Shop 'til You Drop

One of the runaway hits since the launch of Xbox 360™ is Xbox Live® Marketplace. To date, there have been more than 46 million downloads from the service. Way to go!

What is Xbox Live Marketplace?
If you haven't had a chance to try Xbox Live Marketplace, you're in for a treat. Games, demos, game videos, movie trailers, themes, gamer pictures, it's all there. Getting stuff from Marketplace is pretty easy, too—find what you want, download it to your hard drive or memory unit, and off you go.

Step into Xbox Live Marketplace.

Lots of things on Marketplace are free, but for stuff that's not, there are Microsoft Points. Buy a bundle of MS Points with a credit card or prepaid card, then exchange those points for content on the Marketplace. In that way, you can get a bunch of little things like gamer pictures as easily as bigger things like Xbox Live Arcade games and downloadable content for retail games. MS Points make great gifts for your favorite gamer, too.

Of course, Microsoft Points is a totally different system from Gamerscore. Earning achievements may get you a high Gamerscore, but you still have to get MS Points separately.

Xbox Live Arcade
No discussion of Xbox Live Marketplace would be complete without a mention of Xbox Live Arcade. A runaway hit itself, this area of Marketplace provides arcade classics and new casual games to play on Xbox 360. Try the free demos, or get the full version by exchanging some MS Points.

Elle hangs with her dupes in Cloning Clyde.

To date, there are more than 25 Xbox Live Arcade games available on Xbox Live, with more to come. Xbox Live has announced Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays, a program that heralds the new Arcade releases on (you guessed it) Wednesdays. Play games like Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, UNO, and my new favorite, Cloning Clyde.

Recent Changes
With the Big Spring Update, navigation in Xbox Live Marketplace was improved. Originally, Marketplace was more game-centric and less structured. That didn't work well for things like music videos and movie trailers, so areas were broken out and given better structure. Changes were also made to make marketplace more flexible, so as new content becomes available, Marketplace can be easily adapted to accommodate the new content.

Another thing that was added is background downloads. No more only downloading one thing at a time, and waiting for the download to finish. (Boy, did we hear about that one!) Now, add up to six items to a queue and let it download while you do other things on the console. We listen, folks.

Behind the Scenes
Lots of stuff happens behind the scenes to make Xbox Live Marketplace work. It isn't easy getting all that content online, but the teams have done what they can to streamline the process. Here's roughly what happens: A content provider or game developer (known as a "partner" 'round these parts) and Microsoft meet up and decide what they want to do on Xbox Live Marketplace. Deals are struck, plans are made, and the partner goes off to create their content using tools that we give them.

When they're done, they give us the content plus other info, and, once it passes inspection, up it goes. This is a simple overview—lots of people put in a lot of effort to make sure everything goes just right.

Usage Restrictions
So, you've got your content, but one day, you take it to another console, and you notice it seems to work differently than it did before. There's a reason for that, and it's related to licensing and usage restrictions.

When you download content from Xbox Live Marketplace, that content is licensed to the console you downloaded it to and the profile you downloaded it with. The console license allows anyone to use that content on that console, online or off. The profile license allows you to use the content on any console, as long as you're signed in to Xbox Live (the reason you have to be signed in to Xbox Live is that your profile has to be validated with the service).

For example, if you try to play your new Xbox Live Arcade game offline on a different console, you may find that it only plays in demo mode. This is because the console is not the console to which the game is licensed, and your profile can't be validated until you sign in. To play the full version on this other console, you have to sign in to Xbox Live.

Just the Facts
Here are some interesting stats to mull over. Boggles the mind, doesn't it?

• Over 80 percent of Xbox Live members download content from Xbox Live Marketplace.
• Almost 70 percent of Xbox Live members download music videos, movie trailers, and game trailers.
• More than 65 percent of connected consoles have downloaded Xbox Live Arcade titles.
• There have been more than 8 million Xbox Live Arcade downloads since launch.
• Top Xbox Live Arcade titles: Geometry Wars, UNO, Bankshot Billiards 2, Marble Blast Ultra, and Street Fighter® II' Hyper Fighting.

More Info
That's Xbox Live Marketplace in a nutshell. A nutshell isn't near enough to cover it all, though. You really should experience it for yourself. For more info:

• Xbox Live Marketplace.
• Using Xbox Live Marketplace.
• Marketplace FAQ.
• Microsoft Points.
• Theme and gamer picture previews.
• Downloadable content for games.

Article by Elle