LIVE Marketplace is a roaring success!
One of the biggest successes of the Xbox 360 has been the revamped LIVE Marketplace where Xbox 360 users can download and play classic arcade games. Now Microsoft have released a top ten of the most popular downloaded Xbox 360 games.
The success of the service serves to show that gamers are quite comfortable with downloading content to their hard drives, even paying up to the near equivalent of premium budget titles for the service.
Most downloadable games cost from 400 to 800 points with the most expensive (and also the number 6 game) coming in at 1200 points. For thos that don’t know, 80 points equals roughly one dollar and you buy points through Live with your credit card, topping up as you need to.
The full top ten, revealed in a statement to IGN, goes something like this:
1. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved
2. Gauntlet
3. Smash TV
4. Bejeweled II
5. Zuma
6. Bankshot Billiards 2
7. Outpost Kaloki
8. Mutant Storm Reloaded
9. Joust
10. Wik: Fable of Souls
Its no surprise that Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved is number one as this is a game many Xbox players are familiar with as it shipped as part of PGR2 on the Xbox. Since being made available for download GW has enjoyed roughly 200,000 downloads with 45,000 full game buys.
The success of Marketplace could well lead to more expensive, premium quality content being made available, from games through to music and movies. So while the current version of Xbox 360s aren’t equipped with HD DVD drives, there’s nothing to stop users downloading HD DVD quality movies for playback from their hard drives and allowing them to enjoy the HD DVD experience.
