What will happen to the downloadable games once the 360 is not supported?

[greencoman]

Guys i have been wondering this. I Was wondering what would come of the 360's downloadable games once the system is not supported by microsoft. Do you think they will be put on compilation discs? Or maybe just moved to the next supported microsoft consoles service? Just wondering what you think. There are alot of fun innovative games and I would hate the think they would be just would vanish like a fart in the wind.

[Austin]

They will be gone with the wind unless the system is appropriately hacked and all of them are backed up like done with the original XBOX. Maybe MS will have some sort of backwards compatibility with their new system and these will be transferrable to that, but despite it being too early to tell, I somehow doubt that will happen.

[jaybird3rd]

This is one of many reasons I prefer physical media, not just for games, but for movies and music as well.

[Ghost Soldier]

I'm hoping that it will all be transferable to the new box including achievements and gamerscore.

[Crazy Climber]

Here is a simulator of what will happen once the 360 is no longer supported

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKSfssBJ9YA&feature=related

[greencoman]

Yeah guys I guess your right. Hmm I would like to think microsoft would be smarter than that. There are some awesome games by the way. I agree with you jaybird thats normally why I like to stick to cd media. I will say that bear in mind its a hard drive your downloading to and as some people who use mp3 or ipods in general. Picture and sound quality are not always at loss on these. Thanks for your post guys keep em coming.

[Crazy Climber]

Thanks for your post guys keep em coming.

Okay, how about this one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5Iqhtly-3I&feature=player_embedded

[Mord]

Yeah guys I guess your right. Hmm I would like to think microsoft would be smarter than that. There are some awesome games by the way. I agree with you jaybird thats normally why I like to stick to cd media. I will say that bear in mind its a hard drive your downloading to and as some people who use mp3 or ipods in general. Picture and sound quality are not always at loss on these. Thanks for your post guys keep em coming.

 

Why would you think they'd be "smarter than that"? With this model, everything you bought becomes pretty much null and void but they get to keep your money. Especially the indy games, which require you to have an internet connection to play. As such they can re-sell you everything again with the next platform, or generously allow you to pay a small fee to get some of them ported over (if it's even possible - the next xbox could very well be 100% incompatible with the 360.) Additionally all that download-only content will be gone and no longer competing with the new stuff they'll be trying to feed you for your limited gaming dollars.

 

People have been warning about this kind of thing since day 1. And people cried "No way that'll happen. Look, all our original xbox stuff is still available, and microsoft's service is a paid service so they have the money to keep it around!"

 

And then the original xbox material was shut down. Luckily for most people, it wasn't used nearly as much for DLC/bug patches/etc as the 360 currently is. Yet nobody seems to think that this is going to repeat itself 5-10 years down the road when the next big system is launched to replace it.

 

Keep in mind the PS3 is going to suffer the same thing. It's not just the 360 that'll have this content removed in the relatively near future.

[moycon]

If they don't have the option to transfer games to the new platform, all the games you purchased will be tied to one of the system you own. (If you have bought games on multiple consoles,you can choose one and tie your licenses to that system on the Live site for free) and they will still work fine. You might not be able to take them online once MS cuts online support for the 360, but you'll still be able to play the games. Not sure why everyone is saying they will just stop working. You don't need to have your system logged into Live to play the games you've bought as it is now. I doubt that will change in the future. The only exception is the Indie games, you do have to be connected to Live to play those. Hopefully they will fix that before support is dumped.

[Crazy Climber]

If they don't have the option to transfer games to the new platform, all the games you purchased will be tied to one of the system you own. (If you have bought games on multiple consoles,you can choose one and tie your licenses to that system on the Live site for free) and they will still work fine. You might not be able to take them online once MS cuts online support for the 360, but you'll still be able to play the games. Not sure why everyone is saying they will just stop working. You don't need to have your system logged into Live to play the games you've bought as it is now. I doubt that will change in the future. The only exception is the Indie games, you do have to be connected to Live to play those. Hopefully they will fix that before support is dumped.

Most Capcom downloaded games require you are connected to the server to play. Even if you don't want to play online. Once the server is shut down, so is your game.

[Mord]

Most Capcom downloaded games require you are connected to the server to play. Even if you don't want to play online. Once the server is shut down, so is your game.

 

And as I mentioned, all Indy games also require an internet connection to run. They will all stop working when the servers no longer support 360s.

[moycon]

Most Capcom downloaded games require you are connected to the server to play. Even if you don't want to play online. Once the server is shut down, so is your game.

 

I can only think of the one Capcom game that doesn't work when connected to a network.

Final Fight: Double Impact and my understanding is that is only an issue on the Playstation network not Live.

