Official Xbox Live Arcade Thread

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Have MS said anything about how these games will play online? Will a lot of them have online multiplayer/voice comms or will they just be single player? It's just that I'd love stuff like Poker and Billiards to be online multiplayer but I can't find any confirmation of it (yet)
 
beermonkey@tehbias said:
If they simply scale that Kaloki game down to a 640x360 letterbox, It's going to be unreadable on some old 19" fuzzy television. A game like that is going to have to have alternate hud/menu elements for a standard-def setup, or they've got problems.
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Look at how much space there is between all the UI elements. Obviously the UI wont be scaled down in lower resolutions.
 
Look at how much space there is between all the UI elements. Obviously the UI wont be scaled down in lower resolutions.
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Hello, read my post.

If they simply scale that Kaloki game down to a 640x360 letterbox

Many members have been predicting that all the games will be rendered to a 1280x720 framebuffer and then downconverted by the encoder chip to letterboxed 480i. I personally find this prediction somewhat suspect. Regardless, this technique will not allow the preservation of HUD element size and clarity as you describe.
 
I've speculated that myself (just look at the UI in Madden), but I hardly think that's the ONLY way the 360 will display lower resolutions. It's so painfully obvious looking at those screenshots that the UI will not be scaled at lower resolutions.
 
krypt0nian said:
Quick add -

NinjaBee's Outpost Kaloki X is being prepped for the 360 Arcade.



screen03.jpg


screen01.jpg


screen02.jpg






Just a head's up. :D
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That looks pretty hot. Anymore it seems that I'm getting excited for 360 just for XBLA.
 
Unfortunately, Alexey isn't working at MS now. Hopefully he'll still end up doing Arcade games.

Also, I took a dev kit home this weekend and played through a bunch of the first wave of Arcade games since I hadn't really had a chance to sit and play many games besides Hexic yet. Wow, there are some cool games in there. I fully expect to be able to spend $50 on Arcade games around launch and have as good a time as with any of the full launch titles. Even my wife (who only likes a couple console games) spent a few hours playing. I am now ready to buy at least half of them at launch.
 
Cool :D Would you be able to confirm something, please? Do a lot of these games (or any?) have online multiplayer? The thought of online Poker over XBL would be AWESOME! If the Poker game is just single player against AI opponents then I'd be really disppointed
 
123rl said:
Cool :D Would you be able to confirm something, please? Do a lot of these games (or any?) have online multiplayer? The thought of online Poker over XBL would be AWESOME! If the Poker game is just single player against AI opponents then I'd be really disppointed
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We want as many games as possible to have Live multiplayer. And I don't think we've announced a poker game.
 
Jesiatha said:
Publishers who will support Xbox Live Arcade:

SEGA
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Come on Sega lets forget about the megadrive ports and remember about the huge catalogue of quality model 2/3 arcade games you are sitting on waiting for live support to be added to them. Games like daytona 1/2, virtua fighter 2, Scud race, Sega rally 1/2 would go down a treat with gamers and sell like hot cakes over live arcade. Plus the file size of these games wouldn`t be huge either and would suit live arcade to a tee.
 
Trustus Jones said:
Come on Sega lets forget about the megadrive ports and remember about the huge catalogue of quality model 2/3 arcade games you are sitting on waiting for live support to be added to them. Games like daytona 1/2, virtua fighter 2, Scud race, Sega rally 1/2 would go down a treat with gamers and sell like hot cakes over live arcade. Plus the file size of these games wouldn`t be huge either and would suit live arcade to a tee.
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I'm so sad...all i really want from Sega is sega swirl and Chu Chu Rocket. Maybe Sonic R if that old rumor of certain Sega Saturn titles getting converted comes to pass.

...all online of course.
 
Give me top down shooters such as Ikrunga, Radiant Silvergun, Raiden, and other big shooters, then I'll be more happy than having a few classics on XBLA. :)
 
a poker game's never been announced but i remember seeing it in XBLA screenshots from around e3 i believe. pool was also shown.
 
Yusaku said:
Hexic is the only free game.
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Xbox Live Gold is the best online gaming experience with intelligent matchmaking, leagues, ladders, tournaments, and more. This kit provides a full-year subscription, headset, $20 game rebate, 200 Marketplace Points and Xarcade Game Billiards.
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I beg to differ. I don't take this avatar lightly. :D
 
Mr. Lemming said:
And Joust with the 3 month kit!
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I love you. <sniff>

Xbox Live Gold is the best online gaming experience with intelligent matchmaking, leagues, ladders, tournaments, and more. This kit includes 3-month subscription card, Xarcade Game Joust, $10 game rebate, 100 Marketplace Points, and headset.
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Joe said:
damn i want billiards but i dont need/want an entire kit. i hope its up for purchase on day 1.
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If its availale with the Kit, I'm sure you'll have no problem Day 1. :)

We need to do a Shoot the Shit night with only LIVE ARCADE games after launch.

