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Xbox 360 Games on Demand won't feature new games

Microsoft exec Shane Kim says the company is "not anywhere close" to day-and-date online releases for the latest titles.

When the next Xbox Live update hits August 11, Xbox 360 gamers will be able to download a selection of full retail games, including Mass Effect, BioShock, and Assassin's Creed. What they won't be able to do is download the much-anticipated sequels to those titles on the day they hit stores.

Microsoft's Shane Kim.

Microsoft's Shane Kim.

In an interview with forward-focused business magazine Fast Company published this week, Microsoft games division executive Shane Kim nixed any notion of Xbox 360 games arriving on the Games on Demand downloadable service simultaneously with their retail counterparts.

"There are a lot of complex issues to deal with here, especially if you start talking about day-and-date release with retail availability--which is not something that we're talking about at all, today," Kim said, adding, "When it comes to us saying we want Games on Demand to enable day-and-date release of new titles, then there's certainly a lot of work we would need to go through. We're not anywhere close to that world today."

Kim also raised the possibility of such a move damaging Microsoft's relationships with traditional retailers, saying, "We have to be smart about how we approach this business."

Games on Demand isn't the only change to Xbox Live included in the next update. Netflix streaming (accessible only to Xbox Live Gold subscribers) will be tweaked to allow users to edit their movie queues. Also new will be the addition of movie parties, which will allow players' avatars to watch films in a virtual theater and deliver commentary, Mystery Science Theater 3000-style. The August 11 update will also add the Avatar Marketplace to Xbox Live, allowing players to purchase new clothing and items with Microsoft points (bought with actual currency).

58 Comments

  • usainuk

    Posted May 21, 2010 3:47 pm GMT

    I can confirm what some have been saying, you can't use games on demand or even DLC if you are not connected to Xbox live AT LEAST NOT WITH NEWER 360s.

    The only thing I can figure is that microsoft have done something with the new XBoxs in connjuntion with x box live.

    I have last years (arcade model) and then more recently bought a newer X box 360 (may 21 2010) on the older X box all of the games on demand work perfectly fine wether you are connected to live or not .

    But when using the newer 360 if I am not online and try to launch the game I just get "cannnot launch ( title) message "

    also (on the newer console) if you try to launch the game with anything other than the profile you bought the game with you get a message saying the game can only be used with the "profile used to purchase the game"

    Also even if you use a disk to start the game if you are not live connected at the time it won't reconginize DLC and claims its missing even if you use the same profile you used to purchase the DLC ., and if you are online connected you can use the DLC and game on demand only with the profile you used to download it , use any other profile and you get error messages

    they must have done something with new consoles in conjunction with DLC (including games on demand)

    its not in the hard drive or in the the updates since I am using the same HD on both consoles .



    I


    I

  • mastorione

    Posted Jan 19, 2010 1:28 am GMT

    They should release all future 360 games (?) months after retail release.

  • darkprince2

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 3:16 am GMT

    I think it would have been better if you could rent them, rather than having to download the whole game and it would also work better for newer titles. I think it would be cool because sometimes when you go to the video store, the game you want isn't there and you get all bummed out. I think it's something Microsoft should look into.


    It would be very convenient, too, like if you were sick or if there was seriously bad weather outside that you'd rather avoid then you could just do a temp download for 72 hours. The games on demand are overpriced, too, which, in my opinion, is bad marketing. Most people aren't going to shell out $40 on a game they can get for $25.


    I think the games on demand is pretty stale. It might be good if you're desperate and can't find the title you're looking for, but in the time it would take to download it, I could make it down to the game store and back in less time and also get it for less money.

  • PandaBear86

    Posted Aug 1, 2009 7:18 pm GMT

    Microsoft can still let retailers stock pre-paid cards to sell XBL points to consumers, so the relationship is still there. I don't see any problem at all there.

  • Spartan809

    Posted Aug 1, 2009 6:39 pm GMT

    Pssshhh Steam does it all the time.

  • Darkside7972

    Posted Aug 1, 2009 6:28 pm GMT

    This is disappointing news.

