Digital downloads and their future

heavy liquid

heavy liquid

CAGiversary!
This applies for both XBLA and PSN, although I personally have spent much more on XBLA so far. With the release of Braid on Live Arcade this week for 1,200 MS points ($15 US) and the possibility of Castle Crashers at 1,800 MS points ($20 US), I've been thinking a lot about these downloadable games. All of the games I've bought so far have only been for $5 or $10, but they do add up. But we've seen MS pushing for more expensive games lately, which is what got me wondering about this.

What's going to happen with all of these XBLA games when the 360 successor is released? What if our 360 dies? We could buy a new 360 and swap hard drives, but what if the hard drive is damaged.. How long will MS support these games and allow them to be re-downloaded after Microsoft's releases it's next console?

Will we be able to re-download and play all of our XBLA purchases on the 360s' successor? Given the success, they'll probably have a Live Arcade on their new system, but will all of our previous purchases transfer? I'll be honest; I would buy a lot more XBLA games if I knew definitively that this was true, but I've never read or heard anything much about this subject at all. I could see it going either way. It wouldn't surprise me if the games were tied to the 360 only (legalities, etc.) and no future system. And if any of the games were even available at all on Microsoft's next console we would be made to repurchase it.

I've never seen much discussion about this and was wondering what people's feelings were, or even if you've given it much thought.
 
I have given it almost no thought, but you do have some valid points on carrying the titles over. I assume there is a plan for that, but have nothing to confirm that.

BTW - if CC is going to be $20, it would be 1600 MS points, not 1800. That would be $22.50.
 
Whoops, you're right. It does work out to $22.50. I forgot about the odd price.

For those who are unfamiliar, CC was rumored to be 1800 points but MS and Behemoth denied it saying a price has not been decided yet. Of course, MS also said that the Braid 1200 points rumor was not true, only to release it a week later for that very amount. So the CC price is up in the air as far as I'm concerned... I wouldn't be surprised to see it being 1800 or 1600 points.
 
I have no direct knowledge, but I can tell you that Microsoft is strongly considering your issues in building the xbox successor. It's just too early to tell. They likely don't know exactly what the hardware will be and unless they can decide to somehow include the 360 GPU/CPU in the successor, it's hard to guarantee that emulation will work 100%.

I'm sort of ok with it though. I really only play most arcade games for a few months and then never again.

I wager that it will be very similar the 360 with the Xbox 1. They will probably end up trying to emulate the more popular games.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']I have no direct knowledge, but I can tell you that Microsoft is strongly considering your issues in building the xbox successor. It's just too early to tell. They likely don't know exactly what the hardware will be and unless they can decide to somehow include the 360 GPU/CPU in the successor, it's hard to guarantee that emulation will work 100%.

I'm sort of ok with it though. I really only play most arcade games for a few months and then never again.

I wager that it will be very similar the 360 with the Xbox 1. They will probably end up trying to emulate the more popular games.[/quote]
DLC on the next Xbox MUST be present if they want to succeed. I can only imagine the backlash from all the gamers that have spend $100's on DLC (likely your average 360 gamer) only to be told they can't transfer it over.
 
[quote name='SynGamer']DLC on the next Xbox MUST be present if they want to succeed. I can only imagine the backlash from all the gamers that have spend $100's on DLC (likely your average 360 gamer) only to be told they can't transfer it over.[/QUOTE]

The same logic applied to the 360 from the Xbox 1. Microsoft never promised 100% backwards compatibility. And they didn't make any statement about it until right as the 360 was released. There is no reason to believe it won't be the same this time.
 
Longevity is really important to me as well. One day I want my children to enjoy some of the games (including DLC) that I'm enjoying now. But I have pretty good faith that we will still have the current content available through the next generation.

Also, I love the idea of companies offering DLC compilation discs. Or even more into fantasy land: custom compilations. Check the songs/titles you want on a disc, calculate the price and they ship you a hard copy.
 
Longevity isn't important to me. I sell/trade on goozex most every game after finishing it. It's a big reason I stay away from download games--I hate not being able to sell or trade them.

With DLC, I don't care. I download it to enjoy while I'm playing the game it's attached to, and just delete it when I trade the game.

But this is definitely an issue for people who buy a lot of download games and replay them.
 
[quote name='Magentis']Also, I love the idea of companies offering DLC compilation discs. Or even more into fantasy land: custom compilations. Check the songs/titles you want on a disc, calculate the price and they ship you a hard copy.[/QUOTE]

I'm surprised there aren't more compilation discs. Off the top of my head, I think there's only two: Live Arcade Vol. 1 and the Pop Cap Collection Vol. 1.

I think your fantasy land idea is great though. It doesn't even have to be a build your own compilation, though: pay an extra fee -- $5 or something to have them mail the game to you on disc with a case. While I may not opt to do this for every game, I definitely would for some like Rez HD and Pac Man CE.

The only drawback would be for the many games that have add-ons, like Lumines, Pinball FX, Carcassone, etc. I'm not sure how they would get around that.
 
Considering game cases cost cents ($0.0x) per case and DVDs cost ($0.0x) per disc, it was be quite easy for Microsoft (since they have the final say on price, and already have the resources in place for somethig like this) to produce compilations. $5 is actually quite realistic.
 
[quote name='SynGamer']Considering game cases cost cents ($0.0x) per case and DVDs cost ($0.0x) per disc, it was be quite easy for Microsoft (since they have the final say on price, and already have the resources in place for somethig like this) to produce compilations. $5 is actually quite realistic.[/QUOTE]

It would be great if this happened. But, you'd have to devote resources (people, machines, overheads) to this, and I'm not sure Microsoft is going to care enough. You have to get revenue in the millions to make this work. So, will 200,000 + people have their games downloaded to a DVD and mailed to them? I'm guessing no.

The most realistic thing you will likely get is, somewhere down the line (maybe in 10 years) compilation discs of your favorite old XBLA games may be sold on the new MS system. So, for $20, you can rebuy 20 arcade games of their choice. It may hold all your favorites, odds are, it'll hold Geometry Wars 1, 2, couple decent games, and 15 crap titles. Then, this will repeat for 3-4 discs.

Remember, MS isn't in this for your long term happiness. They really don't want you playing your old games 5 years from now. They want you buying new games constantly, getting them revenue.
 
MS could just release the games at retail, perhaps more arcade volumes. I mean, a DVD can hold 4-8 GB, i'm sure they could continue with the usual 5 or so games on the arcade volume pack/compilation. Though i'd like to see MS give coupons or vouchers via e-mail to those who have already bought the game(s). Say the compilation costs $30 at retail...but i already have $3 of the games on my HDD. A $10 off voucher would be nice. I'm paying $15 for the other 3 games and then $5 to get the games i already have on disc.
 
[quote name='SynGamer']MS could just release the games at retail, perhaps more arcade volumes. I mean, a DVD can hold 4-8 GB, i'm sure they could continue with the usual 5 or so games on the arcade volume pack/compilation. Though i'd like to see MS give coupons or vouchers via e-mail to those who have already bought the game(s). Say the compilation costs $30 at retail...but i already have $3 of the games on my HDD. A $10 off voucher would be nice. I'm paying $15 for the other 3 games and then $5 to get the games i already have on disc.[/QUOTE]

Great ideas, but again, your thinking from your perspective. Why does MS want to do this? If the revenue is there, they will do it, but not enough people will buy these games to get the numbers they need.

Let's see, the first arcade disc actually had a nice mix of games (the ones that were played). How many did it sell?
 
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