XBLA: Amazon.com Now Selling Xbox Live Arcade Games
Today it has been revealed that Microsoft have teamed up with Amazon to sell Xbox Live Arcade download codes through their online store.
How does it work? Simply go to www.amazon.com/xboxlive and buy yourself some codes - it's that simple.
This allows two things which many people have been wanting for quite some while. First, you can now view Xbox Live Arcade games in US dollars. Some people are still confused by the points-to-money calculation, so now they don't have an excuse.
Secondly, this now allows Xbox Live Arcade players to gift people games. There was a system in place some time ago to gift people games through Xbox.com, but it was short lived. Now you can buy a code and send that code to a friend. Easy done.
The code will get directly sent to you once payment is complete. You can also buy your standard point codes as well as Xbox Live subscriptions as well. Currently this is only available in the US, but as this is only a beta it should expand to Amazon UK and Canada as well. Hopefully we'll one day see the XNA Community Games, as well as Nintendo and Sony giving gamers similar options.
Source: Amazon.com Xbox Live Store
Comments
i noticed that they had lost cities available for sale, yet as was stated here earlier the game was pulled from the marketplace. I would get it but I'm afraid of losing $10. here's the link:
http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Cities-Online-Game-Xbox-360/dp/B001LRQ8ZC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1239225827&sr=1-1
Posted by: Anonymous | April 8, 2009 10:24 PM
The other nice thing about this is that now you can buy XBLA games without first buying Billy Bucks (aka Microsoft Points). I will probably use this all the time for that reason alone. Now if we could just get DLC this way as well.
Posted by: Rykin Poe | April 8, 2009 10:44 PM
I live in Germany and Duke Nukem 3d is region-blocked even when I try to dl it from my US-Account.
I really wonder whar would happen If I buy the Game on Amazon with my Credit Card and an US-Billing Adress and Enter the code on my US-Account...this could possiblybe a solution for region-locked xbla-Games.
Posted by: Hugo360 | April 8, 2009 11:04 PM
I wonder what kind of region block they have in place.
I've tried purchasing through a proxy and using my Entropay card with a US address but it still says unavailable in my region. :-/
Posted by: cjelly | April 9, 2009 12:21 AM
"Some people are still confused by the points-to-money calculation, so now they don't have an excuse"
With that in mind, it's no surprise this is US only!
-I have no problem converting MS points into real money, and the ones that do need to use mspconverter.com or learn some very basic maths.
Posted by: Hmmm | April 9, 2009 2:37 AM
I have a feeling the code would have a series of numbers associated with NTSC. If you don't mind possibly losing 5 bucks buy a 400 point game and find out (:
Posted by: Chris | April 9, 2009 3:33 PM
What's nice about not having to use MS Points is not having to put up with MS' ridiculous system where you buy points not in the amount you need, but in the amount MS wants you to buy. You always end up spending more money than you intended to, with some spare change that you can't use for anything.
Posted by: Sub | April 10, 2009 8:58 PM