The Ever-Changing Face of Xbox Live

[Drustin]

The Ever-Changing Face of Xbox Live
New details on how the service will soon be changing.
by Nate Ahearn

May 22, 2008 - In an interview with Next-Gen.biz Marc Whitten, General Manager of Xbox Live revealed several changes coming to Xbox Live in the coming months. The most notable of these changes is the revelation that some Xbox Live titles will be delisted and a supposed "fix" to the DRM issue which has burned so many, among other announcements.

First, the delisting of Xbox Live titles. If a title has been out for at least six months, has a Metacritic rating of under 65% and a conversion rate of under 6% on Xbox Live, then it will be considered for delisting. If Microsoft decides to delist the title then users will be given a three-month warning so they'll hopefully have ample time to hop online and download the title, should they so desire.

Second, the frustrating issue of DRM. Whitten revealed in the interview that Microsoft is releasing a fix next month that will allow users to re-license software – whether it is a TV show or an Xbox Live Arcade game – onto a new console, separate from the one that the content was originally downloaded on. No telling how this will work if that new system dies, but as long as you aren't Eugene Proctor (click here if you're clueless), you should be in the clear.

Other news revealed in the interview included the creation of a first-party development studio dedicated to the creation of "high quality digital content creation" according to Whitten, as well as the revelation that the price cap on XBLA titles has been raised to 1600 Microsoft Points with Penny Arcade being the first to be adorned with the higher price tag. Whitten also said that there will be no spring update to the Xbox Live dashboard, at least not in the conventional sense (they'll be releasing DRM and other backend changes) and spoke about the XBLA download size expansion to 350 MB, but that's old news at this point.

From www.ign.com

[Chris P]

Is this to do with arcade games?