I saw this coming about 5 minutes after I hear the PS3 was going to have a Blu-Ray drive.

Why would MS bother to get into a nuclear arms race with Sony for expensive hard copy media when they can have a "Steam-like" system where physical media size is not a factor and the size of HDD is the only limiting issue. Just how long will it be before this is combined with the next-gen Xbox having a fast SSD?

If your HDD goes boi-ecky then re-download to your warrantied/replaced/upgraded HDD and carry on about your day.

Right now, somewhere in Japan, there is a Sony executive making his way to the nearest window ledge, trying to aim for a nice car somewhere down below...

None of those games are any good anyway

Looks like half the launch games are on there haha. Still have the launch 360 with the 20GB hard drive hardly have enough space to be downloading any games. Good forward thinking for Microsoft, I can't imagine the next generation console having less than 1 TB of hard drive space.

Elder Scrolls? Mass Effect? Didn't Elder Scrolls win GOTY and Mass Effect in contention for it? Oh.

Cool

One part of me says that this will be great because it will help drive gamestop out of business.

But another part of me is worried that I won't be able to get some money back by selling on ebay or somewhere if I make a mistake and buy crappy game. I also won't be able to borrow games from friends too.

Finally my biggest concern is that if we all start buying games from one provider, Xbox Live, PSN or Steam, then they will have monopoly pricing power and no more great deals from amazon or newegg or walmart. No more competition from retailers...

Don't rise to him, obvious Sony fanboy...

Oooo maybe they can offer used games? Most of those seem to be avail as used for $10-20

lol "Slightly used digital copy"

There will likely always be physical media, but when you load it to the hard drive you register it with the Xbox Live service and if you tank your HDD your registered purchase can be re-downloaded.
Exactly.
Like.
Steam.

Even if not, removing physical media and not having packaging, delivery trucks or other supply chain should drive costs down.

Exactly.
Like.
Steam.

Im no sony fanboy PS3's suck too

What they need to make is a NAS that you can play from and have multiple 360's attached to

Oh, on the actual subject. They've been doing this for old Xbox games, this isn't really FANCY of them

Make them "price is right" is most important thing

Mass Effect was one of the most tedious and boring games I've played since Genesis. It boggles me to see how it got the rating that it did. In fact, it was so bad, I'm willing to give it away under two conditions, one, the person pays the postage and two, they also agree to take Genesis along with it.

The only limiting factor is the hard drive size. I wish MS allowed standard 2.5 user upradeable drives. I actually prefer playing downloaded games so I don't have to switch discs. Now, why can't you register a disc for one system so you don't need to verify the disc if you do a full install?

Are you saying this is a bad thing?
So where's Civ Rev? I thought that one was coming too. I love Civ on the PC but for multiplayer I actually like this one as it plays fast. Good for the quick kill.

Only 2 good games on that list.... Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Mass Effect

I don't see anything worth buying on that list. I've either played them and don't like them or already know they suck.

I love this service.

What sucks though is that I will forever be stuck with the shitty sized HD's that MS decides will be enough for us 360 users. I paid for a console and its 20GB drive, now I must shell out for a 120GB that fills up pretty fast with games around 6-9gb. C'mon MS, release a bigger drive damn it!

Original xbox games? Halo trilogy?

This article leaves me with a few questions. Do the games have a download limit before you have to pay again? If not then it could be a good deal if the prices are fair.

If they're priced like everything else on XBOX live then this is completely pointless. Who wants a 7 year old XBOX game for $20?

I never sell my used games but I buy them, eliminating that market will suck for gamers. I only spend $20 or less on a game. If the only way I can get one is to pay the full $60 because there's no second hand I think I might just give up on gaming in general. I'd rather have a pair of shoes than some stupid video game anyways.

XBOX live prices are insanity!

I don't agree with MS releasing a bigger HD. All they have to do is make it so that people who purchase a 360 can use either a USB HD or install a bigger HD (Not purchased through MS) on the 360.

One big problem, MS then you have their DRM (STEAM) copycat that is MS will own you and your MS DRM infected games. NOpe, give my brick and mortar stores and a physical disk in my hand.
Then you the Crapbox 360s Hard Drive that is proprietary. The PS3 is any 2.5" SATA drive you want to stick in it. You can actually pull it and put it in a external HD encloser ($20.00 at Newegg) and back the whole thing up to another drive. 3.5" 1 Terabyte drives can be had for about $100 now.

Costs will be driven down but not prices.

New games on Steam still sell for $49.99 even without the additional costs of physical media. Bottom line is a fat profit margin but still the same or even higher (because they're the only one selling) prices.

would be nice if they either unlocked the hard drive system for user replaceable units or came out with larger capacity models themselves... even the 120gb model is tiny... come on microsoft... the idea is good but make it easier for customers to buy up those games with online storage capacity that reflects your will to sell them content!

i wish they would have Kotor D: that would atleast fit on my harddrive

No points, no pants, no complaints from me

What ever happened to seppuku?

I have just this past weekend put in a 500GB 2.5" 7200RPM HD into my PS3, I have a 1TB LaCie USB drive with 1TB capacity (931GB) as my backup and restore source for my PS3, restores work great, also my place for saving my trailers and pics for my PS3. MS should have done the HD scenario like Sony did., but alas they wanted to suck money from the user, hardly a new concept from MS.

Honestly, everytime someone comes up with a good idea to increase efficiency and convenience some negative fuckwit always has to harp on about something. DRM, shitty HDD sizes, blah blah blah blah blah.

In the future HDDs will get bigger and the only people that worry about DRM are people who intend to pirate copy the games. And Steam have regular special offer days where prices are a fraction of normal list price, and thing like the Valve Pack where cost per games is tiny.

If you dont like it dont fucking play your Xbox, go outside an do something real like climb a tree or meet girls.

Sounds like a good idea, unless of course you have just the Arcade or Core version of the 360 which means you gotta go out and buy a hard drive . Anyway as long as it's cheaper than the boxed version at the store I'm sure people will spend money they otherwise wouldn't simply because it's convenient. It also sounds like a great way for MS to put extra server capacity to use and earn some more money, like they even need to.