 

I was able to test these Capcom games, not logged into Live and using a different gamertag (my girlfriends) and they all work fine.

 

Bionic Commando

Flock!

Marvel Vs Capcom 2

Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix

Dead Rising: Case Zero

 

If anyone can test the other Capcom arcade games on Live we'd have all Capcom games tested.

 

Dead Rising: Case West

Rocketmen: Axis of Evil

Mega Man 10

Final Fight: Double Impact

 

As it stands, I can at least confirm, that contrary to the belief, most Capcom arcade games do indeed work not connected to Live and I'd bet they all do.

I can understand the negativity some people have with DLC, but there is no sense making it sound worse than it really is.

Honestly DLC has only just taken off this generation. I don't think anyone can positively predict what's going to happen say...10 years from now in regards to the content. What can you really compare it to and how do you know what policy is going to be a decade from now? I'm not saying this content is going to be available on servers till the end of time, but I also don't think any content is just going to stop working either nor am I going to predict there won't be a way to transfer license's to the new platform. DLC is much more popular now than ever before. It's a changing world.

 

Who knows what the future brings. Think positive I say.

[Mord]

 

I can only think of the one Capcom game that doesn't work when connected to a network.

Final Fight: Double Impact and my understanding is that is only an issue on the Playstation network not Live.

 

Indeed, it's not "most" capcom games that require a network. There's currently only 2. They seem weary to add it given people get pissed when they find out about it - especially with the Final Fight fiasco since there was absolutely no warning about the requirement until after a huge stink got kicked up and a lot of people complained.

 

The sequel to the Bionic Commando game is the other game that I've heard uses the online connectivity requirement. Capcom at least put the online requirement for the offline game in the description from day 1 for that one. I don't know if that's the one you're talking about as working offline, but if it does then it means they removed it. When it launched it most certainly had the online connectivity requirement.

 

 

You may recommend think positive, but I recommend "Be Cautious". It'll cut down on how badly you're likely going to be burned later on.

 

So basically, if you don't care that the game you're going to buy may die/stop working before your console does, go for it and game on. But don't complain to everyone when it happens.

 

If you DO care that the download content you're buying may expire before your console does, and before you're finished playing with it, do your research and consider the price tag to make sure you feel it's worth the risk - and if you don't think it is, don't buy it. It'll save you money for something else to buy and enjoy instead.

Edited March 13, 2011 by Mord

[Video]

Guys i have been wondering this. I Was wondering what would come of the 360's downloadable games once the system is not supported by microsoft. Do you think they will be put on compilation discs? Or maybe just moved to the next supported microsoft consoles service? Just wondering what you think. There are alot of fun innovative games and I would hate the think they would be just would vanish like a fart in the wind.

There's an easy answer to that question. What happened to the xbox live games for the regular Xbox when they pulled the plug on that?

 

The games on your hard drive will continue to work as long as your system does. (buy a slim and port all your games before the 720 comes out ) When support is pulled, you will no longer be able to get a new games through live. I'd also hazard a guess that any game you loose/delete, will also be unavailable for re-download...so take care of any you have.

 

I'm excluding hacks and workarounds to make the games work/back up after the life of 360 live, because of the fact that 1) that's seedy at best, and illegal at worst, and 2) if I can get a downloadable only title for free, why pay for it to begin with? (and encourage downloadable only games)

Edited March 13, 2011 by Video

[madmax2069]

The thing is Microsoft wont care, it will be the same with the 360 as it was with the original xbox. once support is gone say bye bye game content and every other gold tied feature. this is also the reason why i hate DLC and downloaded games. This is also the reason i dont care for netflix, espn3, last-fm, twitter, facebook, or other said service being tied to gold account. once the 360 is deemed obsolete, the 360 will basically become useless, after that the only way to do anything with the 360 (other then playing games) is to hack it to allow these features to function.

[moycon]

So basically, if you don't care that the game you're going to buy may die/stop working before your console does, go for it and game on. But don't complain to everyone when it happens.

 

I don't see how they could. I just told you all the arcade games I've bought tied to my main console work fine not being connected to Live.

You mentioned two you thought didn't, but no one has confirmed this and based on the misinformation in this thread, I'm not sure you're correct.

What are you suggesting is going to make these games stop working? An update to the consoles?

If it does happen, like say MS sends an update to all 360's (Even the ones no longer connected to Live I'm guessing?) that disables all the games ever bought when they release a new system.

I promise not to complain.

I suspect millions would complain if this happened though. I can't imagine a company doing this. What would the reason be? How would they update all the consoles? Why would they alienate millions of customers?

 

Still, my thought is, even if in 15 years they are no longer playable, and no longer down loadable and I'm 55 years old, I'm probably going to be able to get on with my life, knowing I at least played them 15 years ago. Something someone who didn't buy them won't be able to say.

