First Xbox On Demand Titles Arrive: Nothing Interesting

Kris Erickson • Aug 7, 2009 • Comments (3)

The first batch of games in Microsoft's "on demand" service has been revealed to those people in the new dashboard preview testing program. The Games On Demand tab will launch for regular users on August 11th with the new dashboard upgrade.

Unfortunately, we would be hard pressed to come up with a list of older, less relevant or more predictable games for the launch of this service. Furthermore, the current prices are pretty steep considering that these games are download-only and are more than 2 years old. This is great news for brick-and-mortar retailers, who might feel under threat from downloadable games like these that threaten to cut off one lucrative source of revenue - used game sales.

But if this first batch of games is anything to go by, we won't be abandoning the bargain bin at our local Gamestop any time soon. We hope that Microsoft brings some newer, more interesting games to the service, otherwise this idea will fail to catch on with gamers (who want instant gratification) and will surely fall into obscurity.

Here is the first batch of downloadable "On Demand" games, with prices for both British and US territories:

Call of Duty 2 - £19.99 in UK ($30 in US)
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - £19.99 in UK ($20 in US)
Need for Speed Carbon - £19.99 in UK ($20 in US)
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga - £19.99 in UK ($30 in US)
Mass Effect - £19.99 in UK ($20 in US)
Viva Piñata - £19.99 in UK ($20 in US)
Assassin's Creed - £19.99 in UK ($30 in US)

Do any of these games catch your eye, and would you buy from the On Demand service? Let us know in the comments below.

Comments

kev

- August 9, 2009 3:47 AM

I just don't understand why anyone would pay for these downloadable titles. All of these games can be bought for less on ebay and a quick check of play.com has cod2 at £12.99, Oblivion at £8, NFS Carbon at £12 and AC at £9 all free delivery. Add to that the fact that you can never sell a downloaded game and I'm completely at a loss to understand it.

Spencer

- August 12, 2009 11:05 PM

A lot of those games catch my eye. In fact, there are about fives games I would buy.

And, believe it or not, I think these games are accurately priced. At least the popular ones.

Paul

- August 18, 2009 7:50 AM

Yeah, I would have been interested but the prices are way too high.

The only advantage is that you get the game immediately. For that, you not only pay more (double in the case of current Assassin's Creed prices) but you lose the ability to lend the game to friends or sell/trade it when you've finished. If you don't have an elite model, you also have to invest in a bigger hard drive and possibly splash out on bandwidth charges as well if you want a few of these games.

If MS actually passed on their savings to the rest of us (no manufacturing or storage costs, no cut for a 3rd party retailer), then we'd be happy. Sell these for £10-12 and they'll fly. For now, Gamestation and Play get my cash. and if the used copies are cheaper then MS get nothing. Well done, idiots.

Xboxist

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