  • Barhooom

    Posted Aug 1, 2009 12:42 am GMT

    If games are going to be tied to a profile (not the console) then no thanks! I had problems when I moved from one country to another (you can't do that for your profile) I had to lose all my achievements and arcade games!!

  • dzfunk64

    Posted Jul 31, 2009 8:27 pm GMT

    I don't have the best internet connection available, but it's still good. For most people, it will take around 4-8 hours, depending on the game's size. If you have the best internet connection available, you can probably get it in 2-3, but most people settle for an average connection.

  • gilv3r

    Posted Jul 31, 2009 5:00 pm GMT

    It takes like 2 and a half hours to download a 6-8gig game. What the hell are you talking about? I don't know what kind of internet connection you have but it sounds horrible.

  • dzfunk64

    Posted Jul 31, 2009 3:43 pm GMT

    @ mastakhan

    Yes, but two problems with that are:

    1. It will take a VERY, VERY long time to download a ~6-8 GB game, which would make it very annoying to have to download it multiple times. If I wanted to play a game that I deleted from my hard drive, I don't want to have to wait several hours for it to download first, I'd want to play it right then.

    2. They may remove old games after a couple years. I know they've removed older content from the Xbox Live marketplace before, and they just removed all of the Xbox Originals without much warning, so it is possible. Anyone who bought a Xbox Original game, but removed it to make space, is now outta luck, as those games are no longer available.

    -----

    @ godzillavskong

    Wow, that's odd. I've never had that happen before. Maybe it has to connect to Xbox Live before in order to check if you have permission to access the full game. If you download the free version of an arcade game, then buy it, you don't need to download anything else, which means it's really downloading the full game, then restricting what you can access.

    If that's true, Xbox 360 games shouldn't have that problem since there will only be one version of them.

  • dzfunk64

    Posted Jul 31, 2009 3:40 pm GMT

    Can someone please explain to me what, exactly, games on demand is? When I think of on-demand, I think of movies on-demand, which let's you instantly watch a movie one time for a small fee. But this sounds like you pay full price for a game, then you keep it (so, basically, you buy it). But that can't be true since Sony just said they won't do anything like games on demand, and they already do sell full versions of some games via PlayStation Store.

  • DooM_MerchanT

    Posted Jul 31, 2009 11:40 am GMT

    or that.

  • thenephariouson

    Posted Jul 31, 2009 11:39 am GMT

    @DooM_MerchanT

    Or, allow Downloads to be saved to external sources e.g. External USB HDD's / NAS's etc. I dont see any issue with this, as you will be required to Sign in to XBL to be able to play/access the downloaded content, so security isnt really an issue.

  • DooM_MerchanT

    Posted Jul 31, 2009 11:22 am GMT

    To sum up, Microsoft needs to sell bigger hard drives cheaply.

  • mastakhan

    Posted Jul 31, 2009 7:36 am GMT

    A lot of people are showing concerns about storage space on their Xbox 360 hard drive. If I remember correctly, at E3 and elsewhere they've announced that you can re-download the game as many times as you like once you've paid for it. So, if you download the first Assassin's Creed, but delete it because you want to make room for Mass Effect, you can download Assassin's Creed later on whenever you want to play through it again.

  • nerd_assassin

    Posted Jul 31, 2009 12:56 am GMT

    I remember someone trashing PS3's HOME because you have to pay for stuffs.

    Now Xbox has an Avatar Marketplace. There, done deal. It's even.

    Back to topic, it's still nice to have digital downloads of those games even if it is old. And the possibility for new games being available on that service is indeed big. So no problem. I love how the Live gets to much updates, it justifies the payment for Gold subscription.

  • chikahiro94

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 10:14 pm GMT

    @ dzfunk64
    All the money they lost on the Xbox made them pretty paranoid, and you can see the results in a lot of the decisions behind the 360. Its a great machine - I love mine - but if it wasn't for all that lost money I think the 360 would be even better than it is now.

  • acsam12304

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 10:11 pm GMT

    @dzfunk64

    like how they say $50 off Microsoft office Pro that goes for like $400 and you will have to pay like $350 for. that is why i went with open office

  • godzillavskong

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 8:58 pm GMT

    @dzfunk64, I've had certain games, especially arcade titles that I bought , that once my Xbox live went down, they went from full games to trial games.As soon as Xbox Live came back up they went back to full titles.I've noticed that it isn't happening with all my dlc, but mostly arcade titles.

