Now that the NXE has been experienced, Avatars have been made, Netflix movies have been watched, one cool feature that nobody’s talking about has caught my eye.
The XBL Web Marketplace.
I stumbled upon it while checking my friends list, at xbox.com, while at work. Is it worthwhile or just another way to sell you junk you don’t need for spacebucks that don’t really exist?The XBL Web Marketplace is touted as a new way for to browse and buy anything that is available on the Live Marketplace from you computer. You can search for DLC, Demos, Videos, Themes and Gamerpics. Once you have found what you are looking for, you can Queue up your downloads for later.
Everything seems to be organized very well. Things are easy to find and it’s pretty user friendly. It allows you to now add MS points and Redeemable codes for XBLA games, and game content while away from your 360.
I left my 360 on when I left for work and I queued up a couple of videos, some Rock Band 2 DLC and the Sarcastic Gamer Pink Show favorite, Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader Demo, so I’m ready to rock when I get home.
I love this new addition to xbox.com. It is the perfect way for me to waste some time at work looking at stuff I want to play. Now when SGC Superstar VinDali messages me with a new demo for me to check out, It will be ready when I get home.
I recommend any of you 360 owners check it out. I am shocked at how little attention this has received.
Have you checked it out already? What do you think? Let’s hear it.
Popularity: 1% [?]
It’s definitely a very cool feature that will probably only get more popular, especially on days where big demos are scheduled to hit. Compare this to the fact that Sony just now *officially* made users’ PSN accounts available online (something MS did 3 years ago) and you can clearly see why XBL is SOOOO much better than PSN.
Also, I HATED entering those 25 character redeem codes with the controller so I love that I can do it on Marketplace with a keyboard now.
I really like the new interface they did on MyXbox.com – including the Marketplace.
And I really like how they got rid of the 10 friends listed at a time thing in the Friends section.
I think you could always enter the codes on Xbox.com..I entered my code for Fable II LE content on it, and I’ve entered points codes there before the NXE.
That said, I do like the convenience of being able to queue things up on Xbox.com. I got my refurb back today, and it was downloading stuff as I was doing avatar stuff.
This experience would be a lot better if Microsoft didn’t push their proprietary crap onto you. Instead of using Flash, like every site on the web, they have to use Silverlight, which would be fine, if I could install it. However, because I have an older computer, my processor is apparently unsupported.
Oh well, I suppose I’ll have to just use my Xbox to buy stuff. Not a big deal I suppose, but it’s kinda crazy that they don’t use a format that’s more standard.
hmmm. Disregard that. Apparently you can still browse the site and download stuff…which makes me wonder WHY they have silverlight on there.