Gamerscore Blog

Looks like it us up now, not Tuesday.  

Already voted. Keep up the community polls.

Is there an Arcade title this week other than Undertow? I've looked everywhere and can't find an answer.

Three words: FEEDING FRENZY FTW

Hoodoo, thanks.  

HazyCloud, Undertow is the the "featured" title this week, no new Arcade game is launching on Wednesday.

ace, hihowareya.

Thanks John. It will be good seeing more people on Undertow this weekend. Should be a blast!

Castlevania all the way : )            free undertow is awesome              

http://www.xbox.com/en-AU/xblaawards = 404 Page not found

I'll just assume I'm supposed to manually type in http://www.xbox.com/en-US/xblaawards ?

Seriously, how hard is it to just map a few regional URLs?

I'm a bit surprised not to see a category for independently-produced games for XNA Game Studio developers.

MS has done a pretty effective job of getting universities to embrace XNA Game Studio -- and having an "independent" or "student" category for XNA Game Studio developers would give up-and-coming game designers some much needed recognition.

Isn’t this for Xbox 360 owners?


I clicked the link, there is no sign in process, no gamer tag verification, heck it appears you can even vote as many times as you want… Although I haven’t been back to the link to test it..

I would have assumed that we could have voted directly from the dashboard or at Xbox.com after some sort of sign in process

The way it seems to be set up now, anyone can vote (Xbox 360 owner or not) and you can vote as many times as you want..

First annual Xbox Live awards = not worth the paper they will be printed on

Xbox Live Marketplace Multi-Tiered  Pricing for Gold Members


One of the minor annoyances of Xbox Live Marketplace is the fact that most of the prices for the items listed are never reduced.  A piece of premium content can be listed on marketplace for over a year or more for 200 points for example and it is usually never discounted. This is a different type of marketplace it seems with its own set of unique economic rules. Most of us are used to products (online or in stores) eventually coming down in price, especially after considerable time on the shelf as it were…

Of course this question has been posed to the men of women of the GSB in the past and the answer was something along the lines of that there are always new Xbox 360 owners joining Xbox Live everyday so they can’t lower the prices. In others words, just because you may have been staring at the same piece of content for over a year, it’s a brand new piece of content to that new Xbox 360 owner that just joined Xbox Live. It was a great answer, and it sure sounded good at the time. Those Jedi mind tricks were in full force that day…


There are also some people who always seem to question the value proposition provided by Xbox Live Gold. With rival PS3 and Wii consoles now finally offering a free, but less robust online service and the ever present opinion of some gold members that silver members get everything gold members get except the ability to  play per-to-per multiplayer gaming, some are calling for the price Xbox Live to be lowered if not abolished completely.

Still the majority of Xbox Live Gold members clearly enjoy the Xbox Live service and don’t mind paying the annual fee but are always looking for additional benefits as Gold members and additional reasons to keep paying for the service.

So I started thinking about the market place again on the Xbox 360. The only way you can even access marketplace is if you sign on to Xbox Live. I am no software expert but I would assume that because you have to sign up to live with a valid account MS knows exactly what member is accessing marketplace (gold or silver, and years of membership) at any given moment.

So, If MS knows exactly who is viewing the store, they can determine exactly what set of prices to offer the customer.

Enter Xbox Live Marketplace Multi-Tiered Pricing for Gold Members


How it works is simple. As products are placed on XBL marketplace, the clock begins ticking. As time goes by, products are discounted.  How often or how much a product is discounted would be up to MS and the content providers. This discount program would be for Gold members only, and here is the fine print. Gold members can keep getting access to the discounted prices as long as they remain Xbox Live Gold members. If you cancel your subscription or allow your membership status to revert to sliver at any time you lose your accumulated gold membership pricing plan benefits and have to start over.

And why is it multi-tiered pricing for Gold members? Well some gold members may be new Gold members so they haven’t accumulated any discounts for content yet, while others may have been gold members for years,  but for whatever reason had not purchased the old content yet.

And silver members? - They get to pay the same prices they do now. The ones frozen in time. That “new price” that every new Xbox Live members pays for everything.

The program would give every Xbox Live gold member both a great benefit of membership and an excellent reason to never let their Xbox Live Gold membership lapse…

It would also give Silver members an additional reason to convert to Gold.


Please don’t misunderstand what I am trying to say. New content would still cost the same for everyone. I am just talking about content that has been sitting on marketplace for some time and is more than likely not going to be purchased without some kind of financial incentive.

Oh and it won’t be a win just the for the consumer, MS could win as well. Custom tiered pricing would allow MS to aggressively market content that would otherwise go unsold.

I am pretty sure MS already has a known window or time period where if a member of Xbox Live who owns a particular game has not purchased content for it, the window of opportunity is lost, and that member will usually not go back and purchase that premium content. Using custom tiered pricing MS could go after those potential sales, even if it is at a slightly reduced rate.


For example, using my gaming statistics automatically collected by my Xbox 360 and sent to MS, MS can easily determine which Xbox 360 games I own that I have not purchased premium DLC for and aggressively market these otherwise unsold pieces of premium DLC to me and millions of other Xbox Live members with similar circumstances.

I voted and that sounds great and all, but besides Undertow being free (which I already own), will there be a new XBLA game this week ? Can someone from GS Blog please tell us this.

You know this is exactly why the 360 needs a web browser.     Why can't things like this be run via the dashboard/marketplace rather of xbox.com?

I'm sure this CAN be done without a web browser on the 360 but Microsoft do not seem to exploit the full potential of the 360 for an online machine.  You are tied into a limited Live system when we should be able to access EVERYTHING xbox.com has to offer FROM our 360s directly, without the need for a PC.

Its a pit pathetic I can login to xbox.com from the PSP, Wii or PS3 (if I owned one) but not from the 360.  Nintendo are ahead of the game in that respect, you can access the official Nintendo site on the Wii easily and THATS not even in HD which is PERFECT for browsing.  It needn't be fully functional, but for an online console its pretty limited in what we can do via the dashboard.  I shouldn't need to switch to the PC and visit xbox.com to do ANYTHING 360 related, its just silly.

I dont need a web browser but instead I want a group chat function...

I agree about the group chat too.  Far too often you logon to Burnout Revenge to play a game and you can't find a lobby actually RACING because people are just using it for group chat. :-(

Like I said (with many spelling and grammar errors it seems), a full browser is not essential but I think there is FAR too much "go to xbox.com for details" going on.  

Inside Xbox for example often tells you to visit xbox.com on your PC for more information which I find HUGELY annoying as you should be able to get FULL details on the 360.  Not to mention there's still the lack of previewing music videos, gamerpics and themes from marketplace.

No,I see what your saying,but I have my 27 inch HDTV & PC next to my console so I dont need a browser :)

BUt its frustrating trying to gather a party when you cant use group chat invites,it often takes 30 mess of PM until all 4-5 of us agree on what to play.

Never mind, I saw the earlier post and John already cleared my question up... Can you guys at least tell us what XBLA game or games are coming NEXT week then ? :) Also, I already own Undertow, will I get some other compensation instead? In fact I own ALL 111 full XBLA games. Anything else I could get since I had problems with Xbox Live as well.

Im with you K4rn4ge. I own all the titles. Any information would be great. I've heard support will take care of us, but no one has said exactly what support is going to do.

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Where's Yaris??

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