As many of you have already heard, it was announced that soon, XBox 360 owners will be able to utilize the Xbox Live community to download various movie and TV content directly to their Xbox hard drives for viewing on their TVs. At first, I thought this was a great idea… not so much anymore. But before I get ahead of myself, here is the basic idea from Cinematical:
Beginning on November 22 (its one year anniversary) XBox 360 will be the first console in history to offer downloads of not only standard-def programming, but also hi-def as well. Some of the programming being offered by Microsoft initially with this deal includes the feature films The Matrix, Superman Returns, Batman Forever, Mission Impossible 3, Nacho Libre and Jackass: The Movie. Some of the TV shows initially being offered include Aqua Teen Hunger Force Jerico and CSI
Ok, that all sounds great and wonderful right? I thought so at first… but I’ve been developing real doubts about it that others (such as Cinematical) have also expressed. Here are some of the reasons I don’t think this is really going to amount to much:
1) Downloading HD content is going to take forever (same could be said for any method of downloading HD content), and as we all know, avid gamers have limited patience.
2) Price – They still haven’t mentioned at all how much downloading one of these movie or TV shows is going to cost. I’m guessing it won’t be cheap… but we’ll have to wait and see. I think if they were going to come in with an attractive price point they would have mentioned in in the press release. The fact that they didn’t makes me suspicious.
3) Apple already had 100 million people with iTunes on their computers ready and positioned to start selling online video content. Xbox has about 1.5 million units out there. Not exactly the biggest market pool to draw from.
4) When people are buying a GAME system… they’re getting it for the GAMES. I really don’t think this new “feature” will make anyone buy an Xbox that wasn’t already going to buy it. But I may be wrong about that.
So what do you think? Will the ability to download a movie (from a small list of available titles) or a TV, for an undisclosed price, be enough to make you choose an Xbox 360 over wither the Playstation 3 or the Nintendo Wii?
This is Ridiculous, It is all about money, I pay for internet, I pay for xbox Live, I pay for Final fantasy, I pay to watch a tv show???????WAIT a minute, FU I may just blow the damn money making machine up and call it good.!
Something to consider whether or not you want to download via XBox Live. The 360 will talk to a Windows XP machine and it can stream content from it. I don’t have the skinny on all the filetypes, etc.. but in theory you should be able to download content via iTunes, BitTorrent, etc.. and stream them to your TV via the XBox 360.
I too have Comcrap with an HD-DVR but even after two years since release, they have yet to implement an HD PPV channel and the VOD section offers half a dozen HD Movies (@ 5.99 rental) if you are lucky and they are NEVER popular hit releases. The ability to download new hit releases on HD format (especially at rental prices (ie watch and delete) would be awesome IMO. I have no desire to buy downloaded movies. Why when I can own them on DVD instead?
Right now everyone and their grandma uses iTunes. Some even download TV and Movies from it. But here’s the problem. You can watch it on your shitty video iPods 2-inch screen (yippee!) or you can watch it on your computer. You could opt to spend $300 to get a Windows Media Center (or $250 for the upcoming iTV) and stream that shit to your TV, or you could use your XBox 360 (unless your a Mac owner).
The idea of people only buying consoles to play games is bullshit. And I’ll be proven right about this when Sony sells ten bazillion PS3s at that ridiculous price. What people want is game quality to not be compromised for the sake of other features. If you can offer gamers the gaming experience they expect and give them extra great great shit for minimal cost, they’ll eat it up.
yeaha s mentioned the Xbox 360 is over 6 million conoles sold out there, according to Microsoft themselves.
secondly download rates aren’t that bad. I downloaded a 450mb demo on XBL in a little over an hour with only high Speed Lite.
you make some gross underestimations.
John, Microsoft has sold over 6.7 million Xbox 360’s not “Apple’s 100 million” but nowhere as pathetic as you make it sound, I mean do you just not like MS or videogames, or something? I mean you didn’t even commend them for trying to help digital distribution become a standard, something you seem to be a bit of an advocate of …
well, in all fairness, you have to take into account how BIG hd files are. A regular movie bootleg on say, bittorrent, is probably around the one gig mark, and if they were to deliver a HD movie with 5.1 sound? man, that better be some new secret compression nobody’s ever heard of before if people expect to get their movies rather quickly. I find this rather dubious, really.
