Xbox Live Gameroom

Microsoft is bor­row­ing from Sony with their newest planned update to XBL. The new fea­ture was announced at CES. Here are the fea­tures you can expect:

Game Fea­tures

* Relive the glory days of the clas­sic arcade. “Game Room” repli­cates the old-school look, sound and feel of a retro video game arcade. At launch, “Game Room” will bring you a library of 30 orig­i­nal arcade and con­sole clas­sics such as “Cen­tipede®” and “Aster­oids Deluxe®” from Atari Inc. and other favorites from Activi­sion Inc., Intel­livi­sion, Kon­ami Corp. and more, all shown in their orig­i­nal cab­i­nets. Cre­ate a brand-new social envi­ron­ment* your avatar can explore, trick out your “game room” by arrang­ing your cab­i­nets, and dec­o­rate each room with themes and ani­mated icons from your favorite games. With weekly new title releases, your arcade will soon be retro­fit­ted to perfection.

* Prove you’re the arcade mas­ter. Think you have what it takes? Chal­lenge friends to beat your high score by send­ing cus­tom chal­lenges and taunts across plat­forms, earn Achieve­ments, unlock lev­els and climb your way to the top of uni­ver­sal leader boards. Com­pete in ranked mode, in which you play against other Xbox LIVE mem­bers on the world leader board, or chal­lenge mode, in which you take turns play­ing a game.

* “Game Room” also offers local Couch Play mode for up to two play­ers — how will you duke it out for arcade supremacy? Enjoy a seam­less expe­ri­ence across Xbox 360 and Windows-based PCs as you share games, track your progress and jump back into the game, no mat­ter which of the two plat­forms you’re on. You can even invite friends into your cus­tom arcade to check out your col­lec­tion or visit their “game room” to demo games and scope out addi­tions to your collection.

* Buy “Game Room” titles once and play on both your Xbox 360 and Windows-based PC. Enjoy the free­dom of buy­ing games for “Game Room” once and play­ing on both Xbox 360 and a Windows-based PC for about the same price as a DVD rental. Those who pre­fer to play on a sin­gle plat­form can pur­chase indi­vid­ual games for either Xbox 360 or a Windows-based PC at a lower price point, or even pay to play a sin­gle game just like in the old arcades. See how long you can last on a sin­gle token!

Retro games are shown in their orig­i­nal cab­i­nets, which you can place any­where in your per­sonal arcade. Invite your friends in to check out your collection.

How Do I Play?

An Xbox 360 con­sole or Windows-based PC and an Inter­net con­nec­tion are all you need* to access “Game Room.” “Game Room” and asso­ci­ated games can be found on your Xbox 360 in the Xbox LIVE Games Mar­ket­place or in the Games for Win­dows — LIVE client on your Windows-based PC.

How Much Does It Cost?

It is free to down­load “Game Room,” which you can then pop­u­late with clas­sic arcade games avail­able for indi­vid­ual pur­chase. Buy games once and play on both an Xbox 360 sys­tem and a Windows-based PC for 400 Microsoft Points. Or, to pur­chase a game for only one plat­form, each indi­vid­ual Xbox 360 or Windows-based PC title is 240 Microsoft Points. You also have the option to pay to play a sin­gle game, just like drop­ping two quar­ters in the slot in the old arcades, for 40 Microsoft Points. Visit your friends’ “game rooms” and try their games free before you buy.

“Game Room” Specifications

* 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

Microsoft was kind enough to show some video of the game room in action

Is Microsoft on to some­thing with this newest edi­tion to XBL or is it another way kill us with more micro transactions?

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Rich

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