Official Xbox Live Arcade Thread

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got these pics from talkxbox.com

Marble Blast Ultra dropping on XBLA soon after launch

*hopes the screens show up*
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2D Worms on Live would be GODLY

I still have chills going down my spine remembering how excited I was for Worms World Party on Dreamcast..... only to find out how shitty the server for it was (and no communication in game to boot).
 
I would love to see some arcade games from the 80/90's brought to Xbox Live Arcade with upgraded graphics, some of them including:

Ikari Warriors
Forgotten Worlds
Midnight Reistance
Golden Axe
Shinobi
 
I swear....if they announce Puzzle Fighter for XBLA I'm going to fill up my Reeboks with a good dose of the white stuff!!!!!!!!!!
 
Hands-On: Marble Blast Ultra

Also, I've been playing GeoWars 2 all weekend long and that game is super addicting. I've hit about 330,000 points, but the top person on the leader board is over 2 million. I have a long way to go... :lol

I have access to most of the XBLA launch games and to my knowledge there isn't an embargo on coverage, so let me know if you have any questions.
 
Nice writeup DrDogg.
GameDaily said:
One thing that's very important to note about Marble Blast and all of the Xbox Live Arcade games is that these are 100% Xbox 360 titles. That means they support voice chat over Xbox Live, leader boards, HD 720p resolutions, 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound, and everything else you'd find standard on high budget Xbox 360 games. Of special note, all Xbox Live Arcade games will feature an achievements system (a standard feature in all X360 games). These achievements will boost your gamer score and can be viewed by your friends. The further you progress in a game, and as you meet specific goals, you'll earn achievement badges, and your gamer score will go up.
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Awesome, it shows the level of quality the Live Arcade team is putting into this product. Definitely going to be spending a lot of my cash on it on launch day, see you on Marble Blast Ultra!
 
DrDogg said:
Hands-On: Marble Blast Ultra

Also, I've been playing GeoWars 2 all weekend long and that game is super addicting. I've hit about 330,000 points, but the top person on the leader board is over 2 million. I have a long way to go... :lol

I have access to most of the XBLA launch games and to my knowledge there isn't an embargo on coverage, so let me know if you have any questions.
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Can you give us a list of what's available at launch?

Which games support multiplayer?

Top 3 you've played?

I am going to be sooo broke. ARCADE already owns me.
 
beermonkey@tehbias said:
Where is Ezra Dreisbach?
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Snowblind.

On topic, Mutant Storm Reloaded and Crystal Quest are the only titles selling me a 360 - which is both kinda disappointing and proof that Live Arcade is awesome, awesome, awesome.
 
krypt0nian said:
Can you give us a list of what's available at launch?

Which games support multiplayer?

Top 3 you've played?

I am going to be sooo broke. ARCADE already owns me.
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I don't have an exact list, but here's what I currently have the ability to download:

Action: ArcadeSessions (EN), Crystal Quest, GeoWars, Marble Blast, Mutant Storm, Wik: Fable of Souls

Card and Board: Backgammon, Hearts, Spades

Coin-Op Classics: Gauntlet, Joust, Robotron, Smash TV

Puzzle/Word: Bejeweled 2, Zuma

Social Sports: Billiards 2

Strategy/Sims: Outpost Kaloki X

I haven't downloaded them all so I'm not sure what supports multi. I know GeoWars doesn't, Smash TV and Gauntlet do and I would assume all the Card and Board games do as well, plus Billards. I have to do a write-up on them probably sometime this week so I'll have them all downloaded and played today or tomorrow.

Top 3 so far: GeoWars, GeoWars, GeoWars... this game owns me. I was a bit disappointed with Mutant Storm though. Especially after playing GeoWars. Smash TV got old quickly too.
 
DrDogg said:
I don't have an exact list, but here's what I currently have the ability to download:

Action: ArcadeSessions (EN), Crystal Quest, GeoWars, Marble Blast, Mutant Storm, Wik: Fable of Souls

Card and Board: Backgammon, Hearts, Spades

Coin-Op Classics: Gauntlet, Joust, Robotron, Smash TV

Puzzle/Word: Bejeweled 2, Zuma

Social Sports: Billiards 2

Strategy/Sims: Outpost Kaloki X

I haven't downloaded them all so I'm not sure what supports multi. I know GeoWars doesn't, Smash TV and Gauntlet do and I would assume all the Card and Board games do as well, plus Billards. I have to do a write-up on them probably sometime this week so I'll have them all downloaded and played today or tomorrow.