GAF NIGHT OUT.
 
Spinning Plates said:
Any idea what it's like?

I'd love it if they ported 3D Ultra Cool Pool for XBL.
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There's a version of the game available in Arcade for Xbox, and it's in MSN Messenger. This is definitely the most polished version, but the gameplay should be about the same. It's a fun game, but it's been a long time since I've played any other billiards games to compare it with.
 
SEGA should consider releasing their Chihro games on this service... I'd definitely pay $15 each for online playable Quest of D, Sangokushi Taisen, Outrun 2SP and Sega Network Golf. And my mom would go nuts for online MJ-Net 3. Plus the ROMs would be pretty small (though likely over the 50MB limit). Still this makes almost too much sense... c'mon Jeth, put the word in! :)
 
Jesiatha, do you all have a Launch Day list yet? I know the Launch Window list rocks but I'm itching to know how many LIVE points I need for Day 1.
 
krypt0nian said:
Jesiatha, do you all have a Launch Day list yet? I know the Launch Window list rocks but I'm itching to know how many LIVE points I need for Day 1.
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Sorry, the best case is you'll get one a couple days before launch. Since we don't have a big lead time of pressing DVDs and shipping them to stores, we will be trying to get titles ready for launch until the last minute possible. Our goal is to have twelve games or so ready on launch day.
 
Jesiatha said:
We want as many games as possible to have Live multiplayer. And I don't think we've announced a poker game.
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Thanks. Me too :D

I thought a Poker game had been announced though. It's in this screenshot anyway:
12.jpg
 
123rl said:
Thanks. Me too :D

I thought a Poker game had been announced though. It's in this screenshot anyway:
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That screenshot was just to demo what the Arcade launcher looks like. Texas Hold 'Em is extremely popular now ('duh) so hopefully we will add it to the portfolio soon, but I said the same thing about Arcade V1.
 
Thanks. So that screen isn't 'real' then? :( That's certainly a shame. I was really looking forward to the idea of multiplayer Poker - 5-6 people playing Poker with the same features as Xbox Live (voice chat, friends list etc) would be awesome
 
Jesiatha said:
Sorry, the best case is you'll get one a couple days before launch. Since we don't have a big lead time of pressing DVDs and shipping them to stores, we will be trying to get titles ready for launch until the last minute possible. Our goal is to have twelve games or so ready on launch day.
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No reason to be sorry. You can only do what you can do, man. 12 games is all I need to know. I'm going to demo them all anyway.
 
123rl said:
Thanks. So that screen isn't 'real' then? :( That's certainly a shame. I was really looking forward to the idea of multiplayer Poker - 5-6 people playing Poker with the same features as Xbox Live (voice chat, friends list etc) would be awesome
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The screen was real, but the games weren't (at that time, Hexic was the only game that was very far along - and a launcher with one game would be boring!). Getting a Live enabled poker is certainly possible - a lot of people on the Arcade team would like to see it happen.
 
Excellent!

Jesiatha said:
The screen was real, but the games weren't (at that time, Hexic was the only game that was very far along - and a launcher with one game would be boring!). Getting a Live enabled poker is certainly possible - a lot of people on the Arcade team would like to see it happen.
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Cool! Do it! :D I think poker is the game I'd like to see more than anything else. Some other card games like Black Jack would be just as much fun.
 
I'm not seeing any 2D fighters like the original Street Fighter. I wonder if those type of games will be available or if its a technical/financial limit to live arcade.
 
Dopey - we have a "card and board game" category, so board games are on the way
Mr. Lemming - we have some rights for online PC games (see Catan Online), but I'm not sure how they relate to consoles
dorio - there is no technical limit, we just haven't announced any yet
 
Jesiatha said:
Dopey - we have a "card and board game" category, so board games are on the way
Mr. Lemming - we have some rights for online PC games (see Catan Online), but I'm not sure how they relate to consoles
dorio - there is no technical limit, we just haven't announced any yet
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In the Card & Board Games cat, are they all public domain or are some licensed ala Clue or Monopoly?
 
Jesiatha said:
dorio - there is no technical limit, we just haven't announced any yet
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Thanks for all the responses, Jesiatha. I have alot of friends who still consider Street Fighter the height of gaming excellence. It would be cool to put them in their place with Chun Li online style.
 
Forbes.com article on Outpost/Arcade/Etc.

OutFront
Sundance On The Xbox
Victoria Murphy Barret, 11.14.05





Small game developers have an unlikely ally in Microsoft.
Steve Taylor spent three years doing grunt work for videogame companies, designing levels within games and doing minor graphics work. He'd been having only modest success selling copies of his self-published PCgame, Outpost Kaloki, in which the player becomes a space station manager in a 3-D cartoon world. In 2004 Taylor tried shopping it around for play on a console like the Microsoft Xbox or Sony PlayStation 2, but no publisher wanted to risk a flop. The cost to make and market a $50 console title ranges from $5 million to $20 million or more. This is why seven of the top-ten-selling titles are sequels to earlier hits. "They loved the game but weren't willing to take the risk," says Taylor.

