Sounds cool. I am interested to see what info you guys come up with.

Cool! Don't forget to to editorials on other subjects too.

I hope you have some real insight on this topic. I would be glad to hear your thoughts on the state of the service. Maybe someone in a position of power that could do something about it will see your editorials and XBLA will be better for it. Until then I'll be looking forward to your first real look into the matter.

editorial by Arcadian Del Sol

Carl Sagan, to whom a great many wise people attribute their own inspirations about the wonders of the universe and our place in it, once said something so profoud, and yet at the same time, so simple and ordinary, that it has forever stayed with me:

"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe."

Once upon a time, Microsoft decided it wanted to make for gamers, the greatest apple pie they had ever tasted. They would start by creating the best built console we would ever see, and over a short development phase of 3 generations (of which we are now halfway through the 2nd phase), would deliver to us our pie. Now, anyone who has actually made a pie can tell you that to truly do it right, expect to spend about an hour assembling your ingredients into a bakeable product, and then add your actual baking time, and proper cooling time. Its not a brisk process, but it is also not an exhausting one.

Microsoft could have gone into this market like a ten pound gorilla, braying and pounding its chest like a gargantuan menace. But they took the dear and departed Mr. Sagan's wisdom to heart, and then put it into practice - they started by building the universe.

The initial XBox console was good. It was not great, and it was not revolutionary. It was simply a 'hi there, mind if I cut in?" at the homecoming dance. It wasn't there to steal your girlfriend, but in a polite and gentlemanly manner, it simply wanted to have a dance or two. It was a success as far as that, but financially, it was a titanic disaster - and all according to plan. When the 360 was designed, marketed, and ultimately released - this was to be their revolution (i.e. 360). This was when the marketplace would take root and begin to grow. Now more than just a repository for game patches and expansions, it was a place to get movies, and music, and television shows as well as downloadable arcade game content. While the console itself, and the Xbox division with it, was entering its sophmore year, the arcade was still just a freshman trying to adapt to its new surroundings.

And then the supernova hit. The universe Microsoft created in preparation for its apple pie imploded on itself because of a tiny yet significant design flaw: it failed to vent any heat, and over one third of all Xbox 360 consoles sold to the consumers failed within the first year. So bad was this problem, that discussions were held for two months to decide whether or not this would be Microsoft's last console - fears arose that they would never be able to emerge from the public perception that their consoles were bad. So a decision was made. They would stay in the market, but they would press the reset button.

So instead of this being the year where the arcade was put into the spotlight, they remarketed the console all over again. You see, the original plan was that the 1st generation XBox would market the console, the 2nd would market the arcade, and the 3rd would market - well, they haven't really told us yet - speculators and sooth-sayers alike think it will be about original content (i.e. the arcade will in effect, become its own television station with original downloadable shows and movies), but ultimately we dont really know and Microsoft isnt saying. Regardless, because of the failures of the 360 as a console, the plan had to be scrubbed. They couldn't begin making the pie because the universe collapsed around them.

While Microsoft has not confirmed a 3rd generation of the Xbox, the pheonix-like recover of the brand from its own ashes over the past year has all speculators pointing at 'yes' - that Microsoft has done a great job of recovering its lost credibility with a combination of savvy remarketing of the console, and a very costly extention to the intial hardware warrantee (some speculate that Microsoft lost 3 billion dollars as a result).

So what does this mean for arcade? It means that the promises we were given when the 360 launched, were not broken, but were suspended. What we see now is merely the poured concrete foundation to what the arcade will eventually be.

Whether or not that promise will ultimately be fulfilled by the time the 3rd generation of Xbox launches remains to be seen, but given what we have so far, I myself will be here to see it.

Arcadian Del Sol

If any design flaw is hampering XBLA growth and sales it is the lack of a mandatory HDD. This has also limited some retail games and it was all to offer a slightly cheaper system price (although in the end a core system costs significantly more for most people).

Arcadian, hyperbole has no place in a proper editorial.

Arcadian, hyperbole has no place in a proper editorial.

----

I'll make sure my agent is aware.

I don't see why Microsoft couldn't release AAA digitally distributed titles right now. Sure not every user will be able to take advantage of it due to the decisions Microsoft made towards HDD's. But for those 360 owners that bought an Elite there should be no reason why they can't download full retail products right now.

While the list of full retail titles on the PSP PC store is small it is very nice to have them there.

Granted it is a portable system and being able to buy a game at 2am before I leave town is nice, but the games also costs less. Sure, I cannot resell a title, but often the price difference is more than I would get selling a game anyway.

I would rather prefer to avoid upgrading my HDD, but jumping from 20GB (with ~10GB free initially) to 120GB would leave me with a rather significant amount of unused space. Greatest hits titles or such (say at 1600 points ) would motivate me to buy the larger HDD.

The lack of HDD and the rather small HDD do cause some issues though. For example I am rather interested in Ninja Gaiden from the original Xbox right now (costs significantly less in points than at stores in my area), but there is no way I can get it on my HDD without deleting another Xbox originals title.

Realistic pricing for the HDD would make it a must-buy upgrade for many people. $180 for an $80 (avg. price based on Newegg's pricing) laptop drive is absurd.

End-user controlled content management would go a *long* way towards fixing the long-standing DRM issues preventing legitimate users from playing their purchased XLBA games (mostly while offline, but some games have issues online as well). Potentially preventing a few cases of piracy should not outweigh the fact that Microsoft has been treating all of their XBLA customers like thieves since launch day.

Yeah the DRM is a killer. If PSN or Steam go down for whatever reason I can still play all of my purchases. Heck, I can even backup my PSN PC store purchases and swap them on and off my PSP while PSN is down.

There is an extended 8 hour maintenance for XBL coming up which is going to create another uproar due to people not being able to use what they paid for. Honestly, MS deserves the backlash entirely. They ignored the issue for so long, pretended to take it seriously and the only time they seem to think about DRM now is when XBL goes down.

I feel that the XBLA is still sort of a niche for most gamers. Comparing a title at retail that sells 500,000 copies at $59.99 and an XBLA title (or even a PSN title) at 20,000 copies at $5 to $10 per doesn't do any justice. Aside from sales numbers, the DRM issue is definitly a big problem. Currently I have 3 unplayable titles (Golden Axe, Sonic the Hedghog, and another I've forgotten) that don't work, online or off, but have been purchased.

I don't think the HDD pricing is overly terrible, I had read that the HDD is a different type of unit then a laptop. But I could be wrong.