Microsoft’s Xbox Live summer update ushers in a new era of features when it launches next week on August 11th, and among the features will be Games on Demand, a new service offering full Xbox 360 games in digital download form. 24 titles will be available at the service’s launch in the US, including hits like BioShock, Assassin’s Creed, Burnout Paradise, Rainbow Six Vegas, Oblivion and Mass Effect (strangely, no Halo 3, Crackdown, or Gears of War), and new titles will be added to the Games on Demand library every Tuesday.
This is the full launch list:
Assassin’s Creed (Ubisoft)
BioShock (2K Games)
Burnout Paradise (EA)
Call of Duty® 2 (Activision)
Dance Dance Revolution Universe (Konami)
Fight Night Round 3 (EA)
Kameo: Elements of Power (Microsoft Game Studios)
Karaoke Revolution American Idol Encore (Konami)
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (LucasArts)
Mass Effect (Microsoft Game Studios)
Meet The Robinsons (Disney)
MX vs. ATV Untamed (THQ)
Need for Speed Carbon (EA)
Need for Speed: Most Wanted (EA)
Perfect Dark Zero (Microsoft Game Studios)
Prey (2K Games)
Rainbow Six Vegas (Ubisoft)
Ridge Racer 6 (Namco)
Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis (Rockstar Games)
Sonic The Hedgehog (Sega)
TEST DRIVE: UNLIMITED (Atari)
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
Viva Piñata (Microsoft Game Studios)
Viva Piñata 2: Trouble in Paradise (Microsoft Game Studios)
Definitive pricing details weren’t provided with today’s press release. However, according to the following Games on Demand walkthrough video, narrated by Xbox Live’s Major Nelson, games will cost approximately the same amount as their retail counterparts. In the video, for example, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga is priced at $19.99. I imagine $20 will be the sweet spot for a lot of these games, but only time will tell.