Hi guys,

with the NXE came the new Premium-Themes (for 250 Points each) and I think it's time to start a thread where we can see preview pictures of all of them, since each comes with it's own "Friends" section.

These are most of the available Premium Themes as of today (feel free to add pictures of new and/or missing ones):

Call of Duty World at War NXE Premium Theme: 250 MS Points and available everywhere.
Castle Crashers Theme Pack for TP Version 2: 250 MS Points and available everywhere.
Fable II General Theme: 250 MS Points and available everywhere.
Forza 2 NXE Theme 1: 250 MS Points and available everywhere.
Gears of War 2 Crash Theme: 250 MS Points and available everywhere.
Gears of War 2 Destroyed Beauty Theme: 250 MS Points and available everywhere.
Gears of War 2 Last Days Theme: 250 MS Points and available everywhere.
Gears of War 2 Sera Theme: 250 MS Points and available everywhere.
Guitar Hero World Tour NXE Premium Theme: 250 MS Points and available everywhere.
Halo 3 Theme Nov 2008: 250 MS Points and available everywhere.
Halo Wars You’re in Command Theme: 250 MS Points and available everywhere.
Last Remnant Theme: 250 MS Points and available everywhere.
Need for Speed Undercover - Maggie Q Theme: 250 MS Points and available everywhere.
NINJA BLADE Premium Theme: 250 MS Points and available everywhere.
Rock Band 2 Premium Theme: 250 MS Points and available everywhere.
Shaun White Snowboarding Freedom Theme: 250 MS Points and available everywhere.
Skate 2 New San Van Theme: 250 MS Points and available everywhere.
Sonic Unleashed Theme: 250 MS Points and available everywhere.
Tomb Raider: Underworld - Theme 2.0: 250 MS Points and available everywhere.
Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise Theme: 250 MS Points and available everywhere.

(Pics taken from NeoGAF forum, just blurred the gamertags and resized them)




Castle Crashers



Call of Duty



Fable 2



Forza Motorsport 2



Gears of War 2 - Clash



Gears of War 2 - Destroyed Beauty



Gears of War 2 - Last Days



Guitar Hero



Halo3



Halo Wars



Last Remnant



Tomb Raider



Viva Pinata - Trouble in Paradise

Both Halo themes and both GOW themes look awesome, its definatley tempting

I'm very tempted by a number of those, themes seem more appealing now that they are no longer just a collection of wallpapers.

I really like that Last Remnant one

GOW2 CLASH! Must own.

The 'Destroyed Beauty' theme looks incredible. I'm very tempted.

Damn I never geva a rats ass for themes or gamerpics but this one is very tempting. I like them all tbh... ^^

They look very pretty but I'll be damned if I ever pay for one.

They should be free ffs. Same with gamerpics.

Thanks for posting these... I've seen them over at NeoGaf. How dense of MS to think people would pay 250 MS points, and not give us previews of them... just to buy them blindly... stupid. Thanks for the work posting them here. I like the Forza one a lot... not sure If I'll purchase any this round... Forza tempting... but I'd rather put MS points to RockBand DLC, or Pinball FX tables... 250 is a little steep... and I have Avatars to feed and clothe.

They all look nice especially the gow ones.One more thing does anybody know which samsung display is used in the screenshots the model no. maybe.Thanks!

Tempting as it's better then a regular wallpaper.. But I still have a hard time paying extra for backgrounds, wallpapers, or themes whatever.. I still feel that if you own a certain game you should get it's theme or whatever for free with it.. If MS really cared about the fans it would create such a (reward)system, but offcourse they only want to make as much money as possible of us, so they come up with another 'premium' extra, and let you pay 3 euro extra for a theme of a game you most likely already paid 60 euro for (why else buy it's theme?)..

And 3 euro doesn't sound much, but it's all gonna add up.. In total you're gonna spend a little fortune on this hobby.. I paid 400 euro for my Xbox 360, +/- 150 euro's for accessoires like a extra controler, play&charge kits, VGA cable etc, 180 euro for 3 years of XBL, over 600 euro for the 10 Xbox 360 games I bought, and about 100 euro on arcade games, DLC and other BS.. In total that's well over a 1000 euro's.. I think I've spend the same ammount of money on my PC upgrades and PC games in the last 3 years.. Whoever said consolegaming was so much cheaper?? Not if you're hardcore about it anyway..

your right.

but another thing, even if they were all free, it would loose its novelty and exclusivity as everyone would just download all of them and then you would get people cheeky enough to complain their hard drives arnt big enough to put all their free themes on. if its not one thing its another, people will always complain. at least it keeps companies on their toes though.

