Xbox LIVE’s recently announced Game Room aims to “relive the glory days of the classic arcade,” calling out quarter pumpers of all races and species. The service aims to have over 1000 games within the next three years such as Centipede, Asteroids Deluxe, and other favorites.
Players will be able to send custom challenges, earn Achievements, unlock levels, climb leaderboards, and play side-by-side with a local friend.
Downloading Xbox Game Room is free, however, once it’s accessed, it’ll cost 240 or 400 Microsoft Points to play a game (and keep it). The difference is that the lower price point is if you only want to play on one system and the higher is if you want to play on two (Xbox 360, PC). If you don’t want to pump out Microsoft Points all at once, there’s the quarter slots, accepting 40 Microsoft Points as a quarter. You’ll also have the option of visiting a friend’s game room and try out their games before you buy it.
Here’s the final feature breakdown:
- One or two players
- HDTV 1080p
- In-game Dolby Digital
- Voice chat
- Avatar support
- Online multiplayer (one or two players)*
- Cross-platform leader boards
- Cross-platform Achievements
Sounds good. Looks like we’ll see how everything goes come Spring this year when the service launches.
The first step towards beating Sony at their own game in making Home obsolete.
What makes Microsoft’s venture into this Home-style area is that they’ll actually be making money from it, which will entice game developers to make games for it. And the ability to try out games will encourage making more friends if for no other reason than to try out their stable of games.