 

I buy video game consoles to play video games. My copy of Crackdown will work in 2030 just as it does now. If at that time I can tear myself away from Crackdown 6, I'm sure I'll be able to play it. If I want to get on Facebook or watch Netflix, who wants to bet I still can on some other device?

[Atariboy]

You forgot 1942: Joint Strike and Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3. I can confirm that both Capcom games work offline just fine on the 360 that their license is tied to. And any gamertag on the system can access them offline.

 

And you're missing several others. Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting comes to mind as does Mega Man 9 (I bought MM9 and MM10 on the Wii and don't like Street Fighter, so I can't personally check). And I think there may be a couple of others (Wasn't there a Puzzle Fighter game or two?).

 

What I plan to do is once new downloads become a rarity on this platform and I pretty much have everything I want and the MSRP of the console decreases, I'm going to start buying a new 360 each year and utilize the license transfer tool.

 

If it goes 3-4 years past the commercial end of the platform like Xbox Live did for the original, I should have plenty of time to have 3-4 Xbox 360's with the licenses tied to each for preparation of the end of Xbox Live support and the end of my ability to retrieve my content in the future (Unless it's hacked like the original has been).

 

Modern systems are too fragile for me to count on just one system lasting for years down the road with hundreds of dollars on DLC on it. So I'm going to be using the license transfer tool of the 360 and Sony's 5 activations for each piece of DLC to my advantage to make sure I have backups.

 

I really think we'll be all set eventually for Capcom content though. They have such a strong downloadable library that I really think we'll eventually get a XBLA compilation disc similar to what Namco did for their titles a few years ago.

 

The sequel to the Bionic Commando game is the other game that I've heard uses the online connectivity requirement. Capcom at least put the online requirement for the offline game in the description from day 1 for that one. I don't know if that's the one you're talking about as working offline, but if it does then it means they removed it. When it launched it most certainly had the online connectivity requirement.

 

Only the PS3 version of Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 had an online requirement. The XBLA version never did.

Edited March 14, 2011 by Atariboy

[chriswhit]

The thing is Microsoft wont care, it will be the same with the 360 as it was with the original xbox. once support is gone say bye bye game content and every other gold tied feature. this is also the reason why i hate DLC and downloaded games. This is also the reason i dont care for netflix, espn3, last-fm, twitter, facebook, or other said service being tied to gold account. once the 360 is deemed obsolete, the 360 will basically become useless, after that the only way to do anything with the 360 (other then playing games) is to hack it to allow these features to function.

 

Well microsoft has put a stop to hackability if you've been on line with the 360 since 6-1-09 then your 360 has burned the efuse in the cpu making it non exploitable and no linger jtagable which means you can no linger install linex or other awesome jtag features/ home brew. Jtag hackable consoles are getting more rare then some of the rare atari stuff. and most jtagables are only still jtagable due to the fact that there rrod consoles which you have to fix yourself because microsoft will burn your efuse on purpose so it disables the ability to hack the nand. I have never played on xbox live but do have a 360 and that's why I don't go on line. plus why buy a game that's multi player and on line only when you know that 10yrs down the road you may want to take a trip down memory lane and the game you so want to play no longer exists. I will say that xbox 360 still rules over the competition and in my experience has less reliability issues than the ps3. I only had one die and it was a rrod when I got it but I keep getting different problems with my ps3 and that console has been replaced countless times now by Sony. There is a way to play on line with friends without xbox live I read about on a forum but I believe it only works if your jtaged and run linex. I'll see if I can find it again. I wasn't that interested where I don't play on line.

[Rex Dart]

... you can no linger install linex or other awesome jtag features/ home brew. Jtag hackable consoles are getting more rare then some of the rare atari stuff. and most jtagables are only still jtagable due to the fact that there rrod consoles which you have to fix yourself because microsoft will burn your efuse on purpose so it disables the ability to hack the nand... There is a way to play on line with friends without xbox live I read about on a forum but I believe it only works if your jtaged and run linex.

 

I've heard of all the JTAG console flashing hacks, but what's linex? Some loader app?

 

Anyways, I'm sure MS will be more than happy to re-sell you all your purchased content once more on their next system hardware.

[HatefulGravey]

If you have the licenses on the console you downloaded them to then you are good as long as that console keeps working. Seeing as how the disk drive is the main concern with the modern xbox I think we will be fine for the downloaded stuff. They may be lost to time in the end, and if you don't get it now you may never get it, but what you have should be ok.

 

I would like to think xbox would transfer this stuff to their next console. It would help sales in the beginning of the system (as everyone would already have games to play on it) and it would be one less thing for people to hate about them.