I agree with Inflatable. At the very least they should let us download the themes of which games we own.

@Simon: You bring the whole 'if you don't want it don't buy it' argument to the table but here's the thing.. What if I do want a theme.

Want against price you say..

If a chocolate bar is too expensive I won't buy it. If it's at reasonable price I'll be munching away.
Sure, Themes might not tear a whole in your wallet but it's all about the principle.

I can't think of one good reason as to why MS are charging for themes.

Although this post suggests otherwise, at the end of the day I'm not going to loose any sleep because I can't have that cool Fable 2 theme.
What does bother me is that MS are charging for this sort of thing, and out there people are bending over and accepting the cost.

Jioann00 your post makes no sense. Your saying it should not be free because people will complain about something else? Do you honestly believe that it's ok to pay for fancy desktop wallpaper?

And as for the NXE being free.. I'm pretty sure Gold Member subscriptions paid for that.
Oh look, I'm a gold member. I guess I did pay for that.
But unlike themes, I think the that was worth the money.

Sorry for the topic derailing. I guess you hit a nerve :)

well let me explain using films as a comparison.
imo its ok for a film company to release a movie and then charge people for posters of the movie to put on their bedroom walls. (like microsoft charge people for themes of the games they like.

wheras imo its wrong to release a movie, and then charge the audiance again 2 months later for something that should have been in the movie in the first place. ( like microsoft charging for fable 2 download content)

do i make sense now?

Good replies and see where you're both coming from. Simon, you're definitely right about how each person has they're own threshold on things. And the way you rationalise your purchases, it's exactly how I do it.

You reminded me of when the 360 first launched, and I bought the Penny Arcade picture pack and I've stuck with the same avatar until recently so in my head that purchase was validated. Plus I am a fan of PA so I didn't mind it so much.

So whilst I may never fork out for themes and virtual clothes, I can see why some people do.

Still, I wish MS would have the good grace to give us these sort of things for free. But I suppose that's a bit like telling a wild tiger to turn vegie.

But they are? there are free themes out there and a new clothes pack coming that is going to be free, or do you mean everything for free?

Yes I mean everything should be free.

Themes, clothes and gamerpics.

Yep not gonna happen Business is Business.

compare it to wii.
nintendo are STILL selling wiis in huge numbers, therefore dispite the old technology and cheap production (how easy it is to make a fucking themes and gamerpics) they wont lower the price, from a companies point of view it would be pointless as it would be lowering there profits when they are still selling them anyway. giving gamer pics and themes for free when people are still spending money on them? not good for business.

its just business. best thing to do is not buy them, it wont effect your games anyway, which is why you buy a console in the first place. although all that is starting to change what with now releasing short games and then charging for more quests 2 months later... that is plain exploitation, not just a way to make money.

Yes, don't we all know that. :(

That's easy, because MS fully controls the service and platform the content is offered on.. They know people only have the choice to pay up or get nothing.. A very lousy choice of you ask me, especially for extra content of games you already spend 60 bucks on..

Some people here talk about freedom of choice, but I don't call that much freedom of choice when only 1 offering party controls everything.. Compare it to socalled premium wallpapers and ringtones on mobile phones, plenty of people (stupidly enough) that pay for those things, while at the same time you can also get content for free (just download any free picture or soundfile from the internet, copy it to your phone, and you're done).. Or with the PC where 3rd party and the community itself creates lots of extra content for free for a lot of games.. That important (for me at least) choice and competition is nonexistent on the consoles.. MS can bassicly ask whatever they want to a point where even the biggest "fans" won't pay anymore..

Piracy really is not the only reason why more & more developers and publishers prefer the consoles over the PC.. The ability to charge for extra content surely is one of them.. It's also why I predict that it will be some time before we really see free 3rd party and community content on the consoles, especially the Xbox, if ever.. Sony offers the most free content, but they'll probably move more towards MS's buisinessmodel then increase the free stuff.. Like others here already said, it's a buisiness afterall..