Okay, I've got to say that as an outside observer, I am extremely impressed with the line up on XBox Live Arcade. The new 3D Prince of Persia Classic, Wing Commander Arena, Catan, not to mention Pac-Man tournament or Jetpac Refuelled. It seems like XBLA is an effective outlet for creative gaming and classic revitalization, a respite from redundant FPS remakes. Every one of these games gets rave reviews from reliable, and sometimes sarcastic sources who can't stop gushing about how good they are.

The only problem I have with it is I don't get to play. XBox Live is made for those with a healthy chunck of disposable income, probably part of the reason for its success. But $400 for a 360, what is it, $15 a month for Live and then an additional $5 - $15 per game. If I had that sort of money would I be hanging around the abandonware community? My only hope is that in a year or two there will start being PC port of these game showing up in the $5 bin at my local shopping center. Either that or someone decides to hack them and make them downloadable like MAME.

Hmm, doesn't really open up the conversation the way a question would be, but what are your thoughts? Anyone here subscribe to this? How much does this suck on the international side? Can you even play it in the Netherlands? If you're not state side have you even heard of this?

It is ridiculous, all the stuff I have were transferred from other peoples' 360s to mine.

Microsoft should cut out the middle man and just have us hand over a kidney or a chunk of liver instead of bothering with the long slow process of bleeding the customers wallet dry.

Well, it's not like it isn't worth it, the service itself is insanely reliable, there's usually never any problems, connections are almost always solid, and their customer support on Live is fantastic.
It beats out free alternatives by a long shot, only the Wii's virtual console really gets close to Live's Arcade portion.

The PS3's download PSone games are laughable in comparison.

as a live user myself (yes, i just bought a 360) i say the system is the best multiplayer system out there. wii relies on friend codes and the ps3 hasn't even got a proper one set up yet. i haven't had much chance to play on live though since my partner has been hogging the 360 playing burnout revenge online. plus i've been messing around with my psp and my dreamcast but that's for another thread

Pricing:
Xbox 360 Premium (Hardrive version) - $500
Xbox Live Gold (1 Year) - $50
Retail Games - $10 - $70
Arcade Games - $5 - $15

Note: xbox live is a one shot thing, you said in the first post that it is an additional $5 - $15, that's only the case for the one mmo out there. They require you to pay SONY extra money because they are bi*ches. Live is the way of the future anyways, and free online gaming as we know it is fading away. Don't you see those Games for Windows games, on how you need a Live! account to play.. well that's the same thing as an xbox live account, but its on pc (litteraly).

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Burger Meister @ Jun 24 2007, 01:19 PM) [snapback]296094[/snapback]</div>Thanks for the pricing list.

Games for windows, however, is far from being any good. Have you seen the games that are available? None of the XBLArcade games, the only ones I feel are worth the service, are available for windows. And color me suprised if Bubba Gates doesn't insist on making all future Games for Windows games Vista only, that especally includes the coveted Arcade games.

XBLA may be a perfectly viable thing for the console community but us Windows gamers aren't accostomed to playing that way. I personally emulate the dickens. When I buy a game I buy the game on physical media at CompUSA. Microsquash's little leash doens't appeal to me.

The only similar service that had caught my eye is gametap. Now they do it right because they offer games I want to play, and offer them free for a limited time in rotation. Oh, I know that eventually I'm going to shell out a month's subscritption because I didn't finish Beyond Good and Evil before it went back into the gold service.

If Game for Windows offered the XBLA library compatable with XP I might consider signing up. Really, all I care about is getting the games I want to play without feeling like someone's standing over my shoulder with a ruler and a book saying "you can only play this game as long as you're paying me."

Well I'm not saying do it now. I'm saying it's probably going to be the way of the future.

$15 a month?

If you have an Xbox 360, you automatically get a Silver Account, which is free. That allows you to access to downloaded content. To play multiplayer requires a gold account. A Gold account is only $50 a year or $4.16 a month. Not too expensive. I am talking USD though.

Personally, I think it is great. You only spend what you want anyway. I replayed the whole Doom series for $10. You would spend about that much for a movie.

Of course they don't have really awesome games like Star Control 2 or Xcom like they do here.

But if they did, and I didn't have to fuss with them (currently I can't play SC2 because , I guess, my laptop video card doesn't like DOSbox and I gave my PC to my sister) I would buy them in a second. Maybe a jazzed up version of these games would be nice.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Burger Meister @ Jun 24 2007, 09:19 AM) [snapback]296094[/snapback]</div>Erm, the premium X-Box 360 is only $400.