Buying a used Xbox 360 with XBLA games already on the hard drive question

[Red]

I got a chance to get a great deal on a used Xbox 360 that already has games bought from the XBLA store installed on the hard drive.

My question is- Do I have to delete them and format the hard drive to use my own Xbox Live account to buy more games from the XBLA store?

I don't currently have a Xbox Live account, but am going to be getting one just to purchase the downloadable games.

I don't have a clue on how all this downloadable stuff works on Xbox Live as it's been a good 4 years since I was online with my original Xbox.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

[DJ_Izumi]

XBLA games come with two lisences, one is to the machine and a second is to the gamertag (Xbox Live account).  So any game bought on that machine is infact bound to that machine and that MACHINE, reguardless of the accounts on it has access to those games.  You can also use your Gamertag when logged into live to access your games on other Xbox's.  So you could go to a friends house, log into your live account on their Xbox and download any game you bought and play it there so long as you remained logged into your Live account/Gamertag

But this is the bit I'd be worried about.  There's ALSO a service to transfer lisences from one machine to another, this is in the case of unit failure or replacement but this can only be done on a machine once per  year to prevent abuse.  He could possibly sell you the 360 and then move all the XBLA games onto another Xbox of his after you bought it.

But I'm pretty sure you should have full access to all the XBLA games bought on that machine even if you format it and put on your own accounts.

Hmm, I'll test that right now.  Delete some games from my HDD, switch to an alt account and see if I can redownload them for free.

[DJ_Izumi]

Okay, problem.  The other accounts can play any game on the HDD but if they get deleted from storage only the purchasing account can redownload them for free.  For peace of mind, I'd suggest you ask that his Xbox Live account that bought the games be included in the deal.

However I have tested it with backing up the data, as of the 6th the Xbox 360 supports USB drives up to 16GB and you can backup XBLA games onto them.

I copied logged out of my main account and into an alt that never bought any games, I copied Ikaruga from the HDD and to a USB stick.  Then I removed the stick and deleted Ikaruga from teh HDD.  Right now my alt account could NOT redownload the game for free, only the account that bought it.  BUT once I put the USB drive into the 360 I could copy the game back to the HDD.  So you could use USB drives to backup the XBLA titles.  However should you not have access to the XBLA account that bought them AND lose all backups... You're screwed.

[Red]

Great.  Thanks for all the info. DJ.   

Red

[SNAAKE]

buying used xbox360 is like buying used underwear...

[DJ_Izumi]

buying used xbox360 is like buying used underwear...

Well, not if he never registered the serial number and you're free to register it. ;p

[hypernova]

Very thorough, DJ!  I commend thee on a job well done.