CES: Microsoft Announces ‘The Game Room’ for Xbox 360 and PC
Last night during CES, Microsoft announced a new feature which lets your Avatar from Xbox Live walk around a virtual arcade filled with retro classic games. If it sounds a little bit like PlayStation’s Home, than you are not alone. The news came from the company’s convention keynote and they revealed a trailer for this new way to play some old favorites, which we embedded up top.
Starting next spring, members of Xbox Live will be asked to download the new feature. Once they do, their Avatar will be inside the ‘Game Room,’ where they can walk around and check out videogames where most of us grew up with. It was confirmed that each arcade machine will display its original cabinet artwork that should give the feeling of authenticity to anyone that was around when these games were released.
So far, Microsoft announced classic games from Atari, Activision, Intellivision and Konami will be available right away and every week a new game will be released inside the ‘Game Room.” If you’re worried that the resolution of these original games would look awful, don’t worry, Microsoft promised each title will be re-mastered in 1080p. Each game will have more updates including two-player over Xbox Live, Achievements and cross-platform leaderboards with PC users.
Now here is the bad part, the pricing. If you want to purchase just one game, it will set you back 500 Microsoft Points ($5); however if you plan on playing just on the Xbox 360 or PC, and not on both, it will be 240 MSP ($3). The company is also allowing the gamer to play a single game, just like what we used to do back in the 80s, and will cost 40 MSP ($.50).
While I like the idea, I think the prices are way to high. Honestly, these games are so simple they can be played on pretty much anything and charging a gamer $5 so he/she can play on Xbox and PC, is rather high. And don’t get me started on the $.50 single play. If Microsoft wanted this feature to sell more systems, they honestly should release free games for everyone and when a ultra-popular game like Space Invaders is released — then maybe a price could be set for it.
January 7th, 2010 at 11:19 am
I can go into my basement and play on my mame cabinet
More of a nostalgia feel 
January 8th, 2010 at 9:01 am
@ # TieDyedGuy
I guess its cheaper too
January 9th, 2010 at 9:44 pm
Well, not so much, spent about $400 building it