Game Room Trailer

Watching this trailer for the first time, long after the whole Game Room trainwreck went off the rails, I find myself wondering many things. Why the Western theme? Why the focus on the Avatars capering in the arcade over actual in-game footage? And did they purposely set out to make the ugliest Avatars they could? Seriously, those two they reveal from shadows at the beginning made me cringe.
 
But the thing I find more interesting is that the comments reveal that people completely misunderstood what Game Room actually was, or even what it was meant to be. All the stand-up arcade cabinets and Avatars and mascots floating around are essentially just a fancy background to a collection of retro games accessed through a menu. Yet because of the trailer's ill-advised focus on the Avatars over the games that were supposedly the whole point of the service, people thought it was a callous attempt on Microsoft's part to create their own version of Home, ignoring the fact that even back then, Home was abysmally unpopular. 
 
Going back through the Game Room Quick Looks, I can't help but wonder if Game Room ever could have been anything better than what it turned out to be, or if it was doomed from the start. Having a unified area of Xbox Live dedicated to retro gaming isn't a bad idea by any stretch of the imagination, so it's really a shame that Game Room was such a complete, unmitigated failure.

Oh Game Room, what happen? 

There are free flash games like these.

Burn it, and avert your eyes.

"The concept of a virtual arcade place can work, but it doesn't seem like they're gonna get it right either. "

According to Eurogamer, this stuff is going to be expensive. 

The concept of a virtual arcade place can work, but it doesn't seem like they're gonna get it right either.

didnt the ps3 do something like this for home? didnt it suck? i guess if they do this a lot better than that it will be ok since its only focusing on the arcade aspect, rather than a social one. anyway i wouldnt mind being able to legally own some classic arcade games that havent been molested into new or "extreme" versions. the dropping quarters aspect is lame since, as jeff pointed out, most of those games only cost a quarter per play. it really comes down to the handling of everything

So its like Home, but on the Xbox 360...? Ahh internet fanboyism. It being on the 360 won't make it suck any less.

" I can't believe how many people are claiming this is a "rip-off of Home".  To me this only seems to be an arcade, you know those things that used to exist?  But even if Microsoft were to introduce some kind of 3D chat room, I still wouldn't feel they were ripping off Sony.  Is no one here aware of how large scale social networking in these days?  Habbo Hotel, Second Life, IMVU, etc, all 3D "Home-like" chat systems, all of which were done well before Home.  Even Google, Yahoo and Microsoft itself have 3D chat environments for messenger programs.  The 360 moving into that territory eventually is innevitable, I don't see why "Sony did it first is a factor".  Sony fanboys seem to be pretty fickle when it comes to this.  I don't remember any complaints about the trophy system being added in, the Playstation Store, gamercards, the Classics being made available.. hell, even PSN itself is heavily based on XBL and they even just announced plans to make PSN cross compatable with other mediums, that's copying too, right?  So again, why is such a big deal when Microsoft release something with some similarties to something on the Playstation.  If you think they're the only ones guilty of this, you deserve to be kicked off this site and sent back to GameFAQs. "

The few times I've actually logged into Home, all I found were people standing around talking to each other and emoting.  It all seemed pretty pointless and boring.  I don't know why Microsoft would bother to mimic that.  I'll try it out if all the games are free.

Looks...interesting.  It is a lot like Home's arcades, but perhaps more personal and refined.  Overall though, this is a trojan horse for pay to play; you get the same core functionality with XBLA and leaderboards. 

" Obviosly because the trailer didn't show queue's there won't be any when it's live. So how does it work? I 'trick out' an arcade and all my friends can come along. As long as they are gold subs. As long as they also own the games? Hmm. "

Any possible opportunity to have Custer's Revenge in 1080p?

Awesome can't wait.

I agree with what most people are saying, this is Microsoft's version of Home. It's a cool idea, but if they're going to charge people to use it, even though it may be a free download, and we all know they will, it's practice as usual coming from the company that charges for every little thing anyways on Xbox Live. Now compared to what Sony has with Home by allowing us to play mini-games for free, even rewarding us free clothing for playing the game or reaching a certain goal within whatever your playing, will appeal to way more people in the long run. That is not including free online play and the total customization to the console itself - for free.
 
