Yeah, except that your arcade games will only be able to be played while the Gamertag you purchased them with is online.

Seriously?? There isn't a work-around for this? I've heard people get "credit" from MS for games previously purchased and can re-download them from the Arcade... Is that a feasible work-around?

Yes, seriously. Microsoft only refunds the points if your system dies and they give you a refurb. I called them when considering changing to an HDMI enable 360 and they basically told me, without remorse, that I was out of luck. We discussed it here a while ago that they needed a better solution for this, but most people seem to think the limitation is not an issue.

I'm one of those people. Can someone please explain to me the problem with the limitation? While my 360 has been making its way to McAllen I've borrowed two seperate 360s from friends and I was able to play my arcade games without issue. I also can't imagine why I'd want to play a game without my gamertag being logged in. I'm confused.

I've never played Puzzle fighter before. I figured it would be easy enough to figure out. OMG. I had no freakin idea what the hell was going on or how to start an attack or if I was winning or losing. Still think I'll buy the full game, but pick-up-and-play friendly, it really isn't.

I'm with you, but I guess some people don't go online with their 360s that often or something.

I don't have internet in every room, so it is nice to be able to play the full versions of the games I paid $ for without having to be connected.

What I intend to do (and I'm sure someone may come down on me for this, but I'm still going to try it) is to tell them (this is when I upgrade to the Elite) that my 360 died, and I traded it into Gamestop for credit toward a new system. If they balk, I'll explain how I just gave them more money by getting a brand new system instead of sending it in for repair.

Basically, I'm going to fight like hell.

Here's an example of the problem. I buy arcade games so that I and my wife can both play them. My wife has a silver membership (though even if it were gold, she'd still be screwed), and cannot play XBLA games on her gamertag under the current limitations.

My girlfriend plays XBLA games, under her own Gamertag, for starters. If I take my Xbox to a friend's place, what am I supposed to do? "Hey, drag a massive CAT5 all the way down here, I want to play Geometry Wars." If I move somewhere without broadband (and yes, it's still possible), I'm just supposed to be fucked out of all the games I've paid for?

Internet connections go down. Mine went down while playing SoTN a few days ago. I got to a save point and found out that I couldn't save any more, because I was suddenly only playing the trial version. Awesome.

Way to represent people! I think we've shown that the system sucks and does screw us if we ever change hard drives.

I'm with abrg923, and am fighting this if I ever have to.

It still doesn't bother me. My internet connection is stable, and I can live if I can't play my arcade games for a few hours or even a few days. But if their policy really bothers you, you might want to write MS a letter and let them know, or try and contact one of the big gaming sites and ask if they can investigate the issue. I would guess that most 360 owners don't even know about the policy, so unless those of you who are unhappy with it voice your concerns, there's no reason for them to change it.

The bottom line is if you pay for a game you should "have it", not have to authenticate your identity to play it. Its just a method of gradually working in the idea into consumers head that you don't need real access to your purchased goods.

That said, given that MS explains all of this (although cryptically), beforehand I don't believe people have a reason to be upset when they can't run their games. I do however think people should be furious that this is the model MS employs and the model that Sony and MS have stated they want regular downloadable games to employ in the future. I believe Warhawk for PS3 is this way also...

Because of the model, I still refuse to purchase anything on Live. I do however have many virtual console titles for Wii. (Sent to me by the kind Unclegramps )

I definitely see your point, but I guess it just doesn't bother me since I'm always online when I'm playing the 360, have reliable internet access, don't have anyone else playing on my console, and don't play on anyone else's console. So even though I understand why you're not happy about it, from a practical point of view it just doesn't affect me.

"Voting with your wallet" is a good tactic, but it doesn't really let MS/Sony know that you are unhappy with the strategy. If it's something that really bothers you, I'd let them know one way or another. If you think that a few letters won't make a difference, that's why I think one of the gaming sites (Joystiq, Kotaku, 1Up, Gamestop, etc.) could investigate this topic, speak to their contacts at the company, and poll their audience for opinions. That might get the word out effectively.

I must be missing your reference here.

Think back to when the Wii launched, did you have an extra one? Did you "sell" it to someone (me) at cost? If not, I have been away from the boards to long and am mistaking you for someone else.

Oh, right. That was me.

I read your post as saying that I sent you the VC games, not the Wii itself. That's why I was so confused.

Interesting. I just got my "new" console from Microsoft today. All of my XBLA games I bought work perfectly fine when I am offline or with a different profile. I just needed to delete and then redownload each game. I guess they fixed it?

But certainly you understand that without some sort of authentication, copies would end up on millions of friends' systems?

Did anyone who is complaining about this buy XBLA games AFTER they learned of the limitations? If so, then they made those purchases with eyes wide open and no reason to complain.... unless of course they thought they'd never have their console be replaced.

So I got my Elite home and, for some reason, was under the impression that it came with a transfer cable. How the heck am I supposed to dump my game saves and Live games on the new hard drive? Do I now need to go invest in a cable of some sort?

M$ will send you one for free, just need your old system's serial number:

http://assets.xbox.com/en-us/support...-OrderForm.pdf

Can anyone confirm this? I tried doing that when L&O said he could do it and it didn't work for me.

Not true. Just have the items tied to your host machine as well as your gamer tag.

Therefore, you could always access them on your own machine that is already associated with your GT regardless of connectivity. Next, allow users to download the games on other 360's when logged in on the "owners" gamertag on other machines. Once logged off, disable the game. Finally, allow users to transfer their account to new machines as necessary. (Which they do for repairs, but not for upgraders...)

Simple and it would actually help sales... Or is it that the most powerful software company in the world can't figure out how to streamline this?

Wasn't it determined that he actually wasn't able to play it offline (or on another account)? I thought that was figured out. I can definitely play them offline, on an old Xbox Live Silver account and on a brand new Xbox Live Silver account. I tried both games I bought recently (Pac Man) and games I bought a long time ago (Geometry Wars), and they all worked.