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Publishers Embrace Xbox Live Arcade

Posted by Zonk on from the best-part-of-the-system-so-far dept.

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."

4 of 27 comments (clear)

  1. It's nice to see some classics coming back by casualsax3 · · Score: 2, Informative

    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/

  2. Re:Geometry Wars? by wedgewu · · Score: 3, Informative
    I'd say that Geometry Wars IS one of the best games on the Xbox360 right now. The thing you're misunderstanding is that this doesn't mean that the other games are any worse than you would expect, but rather that Geometry Wars is just phenomenal.

    That is, of course, if you play games for FUN, rather than just pretty shiny graphics...

  3. Re:Casual gaming by generic-man · · Score: 2, Informative

    Geometry Wars is one of the cheaper downloadable games, actually. Zuma is 800 points or $10 US. Many of the other PopCap games sell for about as much for the Xbox 360 as they do for the PC.

    (Take a page out of the Dave & Busters / Jillian's book, you can't buy EXACTLY enough points to buy just one game. To buy Geometry Wars for $5, I had to shell out for at $6.25 or $12.50 worth of points. That's not much more money, but for Microsoft it adds up quickly.)

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  4. Re:Geometry Wars? by tgd · · Score: 2, Informative

    Eh, there are good games for the 360, but I've played enough Geometry Wars, Hexic and Zuma to more than justify $400 just for the time I've spent on them alone.

    Add a couple Saturdays blown on Kameo, and its really a no brainer to me. These are good games. If you're a poor college student who games 50 hours a week, you'll run out of good stuff to play, but there are a LOT of people who play games who only pay an hour or two a day.