Yes, this would probably work better for owners of 360’s that want to get a movie as an impulse buy. You know, log in to XBL, and see that there’s a new episode of Pimp My Ride and you want to watch it, and hey it only costs X number of points! (I still find the points system completely retarded for XBL)
I dunno, this really doesn’t sell me much. I was considering a 360, but considering that the PS3 will be getting Linux on its machine, I’d rather get a PS3 and bittorrent some shows instead on that sucker. If i really wanted to get a movie, I’d wait and get it with the extras and commentary instead of paying for slow, expiration dated movies.
Wispy,
no html or BB code allowed here….
unfortunately.
~Drewbacca
MoviePatron.com
Matthew means sold worldwide units. By now the figure is much closer to 7 million units with the biggest selling period looming close, you can expect that figure to rise a million at least.
Washington,
Holy ouch! That is slow. I knew some XBL subscribers had issues with their download speeds but I had no idea it was that bad. Color me scared of ever losing my current set up.
Heat,
Speculation on the various game and news sites has said that the rentals should disappear 48 hours after download is complete.
I would like to add that i think this is a awsome idea for tv shows and music and stuff i just dont think it will work well for movies considering download times on a hd movie and the fact your not buying the movies your basically renting them and as far as i know you can keep the tv show on your hdd for as long as want someone correct me if im wrong im not sure.
Matthew,
I get 800k a sec download speed with my cable connection, on everything EXCEPT XBL. On XBL I’m lucky if I can pull 150K a sec. This is a common issue with XBL subscribers.
C’mon, it took me all of 3 seconds to Google this, 6 Million 360’s sold:
http://news.com.com/Six+million+Xbox+360s+sold/2110-1043_3-6129985.html
I’d like to add, I probably won’t download a whole movie that often, but the option is nice. And as far as leaving the system on while it’s downloading, it’s no problem. The 360 had some bad units at launch but they don’t have a overheating problem anymore. Mine has never froze or overheated. Plus, you can turn the system off and resume the download at any time.
I think MS is doing this so that people will try it once just to see how HD-DVD would most likely look (Since a movie in HD should be representative, and then they’ll rush out to Best-WalCostBuy and pick up that HD-DVD add on for their 360. Then show it off to their friends, who will in turn pick up a 360 and some HD-DVD’s. That’s gotta be their hope on this one.
Tony – you said everything I was already thinking. Thank you. :)
The only thing I’d like to add is in regards to the whole “gamers only buying a system for gaming” nonsense. That’s total bunk. I’m both a hardcore gamer and an early adopter of new tech, and I LOVE that my 360 can multi-task for me. Not only can I stream whatever music I want from my PC into my games, but I can stream video to watch at my leisure (much better than watching it on of my laptop), download a variety of trailers and demos, and watch DVD’s. And YES – I do use my 360 to watch DVD’s! I’ll even be buying an HD-DVD player when it hits the market. The 360 is a more than just a gaming machine – it’s the center of your digital home. At least that’s what Microsoft would like it to be. And to be honest, they’re coming a lot closer to that than any other company has.
The new service offered on the 360 is just the same as any other VOD program on the market – the only difference being that it caters to the HD desires of most 360 owners.
And if you don’t like it, don’t use it! I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone complain that their cable provider offers VOD – why would you complain that your gaming system does?
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4) When people are buying a GAME system… they’re getting it for the GAMES. I really don’t think this new “feature” will make anyone buy an Xbox that wasn’t already going to buy it. But I may be wrong about that.
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I dont think this is entirely true anymore, When i chose what console i was going to buy (ps3 if you must know), I did look at sources of other media. I believe i will buy a HD-DVD player for my pc (to burn my content with fast read times and cheeper so ive read) and so i chose a blue ray console (the game franchises may of slightly helped the decision) but i do think people have started to “branch out” and a games console isnt just for games anymore (otherwise why are people shelling out an extra 100 or so quid for an extra 40gig HDD on saturday XD
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“…and as we all know, avid gamers have limited patience.”
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I believe i am a very avid gamer and i have to disagree. We wait for ages for games, do we bitch…HELL YEAH… do we argue…HELL NO! Do not misread the two ^^
Something to add, The movie service basically only lets you rent it then after like 12 days or something it gets wiped from the hdd.
