't really understand that position. With my modded original Xbox I would have tons of games available on my hard disk without swapping discs. Same with Steam on my computer (which has the benefit of intelligently managing updates/patches). Acekard 2i, and DSiWare make it so I don't need to lug game carts with my DSi, and I love that as well.

What I don't like is having to swap out various Guitar Hero games if I want to play a certain song. I do like having a nice looking library of games on my bookshelf, but I'm willing to dump that in favor of a good digital distribution system. Physical copies degrade, break, get lost, whatever. Theoretically the digital library would be maintained better for me. Granted, you tend to lose the ability to transfer ownership, which is a big thing for some people. For me, once I buy a game I don't trade it into Gamestop. Sometimes I loan them to friends who conveniently forget to return them unless I hound them about it, but typically when I buy it, it's mine for life.

*shrug*, ideally I would have the games in slipcases, install them to my Xbox, and no longer need the disc. But that's never going to happen. Digital distribution is the next best thing for me.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

My problem with digital distribution is, what happens when/if the provider goes belly-up? Best case, you're forced to buy the game again from another provider who happens to be licensed to sell that title. Worst case, no one is selling it anymore, it never came on physical media, and you are majorly boned.

In such a scenario I would feel totally justified pirating the games that I'd paid for, though.

 

[Yoda]

My problem with digital distribution is, what happens when/if the provider goes belly-up? Best case, you're forced to buy the game again from another provider who happens to be licensed to sell that title. Worst case, no one is selling it anymore, it never came on physical media, and you are majorly boned.

In such a scenario I would feel totally justified pirating the games that I'd paid for, though.

That's a good point, and something I'm concerned about. I've been sticking with Steam and XBLA/PSN for that reason. They seem to be run by companies with staying power. If they plan to shut down servers I would hope that they'd do a permanent unlock on your content that you could backup to DVD. If not, I do think the crackers/pirates will come to the rescue.

 

[firehawk12]

Hey, Canadian pricing is fucked up too!

 

[Robert Maxwell]

My problem with digital distribution is, what happens when/if the provider goes belly-up? Best case, you're forced to buy the game again from another provider who happens to be licensed to sell that title. Worst case, no one is selling it anymore, it never came on physical media, and you are majorly boned.

In such a scenario I would feel totally justified pirating the games that I'd paid for, though.

That's a good point, and something I'm concerned about. I've been sticking with Steam and XBLA/PSN for that reason. They seem to be run by companies with staying power. If they plan to shut down servers I would hope that they'd do a permanent unlock on your content that you could backup to DVD. If not, I do think the crackers/pirates will come to the rescue.

I actually do keep an archive of all my Steam games, along with tools to "jailbreak" them in the event Valve goes under. I'm concerned about the people who aren't doing this, though. Most people wouldn't know how, and it's really unfair to them to have the prospect of waking up one day and finding Steam is offline--permanently. If they don't know how to backup the games on their own, they're screwed if they ever lose their installation.

 

[CommodoreKong]

My problem with digital distribution is, what happens when/if the provider goes belly-up? Best case, you're forced to buy the game again from another provider who happens to be licensed to sell that title. Worst case, no one is selling it anymore, it never came on physical media, and you are majorly boned.

In such a scenario I would feel totally justified pirating the games that I'd paid for, though.

That's a good point, and something I'm concerned about. I've been sticking with Steam and XBLA/PSN for that reason. They seem to be run by companies with staying power. If they plan to shut down servers I would hope that they'd do a permanent unlock on your content that you could backup to DVD. If not, I do think the crackers/pirates will come to the rescue.

I actually do keep an archive of all my Steam games, along with tools to "jailbreak" them in the event Valve goes under. I'm concerned about the people who aren't doing this, though. Most people wouldn't know how, and it's really unfair to them to have the prospect of waking up one day and finding Steam is offline--permanently. If they don't know how to backup the games on their own, they're screwed if they ever lose their installation.

I don't think you would have to worry about that, Steam is so valuable that it would almost certainly be bought by someone if Valve went out of business.

Of course that's not something we have to worry about at all, Valve has no problem giving away free content for their games for years after release so we know they aren't in any sort of financial trouble.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

That's a good point, and something I'm concerned about. I've been sticking with Steam and XBLA/PSN for that reason. They seem to be run by companies with staying power. If they plan to shut down servers I would hope that they'd do a permanent unlock on your content that you could backup to DVD. If not, I do think the crackers/pirates will come to the rescue.

I actually do keep an archive of all my Steam games, along with tools to "jailbreak" them in the event Valve goes under. I'm concerned about the people who aren't doing this, though. Most people wouldn't know how, and it's really unfair to them to have the prospect of waking up one day and finding Steam is offline--permanently. If they don't know how to backup the games on their own, they're screwed if they ever lose their installation.

I don't think you would have to worry about that, Steam is so valuable that it would almost certainly be bought by someone if Valve went out of business.

