Xbox Live Arcade lineup revealed @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on October 14, 2005

News: The Xbox 360's secret weapon loads up.

Microsoft has been touting the Xbox Live Arcade download service for some time now and some new details are coming to light. As we've known all along, the Xbox Live Arcade will be available in the Xbox Marketplace and for a small fee gamers will be able to download any of the available games to their Xbox 360 hard drive.

Before the Digital Life show in New York, one of the Xbox's head honchos, Peter Moore, revealed the full "launch window" lineup. Twenty-one titles will be available between November 22 and the end of the year and they are:

Astropop - Popcap Games

Bankshot Billiards 2 - pixelStorm, Inc

Bejeweled 2 - Popcap Games

Crystal Quest - Stainless Games

Feeding Frenzy - Popcap Games

Gauntlet - Midway Home Entertainment

Geometry Wars 2 - Bizarre Creations

Hardwood Backgammon - Silver Creek Entertainment

Hardwood Hearts - Silver Creek Entertainment

Hardwood Spades - Silver Creek Entertainment

Hexic HD - Microsoft Game Studios

HoopWorld - Streamline Studios

Jewel Quest - iWin.com

Joust - Midway Home Entertainment

Marble Blast Ultra - GarageGames

Mutant Storm Reloaded - PomPom Games

Outpost Kaloki - Wahoo Studios

Robotron 2084 - Midway Home Entertainment

Smash TV - Midway Home Entertainment

Wik: Fable of Souls - Reflexive Entertainment

Zuma - Popcap Games

Among that list are retro classics, Java game favorites and some pretty wild "new retro" stuff like Mutant Storm and Marble Blast that emulate the older style of games from the 8 and 16-bit days but are completely fresh titles.

You'll also notice Hexix HD. The HD stands for Hard Drive as every Xbox 360 system will come with a copy of Hexix HD preloaded on the hard drive. Hexic HD is also notable as it's the first game designed by Tetris creator (and all around game god) Alexey Pajitnov and is his first original game in over ten years.

ФThe next generation of Xbox Live Arcade for Xbox 360 will enhance the gaming experience for casual and competitive gamers alike, across the globe, providing something for everyone with world-class games and captivating content,Ф said Peter Moore, corporate vice president of worldwide marketing and publishing for Xbox at Microsoft.

Microsoft has also revealed that 48 developers have pledged their support to the Xbox Live Arcade. They are:

Atari

Bizarre Creations

Capcom

Codemasters

CTXM

Digital Eclipse

Electronic Arts

Empire Interactive

Gaia Studios

GameHouse Studios

Garage Games

Gastronaut Studios

Hamster

Harmonix

HipSoft

Hudson Soft

iWin

Konami

Llamasoft

Load, Inc

Mad Doc Software

Majesco

Microsoft Game Studios

Midway Home Entertainment

Mumbo Jumbo (United Developers)

Naked Sky Entertainment

Namco

Oberon Media

Pick Up And Play

pixelStorm, Inc

PlayFirst

PomPom Games

Popcap Games

Q Entertainment

RealNetworks, Inc

Reflexive Entertainment

Secret Lair Studios

SEGA

Silver Creek Entertainment

SNK Playmore

Stainless Games

Streamline Studios

Tik Games

Ubisoft

uWink

Vivendi Universal Games

Wahoo Studios

Wanako Games

Wild Tangent

Finally, Microsoft has said they hope to have 35 games available on the Xbox Live Arcade by Summer 2006. If you're scoring at home that means only 14 games will be released between the "launch window" and next Summer.

Depending on how you count games, the Xbox Live Arcade has just made the Xbox 360's launch lineup quite a bit larger. As a fan of what's now being called "casual" games, I can only see this as a good thing. Who knows, maybe someday "real" Xbox 360 games with the High Definition and the polygons and the cut scenes will be offered for download.