Then Microsoft's Gregory Canessa stepped in. Canessa, a group manager at the Xbox division, said he'd take the game, which would sell for around $10, and he suggested that Taylor spend less than $150,000 to produce it. "It sounds strange, but Microsoft was the answer to a dream," says Taylor.

Microsoft is prepping a massive launch in November for its new Xbox 360 console, which promises to blow away the old Xbox and Sony's PlayStation 2 with high-def graphics. There will be 15 to 20titles available on launch day, each of them costing over $5million to produce. But then there will be games like Outpost Kaloki, one of a dozen bargain titles on Xbox Live Arcade, an onscreen dashboard that appears when players fire up their consoles. Internet-connected Xbox owners can try Arcade games and download them for $5 to $10. Instead of gore and guns, the Arcade is filled with quirky fun:Marble Blast Ultra, Bankshot Billiards 2, Mutant Storm Reloaded and nods to the old-school Pong crowd with Joust and the Tetris-like Hexic HD.

Canessa says he can get just as much creativity from hungry, smart designers on low budgets and can reach infrequent players like dads, antiviolence moms and younger kids. "We want to create the Sundance festival for game developers," says Canessa, who came up with the idea for Arcade two years ago.

An earlier version of Arcade stumbled because it required installing software and paying $50 a year to subscribe to the online Xbox Live service. This time Arcade is inside every Xbox, costing you only the price of each game. You pay the annual $50 fee only if you want to go up against friends around the country.

Microsoft may sell 2 million boxes by January, says Pacific Crest Securities analyst Evan S. Wilson. And Canessa says he'll share more than half of each game's revenue with Arcade developers, a far better cut than they'd get from a publisher. Xbox Arcade is getting a dozen submissions for new titles weekly. The company has a database of more than 300 developers, including "indies."

Microsoft thinks making nice with developers will help it sell more Xboxes. Rival Sony has yet to announce anything like Arcade for its PlayStation 3, due out in 2006. Xbox Chief Robbie J. Bach has promised to take his division from losses to profits. "This is not going to be a loss leader,"says Canessa.
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Xbox Arcade is getting a dozen submissions for new titles weekly. - Loving this! :D
 
I played the demo of Hexic HD on the local Gamestop's 360 kiosk and was quite impressed. I can see really getting into that. Firing it up after work and playing a few rounds, something like that. I still don't exactly know what I'm doing, but...I'll get there. :)
 
SuperPac said:
I played the demo of Hexic HD on the local Gamestop's 360 kiosk and was quite impressed. I can see really getting into that. Firing it up after work and playing a few rounds, something like that. I still don't exactly know what I'm doing, but...I'll get there. :)
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I've been playing the PC demo to hone my skills for the Live achievements. :D
 
SuperPac - Glad you liked Hexic. What I think is really nic about it is that the core game mechanic is super simple and appeals to people who like Bejeweled, but there is a whole deep puzzle there for people who want something a bit complicated. A number of people around the Xbox team originally thought it was a silly little game to include, but then figured out the puzzle part and got hooked.

YellowAce - Most of the portfolio will be released worldwide. Most games will be fully translated (although emulated ones usually won't be). In some cases where a game is licensed to different companies in different regions, it may only be released to one market. Shooters with blood won't be released in Germany (per their ratings board's rules). So some games may not be available everywhere, but most of them should be.
 
Jesiatha said:
SuperPac - Glad you liked Hexic. What I think is really nic about it is that the core game mechanic is super simple and appeals to people who like Bejeweled, but there is a whole deep puzzle there for people who want something a bit complicated. A number of people around the Xbox team originally thought it was a silly little game to include, but then figured out the puzzle part and got hooked.

YellowAce - Most of the portfolio will be released worldwide. Most games will be fully translated (although emulated ones usually won't be). In some cases where a game is licensed to different companies in different regions, it may only be released to one market. Shooters with blood won't be released in Germany (per their ratings board's rules). So some games may not be available everywhere, but most of them should be.
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Hey Jesiatha, and chance that some of the upcoming card/board games are licences we're familiar with? Without saying what they are of course.
 
forbes.com said:
And Canessa says he'll share more than half of each game's revenue with Arcade developers, a far better cut than they'd get from a publisher.
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This is AMAZING. This is so awesome for the industry, man... so awesome.
 
rastex said:
This is AMAZING. This is so awesome for the industry, man... so awesome.
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I was actually surprised to see that as well. Plus with Microsoft sharing in XBL profits. They have their head on right. They are focused.
 
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