Paid demos coming to Xbox Live Marketplace?!

In a move that should make everyone cringe, Official Xbox Magazine will be offering paid downloads on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

The content, that will probably correspond with the magazine's included cover-disc, will be free for subscribers and available for a fee for everyone else. This content will include exclusive demos.

I have no problem with paying for exclusive downloads, but paying for a demo really bothers me. The whole point of offering these free downloads is to ultimately sell games that might otherwise slip by a cautious, and sometimes thrifty, audience. I can't tell you how many times a demo has won me over on a title that I had previously written off.

Let's see how this pans out. The first offering should be in September for 200 MS Points. I have a hard enough time paying for silly gamer pics, I will never pay for a demo.

Via Play

VICTOR pontificates: Well, there is a way that paid demos could make sense. Basically, if you bought the demo, you should get a code that gives you a 10 percent discount if you buy the full game.

And what would be really cool is if, after you've played the demo on Xbox Live, you could click a little box to buy the game through Xbox Live and have it mailed to you as soon as it shipped.

Actually, now that I think about it, I'm surprised Microsoft hasn't already partnered with someone like GameStop to create an online store for Xbox Live.

They wouldn't be digital downloads, but sort of an Amazon.com just for Xbox 360 users. You could use MS points to buy games, and get discount coupons for every 1000 points you add to your Gamer Score.

But, yeah, that probably won't happen. We'll just end up paying $5 for demos that used to be free.