On demand my ass.
I demand Bioshock for 1$.

ive already got 3 or 4 titles from the uk list ready to pay for and download.

@Aliasalpha
Thanks for the update on the Aussie situation with GoD for XBox Live.
I agree, these prices are just stupid. Microsoft really should encourage digital distribution by offering things at significantly less than retail price.
I only paid $80 for Mass Effect when it first came out. (It was also the reason I bought a 360!)
$30 for Viva Pinata is not a bargain either. I paid $50 for Burnout Paradise on the PSN and it came out a few months after the retail release. That's the sort of pricing Microsoft should shoot for.
What are the rest of the dashboard upgrades like though?

LOL at the prices. Esp. Mass Effect at $99, currently a $19.99 games that aussies would pay no more then $40 on ea downloader.

I'm not the only person annoyed by it, a few quick steals from the posts on majornelson.com
"349 SEK (US $48) for the Games on Demand in Sweden, some of them are almost 4 years old by now, this must be some kind of joke?!?"
"I hope to god the Games on Demand prices are place holders Major, the Aussies and Kiwis are getting screwed with the current prices, it's like the exchange rate has been completely bypassed and a $19.99 game in the US is £19.99 in the UK which is closer to 30 bucks, reality being $19.99 is about £14."
"after the recent release of a few Games on Demand games the prices are so high for us.
Mass Effect on the USMP is $19.99
Mass Effect on the AUMP is $99.99
---------------------------------
$20 AUS right now is about $25-26....So they want us to pay $100 when the US gets it for 1/4 the price......wake up MS.....not all coutries are stupid and easy to fool lol"
This is only people in the beta as well, when the dash update goes live later this week I expect an explosion of bitching but for once its a genuinely good reason to.

For some reason, I'm not keen on digital distribution for consoles as I am with PC digital distribution.
I think the reason is that a lot of my console games are disposable. So I do have a tendancy to sell some on once completed.
I'm contradicting myself I know...
Just can't see myself buying a console game on demand (though I did buy Burnout Paradise through PSN).
(Great post Krankor! NOT).

It is definietly aimed at people who keep their games, arguably a reason for things like this, another attack on the second hand market.
Personally I don't touch used games but its still an annoying thing to see happen

I always thought the xbox 360 games on demand idea was a bad idea just because xbox 360 harddrives are fairly small. I still use the 20gb model and that harddrive is already fairly full just from demos each month and the arcade games I have. You pretty much have to own an xbox 360 elite or fork out another £90 for a 120gb hard drive and at 5-6gb of space per game thats not going to last very long either.

Yeah that is an issue but they're allegedly phasing out the mid-range console entirely (so new users will have either no HDD or a 120gb) and rumours have been around for a few weeks of them putting out a much bigger hdd and HOPEFULLY drop the prices on a 120 so it doesn't seem like you're buying them off steam in europe

It's going to take like fifty years to finish the download, right?

JET? Nah the future is all about hovering!
The HDD prices will eventually fall, even if its just being able to get a 60GB or 120GB one on ebay when they bring out the 500GB one and lots of people upgrade & want to get rid of their old drives

Well thats something the individual is responsible for, if they've got a good net connection then they can do this sort of major downloading without much hassle, if not then they'll have to sacrifice use of their machine for a few days while they 'conveniently' download a full game.
The server side architecture is clearly very capable. When it was released, I downloaded the IL2 demo which was something like 1.3GB in around 20 minutes. Best my internet has ever run so the servers can push data like mad

Microsoft have responded to the stupid pricing
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/08/microsoft-responds-to-crazy-games-on-demand-pricing/
in short, imagine cartman dressed as the out of control teen on maury povich saying "Whatevah! I do what a Wahnt!"

I would wait until the feature is out of beta before praising the download speeds :P.

Nah this was a general demo download so it shows xbox live is capable of some good end to end speed, no reason to think it won't be consistent for all the content on there.
Launch List (Prices in AUD & Microsoft Points)
Bioshock: $49.95 (3000msp)
Call Of Duty 2: $49.95 (3000msp)
Viva Pinata: $29.95 (1800msp)
Viva Pinata Trouble In Paradise: $69.99 (4400msp)
Oblivion (Standard Edition): $49.95 (3000msp)
Kameo Elements Of Power: $29.99 (1800msp)
Perfect Dark Zero: $29.99 (1800msp)
Sega Rally: $49.95 (3000msp)
Prey: $29.95 (1800msp)
Mass Effect: $99.95 (a staggering 6000msp)
And last but not least, a new one to challenge Mass Effect for the outrageous ripoff crown
Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis: $69.99 (4400msp)
Thats right, a game that was released 6 months after the launch of the console costs MORE than Bioshock...