Top 3 so far: GeoWars, GeoWars, GeoWars... this game owns me. I was a bit disappointed with Mutant Storm though. Especially after playing GeoWars. Smash TV got old quickly too.
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Cool, thanks for that. :)
 
TekunoRobby said:
GeoWars is the sequel to Geometry Wars correct?

Does PGR3 have the full version, how are they handling that?
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I heard that PGR3 has a very limited version compared to the ARCADE build.

A Time Attack version of Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved is included as part of PGR3 on the Xbox 360, but this time around it's been super charged with high definition graphics, high-quality digital sound, new bad guys, new special effects, and a new scrolling play area. The full version of Retro Evolved is also available to download over Xbox Live Arcade, so you can play on your Xbox 360 any time!
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Joe said:
its in pgr3 but i believe its only a 3 minute time limit. the one on xbla is more fleshed out.
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It's 5 minutes, and the features of both games or the same. The PGR3 version is more about doing the biggest score in the time limit (the best you are, the more difficult it gets and the more point you make), while the XBLA version is more about marathon sessions in order to do the best score. That's what the Bizarre guys told me at least, it's not about giving a limited version with PGR3, but about two very different way to play the same game.
 
Thanks for the quick responses guys.

Xbox Live Arcade purchases Day 1:
Geometry Wars
Marble Blast Ultra
Robotron 2047

I can't wait to check out all the other games as I'm sure I'll be picking up at least two more to go with those three.
 
DrDogg said:
I don't have an exact list, but here's what I currently have the ability to download:

Action: ArcadeSessions (EN), Crystal Quest, GeoWars, Marble Blast, Mutant Storm, Wik: Fable of Souls

Card and Board: Backgammon, Hearts, Spades

Coin-Op Classics: Gauntlet, Joust, Robotron, Smash TV

Puzzle/Word: Bejeweled 2, Zuma

Social Sports: Billiards 2

Strategy/Sims: Outpost Kaloki X

I haven't downloaded them all so I'm not sure what supports multi. I know GeoWars doesn't, Smash TV and Gauntlet do and I would assume all the Card and Board games do as well, plus Billards. I have to do a write-up on them probably sometime this week so I'll have them all downloaded and played today or tomorrow.

Top 3 so far: GeoWars, GeoWars, GeoWars... this game owns me. I was a bit disappointed with Mutant Storm though. Especially after playing GeoWars. Smash TV got old quickly too.
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ArcadeSessions is just a test app, and the actual launch day portfolio is still uknown. In another week we'll see which games have passed certification and are available for download ;)

I'm surprised that you're disappointed with Mutant Storm....I love Geometry Wars, but would take Mutant Storm over it any day. And that's not even counting Mutant Storm's (same console) co-op mode.

As far as my favorites (I have played all of the games - many of them extensively):
-Mutant Storm
-Smash TV
-Joust
-Bankshot Billiards 2
-Geometry Wars
-Zuma
-Hexic HD (of course :))
 
I'm buying:

Mutant Storm
Geometry Wars
Robotron
Smash TV
Gauntlet

I'll get Billiards with my new Live kit, and I'll be downloading demos to try just about everything else.
 
Jesiatha said:
Bomberman in Arcade would be awesome - they both come up all the time when we do brainstorming.
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This thread got me thinking about an Arcade version again.

Have you brainsstormed with Hudson yet about and if so were they interested in making it happen?

It just seems such an obvious idea and it's frustrating not to see it fully realised.
 
Spinning Plates said:
This thread got me thinking about an Arcade version again.

Have you brainsstormed with Hudson yet about and if so were they interested in making it happen?

It just seems such an obvious idea and it's frustrating not to see it fully realised.
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I don't really have any involvement in the business side of things, I just do game development and support other developers making games. I would guess that our business team has talked to Hudson, but I don't know for sure one way or the other.
 
Hudson is listed as a Live Arcade developer (though I'm sure that doesn't guarantee a product). I can't imagine that Bomberman hasn't crossed their minds.
 
Well if you hear anything drop a subtle hint. :)

Oh and I see no Marble Blast Ultra on your favs list. Is it not as good as the other titles or just not your thing?
 