From what I've been seeing since E3 of 2009, coming from Microsoft, it seems that they don't have anything new or innovative for 2010 in terms of IP or games. It's all about features. And with that Microsoft should reconsider being in the gaming biz since they're focus is now on UI features and technology. CES seems fitting for them.

woah, you have to pay 40 points anytime you want to use one of the games that you already bought?  Does anyone have a link to where that's confirmed because that sounds a little out there to me...

This is MS's version of Sony's Home?

You'd think Microsoft learned a thing or two about the success of shit like Home from Sony, but I guess not

Really Microsoft? Home? Of all the things you choose to steal from Sony its Home? lol

Eh, no thanks.

I think the idea of having avatars in a virtual arcade physically walking up to and using arcade machines, disallowing others to play them, is a really, really, really bad idea regardless of whether sony or microsoft is involved.

It'd be a neat little thing if it was free. But charging us 3 $/€ for each of these old games is completely ridiculous - especially considering that xbl gold already costs money.

" I'm curious.. at what point did Giant Bomb become such a den of haters?  When this site was new almost all of the users were fairly mature and even minded.  Where did you haters come from exactly?  It'd be awesome if you either went back or grew up. "

I'm curious.. at what point did Giant Bomb become such a den of haters?  When this site was new almost all of the users were fairly mature and even minded.  Where did you haters come from exactly?  It'd be awesome if you either went back or grew up.

I think by "better than Home", you XBox360 fanboys really mean, "just as pointless and stupid as Home." 
 
Except, you know, being a fanboy makes it physically impossible for you to acknowledge when something on your system-of-choice is retarded. 
 
It all comes down to this: if I want to play Frogger or Centipede (which I don't, and I was actually alive when those games were relevant), why the HELL would I want to go though an extra layer of Second Life bullshit just to play them?

Holy shit there are a lot of whiners here. Are your lives so miserable?

" story  "

Obviosly because the trailer didn't show queue's there won't be any when it's live.
So how does it work? I 'trick out' an arcade and all my friends can come along. As long as they are gold subs. As long as they also own the games?
Hmm.

Wow!  This is just like Sony's Home but BETTER!!...oh, wait...yeah, this is crap, too.  *yawn*

Oh so now I can use my Miis in Home? -_-

Aslong as I do not have to line up to play anything like Home im ok with this

I like how they made all the avatars look old. "We're really reaching out to the middle-aged 'King of Kong' demographic here with Game Room. Enjoy your Galaga, gramps!"

HOME ripoff

so... I will still be playing the games I already own, but now I need to navigate a clunky 3D world to get to them? Gee.... awesome... :|

If they do this properly it will be very cool.

Why isn't this the AvatArcade? That was so much better.

Seems alright. Not going to pay for it though. You could probably play most of them (or at least some kind of imitation) for free in a browser.

I can't believe how many people are claiming this is a "rip-off of Home".  To me this only seems to be an arcade, you know those things that used to exist?  But even if Microsoft were to introduce some kind of 3D chat room, I still wouldn't feel they were ripping off Sony.
 
Is no one here aware of how large scale social networking in these days?  Habbo Hotel, Second Life, IMVU, etc, all 3D "Home-like" chat systems, all of which were done well before Home.  Even Google, Yahoo and Microsoft itself have 3D chat environments for messenger programs.  The 360 moving into that territory eventually is innevitable, I don't see why "Sony did it first is a factor".
 
Sony fanboys seem to be pretty fickle when it comes to this.  I don't remember any complaints about the trophy system being added in, the Playstation Store, gamercards, the Classics being made available.. hell, even PSN itself is heavily based on XBL and they even just announced plans to make PSN cross compatable with other mediums, that's copying too, right?  So again, why is such a big deal when Microsoft release something with some similarties to something on the Playstation.  If you think they're the only ones guilty of this, you deserve to be kicked off this site and sent back to GameFAQs.

Sounds interesting, but the cost is going to be a factor. Always is with Microsoft. 

" probably fun for about a week "

The first thing that comes to mind is: how much will it cost.
I can't imagine microsoft giving something like this away for free, you'll probably have to pay for every game and prop in your own arcade. 
 
Edit: nevermind found it:
 You can buy a game for between 240-400 Microsoft Points, or if you really want that old arcade feeling, you can pay 40 Microsoft Points and play the game once, like it was 1985 and you'd just dropped a quarter. Only, now it's two quarters.

considering Games for Windows Live don't technically have Avatars, I'm curious how that will work.

Sad.