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.