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Publishers Embrace Xbox Live Arcade
With many of the high profile 'launch window' titles still coming, the Xbox Live Arcade is one of the most entertaining elements to the Xbox 360. Joystiq posts about a recent Major Nelson podcast in which he interviews the general manager of the Xbox Live Arcade. Big-name publishers are jumping on board, and they plan numerous additions to the service in the coming months. From the post: "Just one important caveat: the Xbox Live Arcade party lasts only so long as Microsoft plays the gatekeeper role well. If the company softens its standards and starts to include mediocre titles for download, gamer trust and interest in the service will decline rapidly. So far, they're on the right path. Geometry Wars--that little $5.00 Xbox Live Arcade title that has surprised and delighted the majority of those who have given it a shot--still reigns as the top Xbox 360 title in our book."
Street Fighter II is making an appearance, with some interesting new features very similar to what DOA Ultimate saw. It's a nice new take on a classic fighter. http://www.joystiq.com/2006/01/06/street-fighter-i i-goin-all-out-on-360s-live-arcade/
Sounds like the arguments my friends and I used to have in college about who would do the homework and let us all copy it.
But to get serious... as my roommates and I are looking to get an Xbox 360 for our living room HDTV... hearing someone say that a $5 downloadable title (even if it is sort of his baby) is the best 360 game so far is a bit discouraging.
Bury me in mashed potatoes.
There have been multiple stories lately about the rise of casual gaming. Even at $5 for geometry wars (which is the most expensive one I believe??), you can buy 12 for the price of one major "published" game.
Even being able to download a bunch of demos was really a great idea.
Microsoft is trying to take over the gaming market through online. Not just marketplace, but also the amazing online support within major games and the ability to send/recieve text and voice messages.
$5 a game is nice but there's a $400 entrance fee. When you can pay less than $100 for a system and $5 per download, then you'll see the casual gamers come out of the woodwork for console gaming.
Not only does it provide more online gaming opportunities, which continues to rise in popularity, but it may well revive a lot of older games. There are a lot of "gone but not forgotten" titles that I'd love to see make a comeback, particularly with some live competition. If the prices remain this low I expect to spend a lot of time on the 360. Umm A lot MORE time :)
Bankshot Billiards 2 is the most expensive Arcade game on Xbox Live and comes in at an even $12.00 US.
Microsoft uses an intermediary point system to hide the cost of stuff (supposedly to allow for microtransactions). 100 points is equal to $1.25. Geometry Wars is 400 points, so $5. There are several other games that are also 400 points, including most of the classic arcade games (Gauntlet, Robotron, etc). A lot of the other games, however, are 800 points.
So you're saying that unless you spend 30 million dollars on a game, it's crap? Well, that may be true if all you're going for is eyecandy, but you don't need stupendous graphics for really fun and addictive gameplay.
Seriously, considering the "quality" of the big name games out there, I'd encourage the "independants" all I could. Some of the best games I've ever played were made by tiny independant game makers. (Popcap games, Star Control 2 and The Horde by "Toys for Bob", Starscape by Moonpod). All I see when I look at the big game makers are stupid sports games, eyecandy rich Wolfenstein 3d clones, and more and more complex Civilization and Dune 2 clones.
I'd love to see more of the old style games that are actually fun to play come out for Arcade. For instance, I miss those great top down shooters like "Slapfight" or the really fun puzzle games like Rockford. There are limitless possibilities for revamping old titles that were actually fun, and creating new titles that don't take 300 graphic artists and 3 years to make. And I believe thats's where the XBox will win, not lose the console war.
Popcap games have consistently stolen their games from older games by other companies (often "bigger" companies) - they're currently being sued by Mitchell for copywrite infringement over one of their games. That said - most "casual game" companies seem to steal as much of their game as possible from older games. It's bad enough when it's open source, but it's pitiful when you expect to be paid.