Of course that's not something we have to worry about at all, Valve has no problem giving away free content for their games for years after release so we know they aren't in any sort of financial trouble.

Yeah, but I'm interested in long-term value for my games. I still play stuff that came out in the '80's and '90's. I want to still be able to play Half-Life 2 10, 15, or 20 years from now, you know?

 

[Jax]

I really prefer my games on a disk an example of this is am getting GTA DLC via the disc version later this year and not through Live though I did order Mass Effect DLC digiatlly of course. The only games I ever want from Live is X Box originals and Arcade any pure 360 titles will always be in disc form from PLAY.COM/AMAZON/Gameplay mostly.

Those prices are really bad I was a big supporter of the 360 but MS is ticking me off lately, the new dashboard is slower in some ways to the old ones too much images to load up when really basic font would do. 1 vs. 100 is fun but sometimes can be ap in to join and the live shows need revamping with the picking for mob and one.

who going to pay $30 for the 1st RV6 Vegas ?

 

[JonathonWally]

It depends on the game.

Times like now, when I've been under the weather for the past couple days, I would think about picking up a new game instead of heading out to the store to pick it up. It would be nice to have an entire game on the harddrive so all the loading is sped up, changing games without having to move.

But I'm with most of you on this, I'd rather own it physically.

 

[Jax]

Own the disk and store it on your HDD is the best way to go, I was so glad when that feature was made by MS. Always prefer to have a disk just incase

 

[JonathonWally]

Own the disk and store it on your HDD is the best way to go, I was so glad when that feature was made by MS. Always prefer to have a disk just incase

But you still need to keep it in the drive.

I keep big loading games installed, like Fallout 3 and Oblivion and then swap around with whatever game I'm playing hardcore at the time. Like for now I have RE5 on the harddrive, next week it could be Force Unleashed again.

 

[Chimpy Chompy]

My problem with digital distribution is, what happens when/if the provider goes belly-up?

Well that's one of the good points about gog.com compared to steam, you just have a drm-free download that doesn't care about the state of their servers!

(Obviously gog is only covering a niche interest tho)

Regarding Steam, I'd hope that if it was all going tits up they might release some all-round official jailbreaking patch that removes the requirement to dial home. Whether or not that would actually happen in reality though, I duno. :/

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Own the disk and store it on your HDD is the best way to go, I was so glad when that feature was made by MS. Always prefer to have a disk just incase

But you still need to keep it in the drive.

I keep big loading games installed, like Fallout 3 and Oblivion and then swap around with whatever game I'm playing hardcore at the time. Like for now I have RE5 on the harddrive, next week it could be Force Unleashed again.

I don't. My process is simple:

1. Install game from disc.
2. Apply CD crack.
3. Put disc away.
4. Profit!!! (Er, well, play the game.)

Some games make this more difficult than others, which always irks me. If I have to, I'll rip an image of the disc and mount it with Daemon-Tools so I don't have to keep the disc in my drive. A lot of games will accept that.

But I only have one optical drive in my computer, you know? And my netbook doesn't have one at all. I'll be damned if I'm going to lug around an external CD drive just because Developer X is paranoid about piracy.

 

[Yoda]

Own the disk and store it on your HDD is the best way to go, I was so glad when that feature was made by MS. Always prefer to have a disk just incase

But you still need to keep it in the drive.

I keep big loading games installed, like Fallout 3 and Oblivion and then swap around with whatever game I'm playing hardcore at the time. Like for now I have RE5 on the harddrive, next week it could be Force Unleashed again.

I don't. My process is simple:

1. Install game from disc.
2. Apply CD crack.
3. Put disc away.
4. Profit!!! (Er, well, play the game.)

Some games make this more difficult than others, which always irks me. If I have to, I'll rip an image of the disc and mount it with Daemon-Tools so I don't have to keep the disc in my drive. A lot of games will accept that.

But I only have one optical drive in my computer, you know? And my netbook doesn't have one at all. I'll be damned if I'm going to lug around an external CD drive just because Developer X is paranoid about piracy.

That's great and all for you, but I think he was talking about the practicalities of doing it on Xbox 360, where for obvious reasons you still need the disc. Or you could go digital if they priced it sanely.

Computer no-cd patches have their share of problems. I often can't find one for the latest patch of a given game. There are some that introduce bugs into the game and/or crash and are less stable. Daemon tools (and by that I mean an alternative that doesn't ship with adware these days) often works, but it's all a hassle.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Well it looks like the UK/EU gets the short end of the stick again with the 360 arcade getting a price hike from £129.99 to £159.99.

360 arcade price hike

No word yet on the 60gig model which sells at £169.99, but if MS are indeed phasing out the 60gig that would leave two options, either the Arcade or Elite.

I have no idea if MS are adding a HDD to the new arcade pack but if not that's some very aggressive marketing to push people to the Elite option.