Source: Kotaku
Get out your party hats and noise makers because Xbox Live is turning Five (or as they’re saying it “5ive”…stupid)! That’s right, it’s only been five short years since Microsoft single-handedly changed the way we all played online games by charging $50 a year for it. So what big plans does Microsoft have in store for this monumental birthday?! Not much really.
Read what’s new after the jump!
According to their press release they are going to be offering a free XBLA download of “Carcassonne,” a previously released board game, to all of their Xbox Live Gold or Silver subscribers on November 15th and 16th only. On top of that, they will be giving every Xbox Live gold subscriber who has been a continuous member since 2002 when they started the service 500 free XBL points! That’s so nice of them! You gave them $250 over five years and they give you $6.25 back. How thoughtful.
On to the next big announcement!
Along with the Fall Update coming on December 2nd, Microsoft is going to start offering original Xbox titles (not 360) for download through XBL for 1200 points (or $15 in real money). The first titles to be released will be Psychonauts, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, Fable and of course the game that started it all: Halo. Excuse me if I don’t see this as big news. Actually, I find this to be the exact opposite of big news. Who in their right mind would pay to download these games for $15 when you can run to your local Wal-mart and buy the actual physical disc and case for $10 in the bargain bin? That’s not even the worst part! Remember that small 20GB (only 13GB formatted) hard drive that comes with most 360s that’s probably already dwindled down to around 5GB with the DLC? How in the world does Microsoft expect us to download and keep 2-4GB sized games on our HDDs when most of us only had 13GB to start with?
I smell a dirty, rotten underlying sales push for the extremely overpriced 120GB Xbox 360 HDDs. Shame on you Microsoft.
Microsoft did not comment on whether these new original Xbox DLC games will be modified at all to include achievement points, or better yet, online play. If Halo 1 does come with online XBL play added on, then you can go ahead and ignore all of the bashing I just said about Microsoft and forget about me, because I’ll be spending all of my time playing online Halo 1 multiplayer.
Happy 5th birthday Xbox Live. Hope you’re enjoying the $50 present I send you every year.
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5 responses so far ↓
1 Lono // Nov 13, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Hey, people might actually buy Psychonauts now.
Nah.
2 Doc // Nov 13, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Yousty, why are you such a Hater?
3 Yousty // Nov 13, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Hate the Corporation, not the Playa…or something stupid like that.
4 Olly Newport // Nov 13, 2007 at 3:42 pm
I like the free XBLA download…whooo!!!
5 Sean "rothbart" Workman // Nov 14, 2007 at 1:13 am
Hey, I came here to say what Yousty said after I clicked to see the “whole article”. Nice Job Yousty!
While I won’t condemn 360 downloads of original Xbox games (I have absolutely no problem with that), I think it’s a bit high priced and their current Hard Drive pricing blows goats! Are we allowed to say “blows goats”? Because that was the more-family-friendly version of what I _wanted_ to say.
$179 for 120GB is highway robbery and as they introduce more and more “downloadable” content, they need to address the situation more and more badly. Just sell us an “empty” chassis, admit your special “shock protection” reason for jacking the 120GB’s price up was BS, and let us put our OWN hard drives in the 360 at prices that are competitive!
Yousty, kudos for “Hater of the Day!”
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