Games on Demand service went live TODAY along with plenty of other features that came along with this update. Before I really found out the specifics of the service I was absolutely thrilled. I haven't had a chance to pick up Assassin's Creed and I need a copy of Mass Effect just in case there were a few things that I missed when I played through the game the first time for review. However, the farther from E3 we got, the worse the service sounded. First, there would be NO new titles coming to the service. Which kind of stinks considering everyone would love to not have to go to Gamestop to pick up the latest title. Even better we could maybe pre-load games to our XBOX 360 and when the game went live we could play right away. That would have been wonderful.
But this didn't make me as angry as what happened next. The pricing for the games. They are priced at RETAIL! I'm sorry, what exactly are we paying for? Data and the right to play the game. There is no BOX, no manual, no disc stamping! The games are old, so there is no advertising involved, so what is going on? Amazon.com has Assassin's Creed priced for a FULL BOX COPY at $25.99 and we have to pay $29.99 on the Games on Demand service for nothing more than a copy of the game and nothing else?
So who is this service for? Perhaps people who live SO FAR away from a store or their mail box that the only way they are going to be able to get games is from the service. The only problem with that is they probably have satellite internet then and it will probably take them 2 days to download the game.
Perhaps its' for rich people who want to own a bunch of games that they could get for half the price at Gamestop. I guess Gamestop is THRILLED with this, anyone going in and seeing that the same games used are about half the price of those of Games on Demand will actually make MORE people purchase them. XBOX.com won't even show the prices of the Games on Demand. They say to "check marketplace." What they think people won't comparison shop?
I love digital distribution, I haven't purchased a boxed PC game since Wrath of the Lich King came out and I purchase about one PC game every 2 months. I love it! But this IS NOT the way to do digital distribution. The service NEEDS to give me a REASON to download the game, other than instant gratification!
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