  • dzfunk64

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 8:28 pm GMT

    godzillavskong,

    After you download something from the Xbox Live marketplace and have it on your hard drive, you don't need to be connected to Xbox Live to use the content unless the content uses the internet (such as an online-only XBLA game).

    But, yeah, Microsoft definitely needs to release a 250+ GB hard drive for around $100 (honestly, that's still extremely over-priced), but you know Microsoft wouldn't sell it for less than $200. I could very easily see them being very cheap and give us a 160-200 GB hard drive, and still keeping the $200+ price tag.

    Not trying to bash Microsoft or the 360 here (I have one), but we all know that's how Microsoft works.

  • rohr2

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 7:16 pm GMT

    Put KOTOR 1 and 2 on the originals market then i'll be fine. But this is a good service...if done correctly. But in the end, i'll still buy the hard copy. Quicker to buy it then to download it unless i hear otherwise. Steam works fine, i know that but MS's digital is not going to be ready yet until they find a way to reduce the download time.

  • imprezawrx500

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 6:56 pm GMT

    ms really doesn't want the retail market to die. There is lots of money to be had through digital distribution but ms is to hooked up with the past and like them they will wait till someone else does it first then copy it. the bandwidth is there for full downloads, but ms probably doesn't have the servers to handle mass downloads of full games on day one.

    If steam has been doing it for years why can't ms 2 years later?

  • godzillavskong

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 6:32 pm GMT

    I don't know how big this will be, at least not until Microsoft releases another hard drive that is in the 250gb - 350gb range. I have the 120, but if these games have a 6 to 7gb range, than that will still limit that to about 20 games. Not to mention if you get disconnected from Xbox Live and won't have access to your games. I've downloaded a lot of arcade titles,themes,and game add-ons, and not been able to play them because Xbox live was down or the internet was off, so until they fix that drm stuff, I think I'll stick to the hard copies of full 360 games.

  • skullboy950

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 4:40 pm GMT

    Typical -_-

  • NuKkU

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 4:07 pm GMT

    i kind of predicted that

  • otanikun

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 3:54 pm GMT

    Duh, comes to mind, but at least they've finally decided to do what Nintendo has already done and Sony have as well, welcome to the industry M$

  • mrklorox

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 3:21 pm GMT

    @doom_merchant:

    How much space do think is necessary? Many analysts are expecting a 500GB HDD for the 360 soon. This should be WAAAY more than enough for the average person's entire 360 retail and XBLA collection combined. They're still DVDs, not Blu-Rays; not that much space is needed.

    And yes PS3 HDDs cost practically nothing compared to 360 HDDs because they are a standard universal type that many companies compete in manufacturing. MS is the only one who is allowed to sell their "special" hard drives so they make sure to hike up the price.

  • mrklorox

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 3:12 pm GMT

    No surprise. I'm hoping that eventually it will be practically required to be simultaneous release.

    This still doesn't rule out stand-alone multiplayer clients (ie COD:MW2 or BF:BC2) for download thru XBLA. Massive BF:1943 sales proved convenience (not needing a disc in the drive) is a factor in pick-up-and-play ability.

  • DooM_MerchanT

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 3:10 pm GMT

    @bleat
    That's what I'm saying, there isn't enough space on the current gen. PS3 ain't peanuts and yes I agree that if MS want digital distribution on this gen or even have it as a side note like this, they need a bigger hard drive for their 360's. Problem with that is that if it means buying a new xbox for just a hard drive with no other modifications.... No ones but the dumb will do that.

  • bleat

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 3:05 pm GMT

    @DooM_MerchanT:

    Hard drives aren't too small, Microsoft is just charging too much for them...

    You can buy a huge HD for a PS3 for peanuts, while that 120G is still WAY overpriced for the 360. MS needs to release a larger one and keep the price somewhat sane.

  • SalarianChemist

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 2:57 pm GMT

    Games On-Demand shows where the future is headed.

