For some time now the Xbox 360′s reliability has been a real issue, despite whatever flannel Microsoft might throw your way. But getting your system repaired when it flips you the three red rings is just the start of your worries if you like your Live Arcade games and want to play them offline because, thanks to Microsoft’s Digital Rights Management system, each download you make is tied to not only your gamertag but also your console. Get a new system and you’re forced to be online every time you want to access downloaded content.
But not anymore.
Listening to the wailing and gnashing of teeth, this week Microsoft released their new online DRM Tool which allows you to re-assign all your downloads to a new machine. We’ve tried it and confirm that it works great, but there is a downside.
Games can only be reassigned to a new system once every 12 months. While it’s unlikely that you’ll need to reassign games on a more regular basis than that, if you’re having a particularly bad run of luck it’s possible that this could cause problems. Thankfully hardware revisions mean that the days of people going through three or four systems in as many months are starting to become increasingly rare.
You can find the DRM Tool here and if you need any help in figuring out what to do Microsoft’s Major Nelson has a handy video tutorial here.
