Reactivating games from an old HDD

[Pedle Zelnip]

I'm sure this is a common problem, but I didn't see a thread with an answer to it. I recently had to turn my 360 in for repairs, but kept my old hard drive with all the purchased XBLA games on it. As it turns out the store replaced the 360, so now of course all my purchased XBLA games only work when I'm signed in to XBL. Is there any way I can re-enable offline play in the games I've previously purchased (short of repurchasing each of them)?

Thanks.....

[Rossko_UK]

The only way to play them offline again is to either track down your original 360, or re-buy the games. If you ring up support and explain the situation, they often give you all the points you need to do this. Then you simply create a new account and download the games using your new profile, with the points MS have given you (of course you need to create the account first for MS to transfer the points to that).

I have heard situations where support has had to be called on more than one occassion to get them to send you the points, but that is the route you should take.

[Curry]

Originally Posted by Rossko_UK

The only way to play them offline again is to either track down your original 360, or re-buy the games. If you ring up support and explain the situation, they often give you all the points you need to do this.

You sure?!? Because it's been pissing my GF off like mad that she can't play any XBLA titles on her own account anymore. I'd never have expected them to be this kind.

[Pedle Zelnip]

I can't figure out why they tie the games to the console and not to the hard drive. The whole point is to prevent people from copying their game to their buddies machine, so if the download is signed to the serial # of the HDD it still prevents people from copying. The console is much more likely to fail than the HDD is. I guess they don't want people taking their HDD over to their buddies place to play, but c'mon that's a bit cheap. That would be like preventing someone from taking their retail discs to their buddies Xbox to play on.

[Curry]

I highly doubt they ever anticipated getting this many 360's returned when they designed the system

[Sc0tty2h0tty17]

cant u just redownload anything u already have for free? i thought that if somethin was deleted but u paid for it that it appears as "download again"

[TRIGGER M4N]

Yeah, but if you are not signed in, they become trials.

[Curry]

Originally Posted by Sc0tty2h0tty17

cant u just redownload anything u already have for free? i thought that if somethin was deleted but u paid for it that it appears as "download again"

That's the account-bound part. The account has paid for it, thus you have eternal rights. As a courtesy the purchase is also bound to the 360 you bought it on, allowing other accounts on the same machine to use it as well. If the 360 is replaced though, that advantage is lost.

[Rossko_UK]

Yep, they do give you your points back for another account. But I have heard from several people that it does sometimes take a few months and to keep hassling the guys/girls at support, but eventually they give them to you.