It seems pretty clear that the Xbox 360 Photo Party app was a bit of an afterthought. Instead of being an integrated chat channel feature, it's tacked on as a "free" download (for Gold members at least) that almost no one can find to use if they wanted to. I'm writing this up for my dad so we can share some photos of his grandson with him, but I thought others might benefit from my notes. So here's how to download and launch Photo Party: If your Live ID (used for stuff like Hotmail and Live Messenger) is linked to your Xbox 360 gamertag, you can add Photo Party to your download queue from the Web. From your console, go to Games Marketplace, All Games, Browse, letter "P" and then scroll down to Photo Party. Wait about 10-20 seconds for the download button and cross-marketed download suggestions to pop up and you're ready to install it.
Right after you download it, you can launch it right there - and if you want to launch it again, you could always navigate back to its Marketplace listing and select Play Now after it loads. But there's an easier (albeit much more hidden) way to access it. It won't appear with your other downloads such as Xbox Live Arcade games so don't bother looking there. Instead, press the Guide button on your controller (that giant X in the middle) and then select Quick Launch. Move right two times to access the "All" tab. Press up to quickly jump to the bottom of your list and select Xbox Live Photo Party. There, you're in!
The app itself is decent, though it could really do with an option to preload your photos so that you could download and store a photo sharing session to your hard drive in advance rather than having to select everything in real time...
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