If you could legally download full XBOX360 games...

Spike_UK

Spike_UK

Spike_UK

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...would you do it?

Personally I think the strongest part of the X360 and Xbox Live is the Downloadable content and Demos.

So, as the topic suggests, if MS made it so you could download full XBOX360 games (not the arcade ones) would you do it? Obviously they'd need to bring out bigger HDD's and they'd need some kind of Steam-like system to track that you've bought something, but I'd think this would be a great addition.

If any Don's want to make this a poll, feel free.
 
I would, only if there was something like Steam that would allow me to backup the content onto an alternative media and the manuals were available in a PDF or online (via console).

It'd be a shame to download 4 games (say 20Gb tops) only for the machine to get damaged (Loadsamoney, this is NOT your cue!), and have to download all the 20Gb again.

So yeah, I would.
 
yea as J says, but another problem i forsee is the joy of having to wait what could be anything between 1 hr (for 10mbp users) to 25 hrs (512kbp) to download 4.5Gb of content, but i guess they could compress it as css etc does with steam (or atleast i think it does)
also because ISP's are limiting bandwidth this isnt going to be feasible for most people on a 2-10GB cap per month.
 
I'd carry on with discs, there's only 13GB free on the HD. Plus I like to have the box and disc anyway :)
 
yeah but sja360, your forgetting that the UK doesnt matter, i dont think bandwidth caps are as commmon in the US and >2meg speeds are the norm. They wouldnt much care about us tbh.

I think it will come, but perhaps late on in the 360's life and probably not for top titles. I forsee the next gen consoles having it included as the potential for large solid state memory arrays should materialize by then. Even if not a Tb HDD will be far smaller and more affordable and i sincerely doubt games will be using the 30gig or so available on next gen optical media.
 
Ultra_Extreme said:
yeah but sja360, your forgetting that the UK doesnt matter, i dont think bandwidth caps are as commmon in the US and >2meg speeds are the norm. They wouldnt much care about us tbh.
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true the usa would be sorted but most of europe would suck as they have had caps for a lot longer than the uk! would be a good scheme though if it was to be released, certainly save some costs for the customer!
 
At this moment in time no. In 6 month's time, no again. In 12 month's time, still probably no.

Until Fibre to home/cabinet/VDSL is more prevailant, I don't see my own personal circumstances justifying 24hr's download for a game that may be ~7 GB and require a larger HDD.

Right now going for a retail copy is pretty much my only real choice.
 
I probably wouldn't. For max effect could you see yourself downloading Elder Scrolls: Olbivion? The size of that must be scary. XBL is the perfect platform for full game downloads tbh and MS have it just right but as the console matures games will get larger and larger, and we'd be ever in need of larger capacity HD's.
 
No I wouldn't. I like to have the retail box and a tangible product, and I also want something I can sell in future. You'll notice that you can't re-sell Steam games but they aren't any cheaper to reflect this major restriction!
 
they would have to be cheaper than store prices (cutting out the middle man), harddrives would have to be bigger and won't really take off untill we are at least all on 10meg and higher without stupid allowance caps.

would i do it, yes
 
I would certainly consider it, but like others I would want to back up my download, which means getting it onto a PC somehow to burn onto DVD (unless you could download it from PC as well as the console?)

Perhaps they could make the 360 classics range downloadable as well as available on the shelf. This is, of course, assuming Microsoft do a classics range in the first place. They could price the download at £19.99 and if you buy it off the shelf the game could be priced at £24.99. This would make up for not getting a case etc if you download it and it may encourage a few skinflints to download it rather than spend an extra £5 ;)
 
Kainz said:
I probably wouldn't. For max effect could you see yourself downloading Elder Scrolls: Olbivion? The size of that must be scary. XBL is the perfect platform for full game downloads tbh and MS have it just right but as the console matures games will get larger and larger, and we'd be ever in need of larger capacity HD's.
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Elder Scrolls has been reported to be the smallest (disc usage size) out of any of the Xbox 360 games.

As for the original question, with how slow the market place downloads are for me, it would take a good few hours to download the game so I don't think I would bother with it UNLESS the game was released online a week or so in advance
 
XBL already tracks your purchaces. So if your HDD died on its arse you would need to re download everything (but not pay again)

Personally if they sell bigger HDDs at a reasonable price (comparable with PC disks of the same capacity) and sell the games for considerably less than retail I would probably download them. TBH there is little point having manuals. We never read them and every game has a turorial these days, disks get scratched, cases need storage. IMO if the bandwidth usage goes up significantly ISPs will raise their DL caps/drop prices/increase BW/all of the above.
 
I would, but only if the cost was reduced compaired to the boxed media and the download connection speed was quick :)

Could be a great way of using live imho but your HD would fill up mega quick!
 
If the pricing reflected the lack of media/case/manual etc. and the HDD had a much bigger capacity, then yes I would.

However neither of those things are currently true.
 
Wouldnt be worth it, for the cost they would charge for a 200 or 300 gig hd when they charge so much for a 20 gig, you may as well just buy the games. I doubt the saving on downloading would be enough to balance out the HD price.
 
Nismo said:
If the pricing reflected the lack of media/case/manual etc. and the HDD had a much bigger capacity, then yes I would.

However neither of those things are currently true.
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Ability to write to a USB HDD could work but with Microsofts views on security using a USB drive for such things will never happen.
 
Id rather have a nice shiney box myself with a CD, sometimes I am reading the manual while playing. Don't want to have to keep flicking back to online instructions
 
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