Battlestar Galactica targets Xbox Live

[UPDATE] TV special recapping Peabody-winning Sci-Fi channel series will become first frakkin' full-length show available on Microsoft's online service.

When it debuted in 2003, the new Battlestar Galactica was greeted with skepticism. After all, it was a remake of a 1970-'80s series with a strong cult following produced by the Sci-Fi Channel, a cable network then infamous for its low-budget TV movies of the week.

Galactica stars Grace Park, James Callis, and Tricia Helfer.

Surprisingly, Battlestar Galactica proved the naysayers wrong. Its innovative plotlines, which were created by ex-Star Trek: The Next Generation writer Ronald D. Moore, won it critical acclaim and solid ratings. The series has also garnered a major following for its unusually gritty atmosphere. Instead of the clean-cut, sober officers of the Star Trek shows, Galactica's crew is an unkempt, hard-drinking lot whose demoralized dialogue is peppered with the fictional expletive "frak."

In 2004, the show was picked up as a full-time series. It ended its most recent season, its second, in March with one of the more shocking cliff-hangers in sci-fi television history. Such boldness helped the show win one of this year's Peabody Awards, the prestigious honor for excellence in broadcasting, which it shared with CNN, NBC Nightly News, and South Park, among others.

The third season of Battlestar Galactica is premiering in October, and the Sci-Fi channel is pulling out all the stops to promote it. It has put together a television special, titled Battlestar Galactica: The Story So Far, summing up the key events of the Battlestar Galactica miniseries and its first two seasons. The special will air on all the cable stations owned by Sci-Fi parent NBC Universal, which includes Bravo and USA, as well as the West Coast affiliates of the NBC broadcast TV network.

NBC Universal will also be targeting gamers with its PR offensive by releasing The Story So Far on Xbox Live Marketplace in its entirety. Though both seasons of Battlestar Galactica are already available on iTunes, the special will be the "first long-form program ever to be offered" on Xbox Live.

[UPDATE] NBC Universal reps told GameSpot that the Battlestar Galactica episode would be free of charge and available in mid-September. The rep was unclear as to the size of the download.

Unfortunately, the Xbox Live announcement had no information on the rumored Battlestar Galactica role-playing game which Moore mentioned when he spoke at the 2006 Game Developers Conference.

95 Comments

  • Vedamdren

    Posted Aug 27, 2006 1:08 pm PT

    This is one of the best shows on tv. It's incredible that they are offering it free on xbox live. Does anyone know if they charge money to watch it on iTunes?

  • shaggtastic

    Posted Aug 11, 2006 11:54 am PT

    @ mike_baks: Have you seen the show? Because I would have thought the same thing, but it works. It's the best show on television.

  • comthitnuong

    Posted Aug 11, 2006 11:52 am PT

    i never really watched it

  • ApisBee

    Posted Aug 11, 2006 11:52 am PT

    FRAKKIN' A! Luv this show...

  • Greenrabbit360

    Posted Aug 11, 2006 2:15 am PT

    i dont get people saying we need more room on the harddrive, ive played more or less every game out for it (lots of saves) downloaded every demo to take to my friends house, download all the new videos, and have 5 arcade games and 11 trials, and 13 videos (720p).... but this is where i guess i stray from what other users do... i delete the crap im not using... such as demos, and trailers....
    I have 11GBs and have had it since launch.

    If i read this right its only a "episode" that recaps/shows off the entire series, but is full length

  • migz7

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 8:20 pm PT

    I love BSG! Picked up season 1 on DVD and I was instantly hooked. Heck, my wife was hooked too! Just wish they would televise season 3 in HD. Can't wait for October! Woohoo!

  • kissfreak107

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 7:02 pm PT

    the sony fanboys keep saying that it sux but if it was on the cheap made ps3 then they will say it's awsom and another thing the stuff on the ps3 like the extra maps will not be free you will have to pay for them and on top of that ,when they interviewed sony last month about all the stuff that will be free on sony online ,sony started naming things that's free on the 360 but they never said that the online play will be free and they never said it when they named the stuff that's free like the demoes and trailers and then they said the rest of the stuff will have a charge on it so sony might have lied to the people again and that's all they are good at

  • mat2g

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 4:01 pm PT

    If its free, its cool. If its not, boooooo!

