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Posted on: Nov 14, 2007
Xbox 1 Games Coming
To Marketplace!
WORDS BY: Paul Curthoys
The biggest news of this week isn’t that the fall update is finally coming on December 4…though I am exactly nerdy enough to get excited to see what Microsoft has up its sleeve for our beloved Dashboard. Nope, the headline-of-the week award goes to the news that the update will launch a new service on Marketplace where you can buy and download original Xbox games straight to your hard drive. Which is relief…because I have a dirty secret, and it’s the kind of thing that’ll get me slaughtered around the office. I’ve never played Psychonauts. Nope, not once. And while that bums me out, the game did come out right when my daughter was born, and I missed many a gaming milestone in that flurry of diapers and sleepless nights.
But anyway, on to the news: The basics hit the web earlier this week, so here’s a quick recap. Four Xbox 1 games were announced for the 12/4 launch: Halo, Crimsom Skies, Fable, and yes Psychonauts (rumors also point to Burnout 3, Indigo Prophecy, Fuzion Frenzy, and Crash: Wrath of Cortex). They’ll each set you back $15 (otherwise known as 1200 Microsoft Points). Like you, we thought that left way more questions unanswered that we could bear, so Dan and Ryan got Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg on the phone this afternoon for our weekly podcast, and grilled him until we got the juicy bits we all care about. Make sure to grab this week’s podcast on Friday for the whole story and loads more details, but here are the highlights:
Starting with what’s gotta be your number-one question: No Achievements for downloaded Xbox 1 games. Yeah, we think that’s as profoundly stupid as you do. If Microsoft wants me to pay $15 for what would be my second copy of Halo, it could at least scratch my gamerscore itch. It just can’t be that hard, it really can’t. Any other game I pay money to play on my 360 gives me Achievements, and these ones should too. Capping it at 200 like Live Arcade games would be fine and dandy, just throw us a bone here. If we all change our mottos to say “Give us Xbox 1 Ach!”, I’m sure there’s no way Microsoft could resist. Cough.
In terms of the tech details behind it, these downloads behave exactly like you put an Xbox 1 game in your 360 and downloaded the backwards-compatibility patch. There’s no compression, so the file size will be the same (generally a couple GBs — Elite owners, you may commence cartwheels). Video quality won’t change either, which means the games will upscale to 720 and 1080, but won’t run natively in those resolutions. Best of all, you can play online against someone else who’s playing on their 360 using a disc version of one of these Xbox games – it really does behave just like you have the disc in your drive.
But that also means you’ll get the bugginess that many backwards-compatible games encounter on 360. Nothing too huge, we’re talking frame-rate drops and flickiering; xbox.com has the gory details.
Our two cents? We’ll take it, but we really would’ve hoped for more. The no-Achievements thing is just lame, and the price is pretty high for games that old. Ten bucks seems a lot more fair, especially if you dig around online and see how much it costs to scare up a used copy of most of these games. But hey, at least I’ll finally get to play Psychonauts. Promise.
Fri, 12/07/2007 - 03:11
Posted by DecoyDan
The "XBOX Originals" downloadable games is not that great of an idea. The sad thing about those games, you can find them for 2-6 dollars used at any game store. If only they had incorporated achievements to the games things would be totally different.
What a shame. Let me know when Microsoft realizes the mistake and updates the downloadable XBox classic games with achievement points. Until then, I'll just pick up the games at a game store.
Fri, 11/30/2007 - 14:04
Posted by Greater Joe
I'm wondering, how hard would it have been to incorporate achievements into these old titles?
Would it have been a really difficult process? From what I understand, emulating old title to begin with is a chore. But honestly I think they should have pushed this whole project back until they figured that out. That's their whole selling point (or re-selling in this case). Those points are something that MS introduced to us and got us accustomed to, so how do you just take that away? I think they had good intensions, but they missed this one by a mile. Right now their only saving grace in this whole thing is Halo: Combat Evolved Live enabled.
