Hi, I've considered buying a 360 for certain downloadable games and was wondering how it works. I heard you have to subscribe to MS's online services, is this just to play games online or is it to download games as well?

Basically, I have no interest in the vast majority of 360 games and don't want to play multiplayer games online but I am a huge retrohead. I understand you can get games such as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Banjo Tooie on 360 - both games cost quite a bit to buy for the original consoles. So what I'm basically considering is buying a 360 mainly just to download rare retro games. Of course, this only makes sense if it's gonna work out cheaper.

So, in the UK, how much do the games cost to download? Would I have to pay a subscription fee to download them and how much is it?

Thanks for the help!

You dont have to pay to download any games. Just to play them against other people online.

So single player games like Banjo you will have no problem with.

It's free to get onto the marketplace with your 360.

Like you thought, you only need to pay to play games online against other people.

You can browse the stuff available on the marketplace here -> http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-GB/games/default.htm and it also has the prices too (in Microsoft points).

http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=3527

Here you can see the prices pretty well. And as mentioned before, connecting you Xbox360 to the marketplace is free.

have an eye on:

• Doom ($5)
• Banjo Kazooie ($10)
• Banjo Tooie ($15)
• Braid ($10)
• Sonic ($5)
• Sonic 2 ($5)
• Golden Axe ($5)
• Street Fighter 2 ($15)
• R-Type ($15)
• Streets of Rage 2 ($5)
• Geometry Wars 2 ($10)

Some classic games and some pretty cool new ones. So for $100 you will have months of fun.

ok, cheers, that's awesome!

downloading anything from xbox 360 is fast.