If you’re a regular Xbox Live downloader and you’ve bought a new Xbox 360 for pretty much any reason, including the Red Rings Of Death (RROD) then you’ll undoubtedly have first hand experience of the troubles associated with transferring your downloaded content. RockGamer has a report on recent changes to the DLC transfer system that attempt to remedy the problem.

The only way that you would have previously been able to access your downloaded content was through your Xbox Live account and if you weren’t signed in for any reason then you couldn’t access that content. That’s a glaring oversight, especially in a console that has, in all honesty, been plagued with problems that require sending it back (I’ve already had one replacement because of RROD, and I believe the laser on this one has gone now, so it will be going back again).

You have two choices of just how to enable easier transferring.

You can send your new console to Microsoft, who will in turn do most of the hard work for you. All you’re left to do is log into Live as a one off, navigate to the marketplace, click Account Manager and download your content again.

Alternatively, connect your new Xbox 360 to an Internet enabled PC. Visit www.xbox.com/drm, sign in with your Live Passport ID, follow the provided instructions, and then eventually sign into Xbox Live on your console. Click confirm to transfer your downloaded content to your new system.

Neither are exactly ideal and do include a little faffing around to get the job done but it’s an improvement and improvements are good.