Fri, 11/23/2007 - 18:42
Posted by riSIN_dArKness
GOD achievments is the only logical reason to play these old games have you asked about a update where they can add achievements to some games that would be a blessing from the gods but ill still buy psychonuats though =]
Mon, 11/19/2007 - 00:01
Posted by AzBat360
Paul,
Thanks for adding a human side to the story and for not holding back. Anybody can just post the news. Calling "no achievements" as lame was great. You called a duck a duck. I also like how you said the price was too high. Hopefully Microsoft will listen when the media echo the sentiments of the fans.
Tommy McClain
Sat, 11/17/2007 - 02:47
Posted by Ghost
This is pretty cool what the Microsoft/Xbox team is doing here, although I would like some achievements in here, but I have only been part of the Xbox community since the 360. So I am looking forward to see why my friends wouldnt hang out with me for about a month when Fable came out.
______________________________
http://gameghost.blogspot.com/
Fri, 11/16/2007 - 10:04
Posted by MiLkWeEd
When I first saw this on the Xbox website I couldnt wait to see when was the release date. Then I heard no acxhievements. Is it that hard to put them in? Even if it was just 200 points...Maybe we should boycott this service and change our mottos to “Give us Xbox 1 Achievements" Im in for it- lets spread the word!!!
Xbox Live GT: MiLkWeEd 619
OXM Reader since first Holiday issue
Fri, 11/16/2007 - 04:54
Posted by chuckg16
no acheivements?? :(
Fri, 11/16/2007 - 03:18
Posted by Hoffer
I'll pick up Psychonauts just to try the service. If they had achievements, I'd pick up many more.
Fri, 11/16/2007 - 02:52
Posted by Bennanias
even though it doesnt have achievements, i will still get them. since i havnt played these and can hardly find them anywhere.
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 23:38
Posted by SechoDB
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 23:28
Posted by MaxDense
No Achievements=No Sale.
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 18:21
Posted by sticks1206
The only reason that I would think of downloading the games would be to play them for achievments. I have Fable and Halo still, and won't pay money for them again, I would have definatly paid to get them if there was achievments, but I'm an achievment whore, so no surprise. I'm really surprised to see that there won't be, I've wanted to get a copy of Crimson's Sky's again, so I might download that game, but I can probably find it cheeper at my local Gamestop.
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 17:50
Posted by Paul OXM
Oooh, Stranger's Wrath, that's another one I missed and REALLY hope they put up. Breakdown's another one I always meant to get to...
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 17:31
Posted by Grognard66
Yeah, I was really hoping for achievements and other improvements. It would have been particularly nice if they had added online to the original Halo at least.
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 10:58
Posted by Kamikaze8
Im more excited for abox lives bday, free carcassonne, and 800 MS points for anyone who joined in 2002. =)
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 09:20
Posted by MitchyD
Anyone who EXPECTED achievements is insane. There's no rhyme or reason for them... Still, give me Stranger's Wrath or give me death!!!
-- http://www.nukoda.com --
Gamertag: MitchyD88
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 09:15
Posted by sHo76uNd3Wd
Wow, no achievements. What a massive missed opportunity there. I still like having physical media, so I think I would pay the extra 5 bucks for the disc.
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 06:47
Posted by Dan OXM
I wasn't expecting Achievements, but I sure was hoping. I'm not sure what's so difficult about bringing those older games up to date with the modern methodologies. Achievements certainly do affect my eagerness to play all the way through a game.
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 06:43
Posted by ItchyTasty
I will definitely be buying Psychonauts when it launches as I also never got around to buying it when it first came out. Hopefully other games that I missed the first time around but were well received (by game reviewers) will be available soon. My two suggestions would be Phantom Dust and Beyond Good And Evil.
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 03:31
Posted by CAWeissen
I've always wanted to play Psychonauts, but I could never find it! Now I can! Thank you sooo much MS. :D
Thu, 11/15/2007 - 02:23
Posted by TwEaKeDT DOA
Bah.... No achievements, i geuss I would be better off just buying the games for around 10 bucks at gamestop. I really think microsoft should rethink the no achievement thing they could easly justify selling the titles for 15 bucks then.