  • cesarotromundo

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 2:08 pm PT

    cool.... my hardrive is gonna run out on my 360 and what am i gonna do now? I NEED A BIGGER 360 HARDRIVE.. WE ALL DO!

  • sk1

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 1:07 pm PT

    I agree that Microsoft needs to bring on the games, but this is still cool. Hopefully they will eventually get some shows I would actually want to watch.

  • mike_baks

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 12:59 pm PT

    "frak" is the most cheesiest word ever.
    Actually it's pretty sad. Oh boy they can't say the F-word so they think of somethin' stupid and cheesy to say in it's place.

  • wire-dj

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 12:49 pm PT

    Sony will most definitely copy this as they own many Tv and movie companies. This si probably the only reason that you do not see a trailer for Spiderman 3 on the 360.

    As for Microsofts games just remember that the final versions of the 360 given out to developers was 1 year ago. I am amazed that we have as many games as we do and more are coming out al the time. There seems to be more 360 games than PSPs.

    I also believe that this will be a free download. I believe it even said this inthe article as well as it would just be the show telling the plot points to the ending of season 2.

    Microsoft was lucky to get in on this and it will help with more content coming over marketplace all the time.

    Microsoft is competing with video games but is trying to get in to other markets as well kind of what the P$3 is made for.

  • Dups79

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 12:48 pm PT

    My sci-fi fantasy loving nerd friend will love this.

  • K1LLSWITCH

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 11:42 am PT

    anthony_basic
    "NO DOUBT SONY IS GOING TO COPY THIS "

    Highly doubtful. Only the mindless monkey's will think this is the best thing ever. Have we forgotten that the Xbox 360 is in competition in the VIDEO GAME industry? It should be about video games and not features. Where is Microsofts games now? What are they going to do in the gaming front? Oh wait I forgot, their busy trying to come up with more features instead of games. What a joke.

  • K1LLSWITCH

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 11:35 am PT

    Instead of games we get television shows now? WHERE ARE THE GAMES MICROSOFT!?!? IS THIS ALL YOU CAN DO? NO WONDER YOUR FOLLOWING SONY..... YOU SUCK!

  • joba

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 11:29 am PT

    This is just a taste of more to come. XBOX Live Anywhere is going to have a great deal of content available for Zune, 360, PC, cellular, and XBP!

  • xelloss88

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 11:29 am PT

    FRACK YA CAN I GET A FRACK YA!!

  • thorsen-ink GameSpot staff member

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 11:23 am PT

    There is a GameSpot channel on there--our coverage of the XBL arcade event is on there. There's gonna be more stuff too.

  • ryokinshin6x3

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 11:06 am PT

    LaP, well to keep up with the high end ur gonna hav to upgrade processor and gfx card around every 2 years and thats around 2k for high end parts or keep up with release since nvidia is releasing a new set of gfx cards for dx10 every 6 months, and who said u hav to keep those shows on ur hdd, watch then delete, and microsoft will release bigger hdd options or best case u can buy ur own laptop hdd and case it

  • pachuco2k

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 10:38 am PT

    Frakkin' tight!! Long live XBox 360 and live!!

  • Pab10

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 10:36 am PT

    FREE, Long live Live!!!!!! I love the 360 ......... bring on 24!!!!

  • PR3D4TOR2

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 10:29 am PT

    WoW ! What got into them ? lol anyway nice !

  • mrzero1982pt2

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 10:07 am PT

    LosDaddie fyi i love the ps, i own all of em, but im not gettin a ps3, im movin to the xbox nation!

  • benihya

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 9:53 am PT

    i hope they won't be selling for $1.99 like the Ipod.

  • phSychO_AtDawn

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 9:43 am PT

    Put "OnTheSpot" in there! and Button Mashing and all the other good shows,you know what? they should have a Gamspot Channel on XBL.

  • ShockwavMk2

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 9:26 am PT

    LaP, from what I've seen and heard, a good gaming PC runs you around $2000-$3000. I know for a fact that at least I haven't spent that much with my 360. I've barely even spent near $1000 on mine, including the system itself.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Karjah
    wow they get you to pay for maps, hd-d, shows, music etc all on top of the 400 dollars you shell out for the system.