Also HD movies take up a lot of space, say you just bought a 360 right off the hop you only get like 14 gigs usable space(that doesnt include music demos and gamesaves) so not much is gonna fit on there. A 250 gig only holds 25 hours of HD i believe so imagine 14 gigs.
Mattew the DL may run in the backround but you will need your sysem on all night to DL High-def movies some people may not like that considering all the overheating problems with the 360.
To Matthew, most sources I’ve read say 1.5 million Xboxes too. What is your source? Just curious.
Washington,
I have Time Warner Broadband and my Xbox360 downloads fast. Maybe you’re not getting the best speeds from your provider.
If I didn’t already have Comcast and a HD-DVR then I might be more interested, but this doesn’t seem to be price competitive and the download speed will be very slow for HD content (unless XBLive improves their download speed, which I’ve been waiting for for a long time).
Sorry, gotta set you straight on a couple of items.
“…and as we all know, avid gamers have limited patience.”
HEY! Be nice! I’m an avid gamer, I play about 10-20 hours a week. But I, and many gamers I know have more than enough patience! That was just a really stupid thing to say. We wait longer for our games to come out from when they are first announced than most movie fans wait for films. We are patient with poor stories if the game play is good and vice versa. We are patient with big companies making big mistakes. We are patient with non gamers and the media thinking we lack things like patience, attention span, charm, good looks, brains and girlfriends… I could go on, but I think you get the point.
PLUS, the 360 downloads in the background so you can play games while waiting for it, or just grab one of them things with the pages that have tiny letters on ’em to look at.
“Xbox has about 1.5 million units out there. Not exactly the biggest market pool to draw from.”
XBox360 has Shipped over 6 million units and sold about 4.9 to 5.5 of that according to most sources, and will have shipped 10 million by years end. Have the patience to research your facts before you post!
I love this site and this is really the first time you managed to piss me off. Sorry.
I think they meant Batman Begins.
But anywho, I just took an Xbox/Xbox Live survey last night and one of the questions was to guage interest in downloading movies and tv shows for $3.99 and $1.99 respectively. I don’t recall if they mentioned how long you could keep them. They also talked about permanantly downloading movies for $19.99. They also asked questions about buying music through xbox live for $0.99 per song.
I think its great, but my concern, which I voiced, is storage. I can’t keep all this stuff on my 20GB xbox drive. They need to allow us to burn the movies we keep and find another storage alternative, be it a bigger xbox drive or as I suggested some sort of online storage on the LIVE servers so our xbox drive doesn’t fill up.
Other things they asked about was an Atari style wireless controller for Xbox Live Arcade games and a black wireless controller with rubber grip, refined d-pad and buttons and backlighting. Interesting stuff.
the Xbox 360 actually has more than 6.0 million units out right now. i’m a gamer myself and i would love to download some HD movies on my Xbox. the 360 is a pretty powerful piece of hardware and you would be surprised at how fast it will be able to download this material.
Batman Forever?
How did that one make the lineup??
To combat the attention grab that the Wii and PS3 will be getting XBox is releasing an HD-Dvd player unit to plug into your XBox360.
Even retail centers are focussing on selling the 360 as a distraction for all those overpriced PS3s and Wii’s that are not going to be on the shelves 15 mins after the store opens.
is there going to be some way to burn the movie once it is downloaded or have you got to take up precious harddrive space?.
I know for myself it’s like you said I’m buying a gaming system for games. I have Itunes and I still buy regular DVD’s but the fact that Xbox360 has downloads available would not convince me to buy the system. I already have my Wii reserved and the Xbox360 oould do nothing to convince me of buying their system. The bottom line for me is the fact that the games on the 360 aren’t that interesting for me and everything on the Wii, whether it be the controllers or games, totally interests me.
There is some faults in this article, It’s been reported that atleast 2.7 mil xbox360 has been sold in North America. A price point has already been unofficially released, tv shows goes for 3$ movie rentals 4$. and unconfirmed buying of movies 19.99$. Apple as of now only offer ipod downloads wich suck suck suck, FS releases WTF. Maybe this will be better when iTV is released. The HD content is the way to go.
My next gen gaming system will be bought for more then just a gaming system not even the wii is only a gaming system and with the prices of the x360 and ps3 it better be able to do a hell of alot more then just these crappy 3d games we get nowadays.