Reader Mark says an Xbox Live Arcade glitch stole some of his bought and paid for XBLA games?:Has anyone else had this issue?: Yesterday i turned on my 360 and and had some issues logging into live. After receiving an error message about live being temporarily down, I waited a little bit and was able to log in again. However, when i visited my arcade section, I noticed a bunch of games that i had purchased somehow reverted back to "demo" mode. WTF??!! out of thirty games i had purchased, 8 of them "magically" converted back into the free trial mode. anyone else experience this?
It looks like his games were erased and then replaced with trial versions via auto-download. Presumably, he was able to obtain the full versions again without a problem. Did anybody else see their XBLA games get Grinched??












Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
12-10-2006 @ 9:50AM
Tob3z said...
wtf? If he had purchased the games they would be the full versions anyway when he logged into live. So in a matter of 30 seconds it managed to download 8 demo games... sure...
Oh and also there is no difference between the demo and full apart from a "key". Hence why the demos are the same size as the full versions.
Anyway this isn't blogging. This is just someone's problem. My washing machine broke down the other day. Would you like to tell your readers that?
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12-10-2006 @ 10:11AM
Luke said...
I agree with Tob3z. If he clicks "unlock the full version" on one of those so-called demo games and it tells him he has to pony up more money, he should talk to Microsoft about it. If he talks to MS and then reports the problem back to you guys because MS told him to piss off, then maybe you should start looking for other people with the same problem. If there are other people, then maybe you should turn it into a "news" story.
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12-10-2006 @ 10:20AM
BklynKid said...
Sheesh why are you two so up in arms about this. Ken is just checking to see if anyone else in the community has ever experienced this problem.
If I were that user I would try to simply unlock those demo games and the box should remember that they have been purchased before and do so without requiring payment. If that doesn't work, call Xbox Support because they keep track of what you've bought and will make it right.
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12-10-2006 @ 10:29AM
xfan said...
I haven't seen this...
Did a friend by chance log into his console?
I do know if you buy a game from the arcade, it moves with your account.
So if I bought RoboBlitz, but a friend didn't but my friend has the demo, and I log into his console with my Live account, his demo will become the full version while I'm logged in. Then if he logs in, and assuming he's never bought it, it'll revert back to the demo.
Anyway, it sorta sounds like an account issue. Simply call Microsoft. Your arcade titles are always yours no matter what. They should have transaction records.
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12-10-2006 @ 10:34AM
AF Fighter said...
Those are some awfully rude comments. I suggest if you don't like the news reported by this site that you go elsewhere. There are plenty of websites, I'm sure you can find out that will suit your taste.
On the other hand, I too experienced this problem yesterday but it wasn't from my account (gold) it was my wifes account (silver). I called MS and they said that it's a problem with all Live downloads, arcade or video, and that it will be fixed sometime this next week.
Hope that helps make this story newsworthy. So you guys will quit complaining.
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12-10-2006 @ 10:48AM
phoe3000 said...
I had something similar happen to me except the arcade game had corrupted data. The game was uno btw. I went into the 360's memory and deleted the bad data. I then accessed the demo again. It asked me if i wanted to redownload the full version. I did. It downloaded and that was it. Full game back when it should be on the box.
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12-10-2006 @ 10:49AM
Insomnious said...
I think I remember seeing your transaction record on Passport.net, as I use my Gmail address for MSN Messenger and my Gamertag.
But anyway, I'm sure he could have resolved this himself. Just head to the XBLA, and choose to re-download the full game.
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12-10-2006 @ 10:56AM
Joe said...
You bought 30 XBLA games!! You sucka!!! LOL
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12-10-2006 @ 10:58AM
Hexx said...
If you're not logged into live MS can't verify that you purchased these games. It's to make sure that users don't pirate the XBLA games. Fixing this just means log into live. A few games won't show this like Hexic because that comes with the HD.
$10 that once he relogged in they went to full versions.
great story ken... ever hear of looking into a news item?
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12-10-2006 @ 11:13AM
pkilla said...
Yes i had the same problems with geometry wars, when im not connected to XBL my geometry wars is in trail mode. Side note I just crack 1,000,000 in it. I had put it down for a couple of months and recently started playing it again.
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12-10-2006 @ 11:45AM
notpokey said...
Not only do XBLA games get associated with your profile, but they're also associated with your 360's serial number.
My original 360 went in for repair (graphics glitch) and Microsoft sent me a new one. I plugged in my old hard drive and it's been fine since.
BUT, whereas all the XBLA games I've bought on this new 360 are fully playable by anyone logged into the system, all the old games I originally bought on my old 360 revert to trial versions whenever anyone else plays them without me being logged into Live (including myself).
I don't know if this applies here, but it's worth noting there's multiple ways for Live to 'lose' the full version of an XBLA game, temporarily.
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12-10-2006 @ 11:47AM
Roofus said...
#1 & #2, please visit cnn.com, as you are too stupid to comprehend that a blog is not a traditional news site. It is a news journal and he can write whatever the hell he wants to write about.
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12-10-2006 @ 1:28PM
Danny said...
I've had this problem before (months ago) with Smash TV. I re-downloaded it, and it works fine for me, but when someone else logs in on my xbox360, it still shows up as the demo for them.
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12-10-2006 @ 1:47PM
yuppy said...
lol owned by post number 1
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12-10-2006 @ 2:17PM
MightyHealthy said...
Basically, if you have to replace your 360, your XBLA games will turn to trial games when you are offline.
Because you are playing on a "different" xbox than the one the games were purchased on, you cannot play offline.
Of course, this policy and form of copy-protection doesn't take into account those who have replaced their systems.
You can read the year old (and still chugging) thread of disappointed 360 owners here:
http://forums.xbox.com/8770353/ShowPost.aspx
Most recently, OXM responded to the issue...by not even addressing it. Here is a thread I have created concerning their response (or lack thereof) on the issue:
http://forum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php?p=8541691
The only solution to anyone this affects: A couple hours haggling with MS, a couple weeks waiting for a call back, and you just might get reimbursed for your points so you can buy all the games again.
This is an issue MS has ignored, since the 360 launch.
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12-10-2006 @ 3:00PM
Steven Moore said...
This is only because he wasn't connected to xbox live. I had this problem once when it wasn't connected to live and when I was able to reconnect, it showed my live arcade games as full versions again.
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12-10-2006 @ 3:14PM
Tony said...
That's all well and good, but if you're temporarily without internet access it suddenly becomes a pretty major deal. I hope they do something about that in the future.
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12-10-2006 @ 3:21PM
iNNeR_KaoS said...
Dude... simple solution... Connect to Live when you can, and the games will be back up and running. Most games require a net connection to make sure you own the game, or it will be demo software. Really sucks when I work, because there is no net connection, so I'm not able to play Geometry Wars (Well, I can on PGR3), or DooM.
So, yeah, there you have it.
Later,
iK
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12-10-2006 @ 3:38PM
rickyyo said...
That happens to me all the time because I'm sometimes playing offline and it just wants to bug out on me. So, I always make sure that i can play my live arcade games before I take it some where
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12-10-2006 @ 3:55PM
Jeff said...
So whats wrong with havin 30 arcade games? I have every game but the HardWoods and the new RoboBlitz.
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