This week, it's a whole new Marketplace! With the launch of the New Xbox 360 Experience dashboard, there are several new wrinkles:
- You may not be able to get to Marketplace at all, or (now that traffic seems to have slowed and server capacity has no doubt been buffed) suffer long load times
- You can access Marketplace on the Web and remotely queue/purchase downloads, which will automatically come in the next time you boot your console.
- There's this new thing called a Premium Theme. These themes have not been well defined, but as best I can tell they cost more but offer only a single background image (unlike the traditional four with the previous Blades dashboard themes). But they do seem to contain new matching tableaus that appear behind your friends when you visit the new Friends avatar section. Contrary to early reports, there are no avatar costumes bundled with premium themes, which is a shame since it would probably help improve the value proposition and sales for both.
- Community games are now launched with 45 released at this writing. New titles have been added every day so far, and these generally less polished though often fun games are priced starting at $2.50 up to $10. Unlike with Xbox Live Arcade, trial versions are all time limited (you can only play a few minutes) and the games do not have achievements. Some noteworthy titles include Audiball (can be played with a Rock Band or Guitar Hero guitar), In The Pit (audio only game) and Easy Golf Course Architect (includes course editor and level sharing)
- A handful of games have in-game avatar support. So far, they include the newest Xbox Live Arcade game A Kingdom for Keflings and updated games Bomberman, Hardwood Hearts, Hardwood Spades and Uno
- There are free Netflix and Photo Party channels for Gold members only.
- Need for Speed: Undercover Collector's Edition Upgrade ($10) which adds five cars, 12 track configurations and other extras
- Guitar Hero: World Tour The Raconteurs Track Pack ($5.50 or $2 each) with "Consoler of the Lonely," "Hold Up" and "Salute Your Solution"
- Rock Band/Rock Band 2 Mission of Burma Pack ($5.50 or $2 each) with "Mica," "That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate" and "That’s When I Reach for my Revolver"; the Dead Kennedys Pack ($5.50 or $2 each) with "California Über Alles," "Holiday in Cambodia" and "Police Truck"; and Century Media Girls of Metal Pack 01 ($5.50 or $1-$2 each) "Gone" by Crooked X, "Closer" and "Swamped" by Lacuna Coil and "Forever" by In This Moment
- Lips tracks ($2 each) "The Sign" by Ace of Base, "Chasing Pavements" by Adele, "Violet Hill" by Coldplay, "No Substitute Love" by Estelle and "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)" by Jason Mraz
- Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore 2 tracks ($1.50 each) "(I Just) Died In Your Arms" by Cutting Crew, "September" by Earth, Wind and Fire, "It’s Not Unusual" by Tom Jones and "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden
- Xbox Live Arcade: A Kingdom for Keflings ($10)
- Xbox Original: Zapper ($15)
- Community Games: Alien Ambush ($2.50), Artoon ($5), Audiball ($2.50), Bad Atom Episode 1 ($2.50), Beat It! ($2.50), Being ($2.50), Biology Battle ($10), Bloc ($2.50), Blow ($5), Brain Party ($5), Colosseum ($10), Crystal Crush ($5), Cubage ($2.50), Dokee and the Musical Rain ($5), Drift ($5), DUOtrix ($5), Easy Golf Course Architect ($10), Endless Swarm ($5), Exisled ($5), Fatal Abyss ($5), Fruit Attack ($5), Funky Punch XL ($5), Fuel Depot 360 ($2.50), Galax-e-mail ($2.50), Garrett the Slug ($2.50), In the Pit ($5), Lines ($2.50), Loot, Steal 'n Destroy ($5), No Frills Sudoku ($2.50), Organon ($2.50), Pain-Ball ($2.50), Planet Delta ($5), Poker Ball ($2.50), Rift ($2.50), Satellites ($2.50), sin(Surfing) ($2.50), Smashell ($5), Snake360 ($5), SpaceCombat ($2.50), Tail Gun Charlie ($5), Totem ($5), UAV Wars ($2.50), Weapon of Choice ($5) and Word Soup ($5)
- Game Videos: Golden Axe: Beast Rider, Lips, Mirror's Edge, Need for Speed: Undercover, Sonic Unleashed, Super Street Fighter II HD Remix and Tomb Raider: Underworld
- Themes: Call of Duty: World at War, Castle Crashers, Fable II, Forza Motorsport 2, Gears of War 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, Halo 3, Halo Wars, The Last Remnant, Rock Band 2, Sonic Unleashed, Tomb Raider: Underworld and Viva Pinata ($3.13 each) and Star Trek (free)
- Pictures: Star Trek (free)
- Movie Trailer: Star Trek (free)