 

Like others, I don't think they will do anything to help us with this, and this is exactly why I still buy physical media as well. You can't take it when I own it, and all this downloaded stuff isn't really yours anyway. DRM will be the death of many many things before the end of my life.

[Keatah]

The dog got pretty excited there for a while!

[Keatah]

Yeah guys I guess your right. Hmm I would like to think microsoft would be smarter than that. There are some awesome games by the way. I agree with you jaybird thats normally why I like to stick to cd media. I will say that bear in mind its a hard drive your downloading to and as some people who use mp3 or ipods in general. Picture and sound quality are not always at loss on these. Thanks for your post guys keep em coming.

 

Why would you think they'd be "smarter than that"? With this model, everything you bought becomes pretty much null and void but they get to keep your money. Especially the indy games, which require you to have an internet connection to play. As such they can re-sell you everything again with the next platform, or generously allow you to pay a small fee to get some of them ported over (if it's even possible - the next xbox could very well be 100% incompatible with the 360.) Additionally all that download-only content will be gone and no longer competing with the new stuff they'll be trying to feed you for your limited gaming dollars.

 

People have been warning about this kind of thing since day 1. And people cried "No way that'll happen. Look, all our original xbox stuff is still available, and microsoft's service is a paid service so they have the money to keep it around!"

 

And then the original xbox material was shut down. Luckily for most people, it wasn't used nearly as much for DLC/bug patches/etc as the 360 currently is. Yet nobody seems to think that this is going to repeat itself 5-10 years down the road when the next big system is launched to replace it.

 

Keep in mind the PS3 is going to suffer the same thing. It's not just the 360 that'll have this content removed in the relatively near future.

 

Well yes, they do indeed have the money to keep it around longer. The question is if some graduate suit wants to do that or not.

[NE146]

I don't think the catalog will disappear at all. You just have to do a little forward thinking on this.. all Xbox Live titles are pirated and freely available for download right now anyway.. of course they can only be used on jtagged consoles at the moment but in the near future with expected computing power increases it can probably be expected to be compiled, shared by hobbyists, and fully playable on whatever the power computing platform in a decade or so happens to be.

 

In other words I'm thinking they'll all be freely available much the same way an entire SNES rom set is findable and playable now. In what shape or form it will be I don't know.. but again, they're all piratable right now anyway. There are people out there with entire Xbox Live arcade collections that haven't touched xbox live.

[Keatah]

This, folks, is a demonstration of why physical media is best. PM is something you can put in a box and open up 10 years later with confidence it will work.

 

The farthest I go for purchasing downloadable software is something I can save on my hard disk. I can appreciate an on-line download as a delivery mechanism. No need for a paper box. But the requirement, for me, is to be able to install and use whatever it is I downloaded, anytime, on any machine, anyplace. AND NOT REQUIRE AN INTERNET CONNECTION TO ACTIVATE OR VERIFY IT. The ability to make an archival copy for the future is paramount. What I buy today I want to be able to use it in 10 years, if I want, when I want, on whatever machine I want. Not that I go around spreading your software like a pirate or anything. I'll spread your demos if you want though, or your freeware.

 

The best we can hope for is that images of the on-line games will be "ripped from the console" and made available as a separate .iso image that can be burned to a CD or stuffed into a solid-state memory device and then used from there, totally independent from anything to do with the internet. That is the first step. The second step is making sure the hardware will work in 10-years. The laser pickups and moving parts and general overall reliability of consoles built today are pretty bad. Expect a whole industry come to being just to make spare parts and mechanics for today's consoles.

 

That is why Atari 2600 & 8-bit 400/800 games are still widely available today, because they are on physical media and easily moved among devices like hard disks, SD cards, real floppy disks, etc. Not to mention the tank-like construction of the original hardware! **AND** once a certain type of medial fails or falls out of favor, the data can be transferred to whatever is in vogue at the time.

 

Something that exists only as a download is just that. A download. It is totally 100% at the mercy of the pipe, and whoever farts into it at the other end. Unless you capture it and put it on physical media, there is no guarantee it will be around 5 years from now.

 

And as PC power increases, expect emulation to become a key part in saving and preserving all the stuff you are playing today.

Edited May 18, 2011 by Keatah

[keilbaca]

I don't really see what the big deal is. You can play any XBLA game right now that has the fake profile on it that you can throw onto a usb drive.

 

Even if your console dies, you can just get a used one and hack accordingly.

 

Indie games are only a dollar apiece... a water costs more than that. Well most are... I won't spend more than a dollar on an indie game.

 

I'm not worried. Just buy a new xbox right before the new one comes out, or right after and soak up the price drop, and import the games across.