    It won't be long before we don't need any type of optical discs to swap for games. It's the same way with movies. On-Demand movies now run in 1080p, so there is essentially no reason by bother taking up space on Blu-ray discs. Why bother spending $35 on a Blu-ray movie when you could spend one-seventh that amount of money to see the movie On-Demand any time you want. And the way Xbox Live lets you pay only once for TV shows and keep them on your hard drive forever is awesome.

  • Dawg9000

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 2:53 pm GMT

    20gig hd aren't gonna be able to hold that much anyways.

  • DooM_MerchanT

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 2:49 pm GMT

    Digital distribution is slowly becoming a reality for gamers but not within this generation as the hard drives are just too small. Storage is the main issue for digital distribution but I believe this problem could be solved with some effort on the next gen whenever that may come through storing games elsewhere from your own hard drive or just making hard drives a lot bigger. OnLive is slightly different as that is digital distribution combined with cloud computing which basically means all the processing is done elsewhere at large powerful servers and then relayed back to you so you don't need the machine (great I can play crysis!...) just the internet speed and bandwidth, which most areas don't have. Including myself.
    It's an uphill struggle for the world of digital distribution but it's likely to happen. We need improved internet infrastructure urgently.

  • bgres077

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 2:44 pm GMT

    Awwww so sad.

  • junglist101

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 2:31 pm GMT

    I don't like big downloads, they just take too long. It would be quicker to go buy the game than to wait for it to download.

  • Jhedan

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 2:29 pm GMT

    I'll rather buy the hard copy of the game anyway, seems more reliable, portable and more convenient for me.

  • AncientDozer

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 2:28 pm GMT

    It won't. It's only compliments traditional means, I think. It'll just give you that option.

  • Asagea_888

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 2:26 pm GMT

    I'm all for downloading games, but I hope it doesn't completely replace the traditional means of purchasing hard copies from retail.

  • Legolas_Katarn

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 2:22 pm GMT

    I don't like downloading games anyway.

  • raahsnavj

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 2:19 pm GMT

    That's ok. Until they figure out a way to give me my digital download on day one and ship me a hard copy with the purchase I won't be using it anyhow...

  • newb16

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 2:14 pm GMT

    Allot more people will have the hard copy instead of the digital versions of games.

  • king_chapeton15

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 2:06 pm GMT

    i stil thinkits better to buy games with cases and manuels

  • Setsuka13

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 2:04 pm GMT

    That looks pretty neat. Can't wait.

  • Gothic-360

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 1:53 pm GMT

    wow avatar's stuff looks cool

  • ASenseOfRevenge

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 1:52 pm GMT

    So far it looks like they are going to be single player only games. Which I'm fine with.

  • 73X

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 1:52 pm GMT

    Makes sense.

  • fanirama

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 1:50 pm GMT

    LOL. It said - "Can't start playback" at the Netflix Movie Party. What ? This is their video demo ?

  • ColdfireTrilogy

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 1:41 pm GMT

    @damonkeypirate steam works great ... nough said.

  • starbead

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 1:37 pm GMT

    @damonkeypirate

    Why would you not be able to play if your internet connection is down? This is a service to let you DOWNLOAD, not STREAM games (ala OnLive). I can still play any of the other games that I have downloaded without an internet connection; I assume that these games will be the same. Should boost hard drive sales.

    This is the future. They are taking it slowly, but this is how we will get all games one day. I bought my first music on vinyl, then cassettes, then DVDs and now it is all AAC or mp3. With the larger files for games or movies, it will take some time, but this is where the thing is headed. Retailers should be concerned. (It is also why I see blu-ray as this year's model of the DAT or mini-disk. Sony pumped a lot of money into pushing their "superior" storage media then only to find them outdated before the masses were sold. I see BR the same way. It isn't enough of an improvement for the average person to make the jump from an upscaling DVD player and by the time it is affordable enough, digital distribution will have supplanted it.)

  • sun_rider95

    Posted Jul 30, 2009 1:34 pm GMT

    microsoft those a great job in kicking its own ass I mean mass effect ac and bioshock were great games but they were lunched in 2007

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