By Ben Kuchera
June 27, 2008 - 09:44AM CT

There are a few different reasons you might not be playing on the same Xbox 360 system that you originally bought. You might have upgraded to an Elite system for the bigger hard drive and black HDMI. More likely, your original system died and you were forced to have it replaced.

Gamers who received new systems were in for an unpleasant surprise when they redownloaded their Arcade games or hooked up their old hard drive: the games they paid for would only work when connected to the Internet. No network connection, and they all reverted to demo versions. Microsoft has just released a tool that allows you to move those licenses over to a new console, but the question remains: what took so long?

The online tool is dead simple to use, and there is a video to walk you through it if you need help. Simply sign into the page with the Windows Live ID that's attached to your Xbox Live Account, click on "start the license transfer now" button, look at the number of licenses you have if you'd like, and then click next. Sign into Xbox Live on the console you'd like to move your licenses to, and click confirm on your PC.

Then go to download history in the account management tab on your 360, and re-download the licenses. Now even when offline, the full versions of the games will play. You can only use the tool once every 12 months, so you can't change your licenses over to a friend's system for a weekend and then move them back.