Okay, I think I have a full understanding of Xbox Games on Demand. It’s a service available over Live, in which you download full versions of Xbox 360 games to the hard drive on your console.

The games available to Australians are as follows:

• BioShock
• Call of Duty 2
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
• Kameo: Elements of Power
• Mass Effect
• Perfect Dark Zero
• Prey
• Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis
• Viva Piñata
• Viva Piñata 2: Trouble in Paradise

In case you're wondering why the pic above the article features more games than the list, the pic is for the US service which has far more games than the PAL region.

Right, now I have a few questions.

First, why are there only games that have been out for over a year? I don’t know about you but I own or have played every single title on the list of releases for PAL regions which renders the service pretty bloody useless for me.

Secondly how much are they going to cost? M$ hasn’t parted with this information yet but the US versions are going to be at least $19.95 (some titles as much as $30 US) and that equates to $23.64 at todays exchange rate. But given that we always get that little bit more screwed you can expect a mark up on that price to maybe $25 if we’re lucky. That being said who the hell is going to pay $25 for Perfect Dark Zero?

Lastly and this ones kind of personal, if you’re going to provide all these lovely downloadable content options for your games Microsoft, could you see your way to dropping the cost on your ludicrously over priced 120GB Hard Drive. My 60GB has been bumping against the ceiling for months now and it’s becoming infuriating having to download my beloved trailers and arcade games to make room for premium DLC. Now you’re expecting me to download full Xbox 360 games to my hard drive? Games I could get cheaper on ebay? In the words of the first five girls I asked out “I don’t think so (you creepy weirdo)”.

I’m a big fan of moving away from standard retail, but the reason I’m a big fan is because the idea of downloading all your games should make it cheaper, easier and more convenient to get the games you want. The service Xbox is providing at launch doesn’t seem cheaper, easier or more convenient to me. At the very least this might push Sony to step up their online service and start giving us some of their vast library of PS2 games.

The service goes live on August 12.