    Way to give microsoft all your money.

    The couple dollars that OPTIONAL content costs still doesn't make the 360 cost more than the PS3, which most likely will also charge for most of its premium content.

  • Chemosh013

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 9:24 am PT

    might end up checking this out! esp if it's free and in HD really can't loose.

  • Aegis351

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 9:22 am PT

    This is awesome i love battlestar galactica !

  • LaP

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 9:07 am PT

    There is not enough place on XBox 360 HD to download an entire seaon in HD. You have enough place for around half a season at 720p quality using compression like divx. You will have to buy a new HD if the show is sold in HD quality. BTW I'm sure by the end of this generation most XBox 360 owners will spend more money than a normal PC gamer. So much for console costing less than PC

    [TintedChimes] The show wont be free. It will be sold like over iTunes unless Microsoft pay a lot of money to sci-fi channel. You can already buy BSG over iTunes. It's not like it is a breaking news. More like old news. Microsoft is late on the party with this.

  • balindos

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 8:59 am PT

    Lets all say it together.... NEEEEEEEERDS.

  • TintedChimes

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 8:51 am PT

    Nice, free stuff is always good. Though it'll probably be uber-big since summing up the show in 30 minutes will probably short-change many of the plots and details.

  • LosDaddie

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 8:10 am PT



    Look at the PS Fanboys claiming they would rather watch this on TV.

    What do you think the Xbox360 is connected to?

    This is great news because the show will, no doubt, be in HD!

  • Ima_Grey

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 8:08 am PT

    That's great... and I will download it to watch it. One thing though, I doubt that it will be in HD because the dowload would be too big to fit on the 360 hard drive.

  • Donkeljohn Site moderator

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 8:02 am PT

    I might check that out. . . since I am still one of the naysayers.

  • zalealb

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 7:22 am PT

    this is nice and all, but i think alot of us are starting to run out of room on our tiny 20 gb hard drives. i know you can hang external devices, but that just makes the unit akward. i hope ms has plans to offer larger hard drives, especially with 1gb demos becoming normal.

  • Deepfreezed

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 7:07 am PT

    Very Cool!!!

    I rather watch it on my XBOX because quality will be better than SDTV.

  • Paul_TheGreat

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 7:03 am PT

    I rather watch it on TV.

  • mrzero1982pt2

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 6:16 am PT

    this is FRAKKIN AWESOME!!!!! I CANT WAIT TILL I GET MY 360 WITH GEARS OF WAR!!!! THIS WILL BE THE FIRST THING I DOWNLOAD IF ITS STILL THERE!!!

  • Mancho55

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 5:59 am PT

    Wow this is great news ..... If only I had a 360

  • ribbz22

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 5:56 am PT

    the 2nd half of the last season kind of sucked, with all those filler episodes that were totally not necessary. but, i love the show in general

  • freerunner01

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 5:56 am PT

    Galactica is a preatty decent show and like it was mentioned, i loved the gritty realism of a crew at constant war for survival with no end in sight and no planet to call home

  • Karjah

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 5:56 am PT

    wow they get you to pay for maps, hd-d, shows, music etc all on top of the 400 dollars you shell out for the system.

    Way to give microsoft all your money.

  • Spartan4001

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 5:52 am PT

    Excellent. This show rocks.

  • samekila

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 5:23 am PT

    Great work to Microsoft I never been a fan of this show but it shows a future look of how great xbox 360 is all 3 of these new console have took a major leap from there last systems.

  • lord-azrael

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 5:01 am PT

    Funky,I liked what I saw but i decided to get rid of digital and get internet so missed last half of season 2

  • Maquis_UK

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 5:00 am PT

    go watch an old Galactica. new ones are really retarded with no style or character.

  • holenjd

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 4:32 am PT

    Bring on the new season all ready for FRAK's sake!
    7 months is too long to wait.
    I want it NOW!

  • West_Side_LOgic

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 4:16 am PT

    oh man, cant wait.

  • Undoz

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 4:05 am PT

    h0|y frack

  • Spookhouse1

    Posted Aug 10, 2006 2:57 am PT

    now thats what I'm talking about..... awsome.

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