The Xbox Games Store also formerly featured a Video Marketplace alongside the other services that allowed for the distribution of movies and TV shows in both standard and high definition.

[10] Content partners that were signed up to the service at launch included Paramount Pictures, CBS, TBS, MTV Networks, UFC, NBC, and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

Also, starting on July 26, 2007, the pilot episode of Jericho was available for download free of charge for both the standard and high definition versions.

License transfers could not be performed in the case of a voluntary upgrade (e.g., if the user purchased a newer Xbox 360 replace their old console).

As of June 2008, Microsoft has released an online tool that allows users to transfer licenses from the console where they were originally purchased to another.

Licenses remain bound to the Gamertag regardless, so users who store their profiles on portable memory units can continue to use purchased content on any console when signed into the service.

[citation needed] Price consistency and whether some content should be available free of charge has also been a source of criticism related to the Xbox Live Marketplace.

A notable incident was Microsoft charging for a Gears of War map pack that developer Epic desired to provide at no cost (although it was made free four months later in September 2007).

[19][20] In June 2013, Microsoft announced the discontinuation of points in favor of credit using local currencies, which took effect in an Xbox 360 software update released on August 26, 2013.

By the time he was caught by federal agents, he had obtained over $10 million in value of Xbox gift cards and sold these at about half their value for Bitcoin, from which he purchased an expensive house and car.

Microsoft had discovered the large use of these gift cards and eventually traced it to an internal source, leading them and federal agents to Kvashuk, who was convicted and found guilty on 18 felonies in 2020.