No More Free Xbox Live Arcade Games?

I bet many of you have downloaded Texas Hold ’em during the 48 hours window when it was free-for-all. Heck, I know I would have, if only my XBL subscription hadn’t run out a week earlier. People like free stuff, and that was evident by the fact that more than 100 people were downloading the game every minute!

XBOX Live’s Aaron Greenberg was interviewed by Podtacular recently, and he admitted the fact that Poker had been a huge hit. “We had more downloads in the first 24 hours than any other item ever on Marketplace. That is a pretty big deal, given all the big demos and videos that have been up from some major franchises.” Unfortunately though, this might be a one-off experiment; when asked if more XBL Arcade games would be given out for free, he bluntly refused. “To be honest this is not part of a long term strategy for us, it costs a lot of money to build these games and I am sure a number of people that downloaded it for free would have been willing to pay for it. Think of this as something we did as a thank you to the community for their support. Otherwise, all new Arcade will continue to have a free trial that everyone can download.”

Now I would’ve loved it if they did this with Pacman, I’ve heard that Poker wasn’t that great. Still, anything free is good, and although they have denied any plans of doing this in the future, I’d love to see more of these “thank-yous”- even if it’s only for a few hours. Anyway, stay tuned for more updates in case there are any.

I bet many of you have downloaded Texas Hold ’em during the 48 hours window when it was free-for-all. Heck, I know I would have, if only my XBL subscription hadn’t run out a week earlier. People like free stuff, and that was evident by the fact that more than 100 people were downloading the game every minute!

XBOX Live’s Aaron Greenberg was interviewed by Podtacular recently, and he admitted the fact that Poker had been a huge hit. “We had more downloads in the first 24 hours than any other item ever on Marketplace. That is a pretty big deal, given all the big demos and videos that have been up from some major franchises.” Unfortunately though, this might be a one-off experiment; when asked if more XBL Arcade games would be given out for free, he bluntly refused. “To be honest this is not part of a long term strategy for us, it costs a lot of money to build these games and I am sure a number of people that downloaded it for free would have been willing to pay for it. Think of this as something we did as a thank you to the community for their support. Otherwise, all new Arcade will continue to have a free trial that everyone can download.”

Now I would’ve loved it if they did this with Pacman, I’ve heard that Poker wasn’t that great. Still, anything free is good, and although they have denied any plans of doing this in the future, I’d love to see more of these “thank-yous”- even if it’s only for a few hours. Anyway, stay tuned for more updates in case there are any.