Marble Blast isn't really my thing (never liked Marble Madness much and wasn't a big Monkey Ball fan). I also think it is unlikely to make launch day (and instead will be in the "launch window").

All of our initial games will be available in all Live countries, and I think that everything will in the future unless there are publishing rights issues. As far as localization, most launch games are 100% localized. The only ones I can think of that aren't are the Midway games - there the out of game menus are localized, but the ROMs remain untranslated.
 
Silver Creek Entertainment, a leading classic games provider, announces its card and board game line up for Xbox Live Arcade for Xbox 360. Titles include Hardwood Hearts, Hardwood Spades, and Hardwood Hearts.

Each title will support single player play as well as full multiplayer play over the Microsoft's Xbox Live service.

"Xbox Live Arcade for Xbox 360 opens up great new options for players and independent developers." Says Jonas Stewart, lead designer for Silver Creek Entertainment. "As a new console games service, Xbox Live Arcade makes it easier for developers like Silver Creek to get fresh new titles to gamers that want them.

Xbox Live Arcade allows Silver Creek Entertainment to bring our premier games to a much wider audience. The world's most played games are now available on the world's most exciting gaming platform."

All three games will be available for download on Xbox Live Arcade at the launch of Xbox 360, slated for North American release on November 22, 2005. Each game will include a fully-playable trial version which Xbox 360 users can download and try out for free prior to purchase.
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Roar of the Indy
The indy game scene needs all the help it can get, and Garage Games' Jay Moore reckons it has just the tools

The company was founded by several ex -- Dynamix/Sierra folks -- known for such titles as Starsiege, Tribes and Stellar 7 -- who were sick of "pleasing the suits". Garage Games has been helping independent developers hone their skills, providing them tools and bringing their projects to market. Some higher profile recent successes have included getting Mutant Storm Reloaded and Marble Blast placed on Xbox Live Arcade.

"Analysts were deciding what was fun. The amount of pressure and stress to make these games was not fun any more," says Moore. "Our motto is 'projects we want to work on with people we want to work with' and that's what we're all about. It's the lifestyle decision we made to be indies. It wasn't about the money. We want to make sustainable livings, but we're not here trying to make hits. If one of those happens, it could change the chemistry of the market space but it's not what we're dependent on to be successful."

Building the Indy Scene
"We looked at the barriers to entry for having a vibrant indy space," says Moore. "We've seen music and movies, but it just wasn't happening for games. There were a couple of factors holding things back.

"First was technology. People needed inexpensive tools [to make games]. If every guitar cost a half million dollars, there wouldn't be many indy bands. So we knew we needed to democratize the technology by licensing the technology we built at Sierra for 20 years and got the Tribes engine out and eventually we got full ownership of it, which eventually became the Torque game engine."

With tool set in-hand, the fellows at Garage Games set about finding an audience and creating a community. The group now claims it has 45,000 developers working with the Torque engine on tons of projects. Some of these guys don't really have a game in them per say. Sometimes it's people messing around with the AI, or playing with the renderer or just having another toy to use in Linux.

"[Torque] is not open source, it's still licensed from us, but you get the source when you buy the license. It's what we call available source," explains Moore. "We did open source one small piece of it, which was our network code, just to see what people would do with it. It kind of went over their heads, but we did get a few projects back from it and a lot of people got exposed who will now have it come out in a variety of AAA titles. NC Soft has a major release in April for example that will use it."

The Importance of Education
"Slowly but surely we have 150 schools now teaching with Torque, whether it's for serious game for simulation or visualization or training or actually working on hard research. Some of the schools are teaching people how to make good games through game design programs. The important thing is, they're working in the tool chain like as if they were working in Photoshop. It wouldn't be the same if they were working in Renderware and they'd have to get permission from EA. We're the only [tools] you could actually go out and buy when you're learning."

So what does it cost for the license? Well, for most people, it's $100 for the whole shebang. With the 'indy license', if you make less than $250,000 a year, you can make as many games as you want, publish with anyone you want and with no royalties, for that $100. "You've got the source, good luck with that," says Moore.

Power in Numbers
"So we have this group of people that are coming together solving shared design problems. Being able to have this creative space where they can find their games and figure out how to scope their project, get it from point A to point B and how to keep it small enough that it could actually get done is an incredibly valuable resource," says Moore.

"We just had our fourth indy games convention in Eugene where we set up 50 machines, including some Xbox 360s for people to bring their stuff and show off their prototypes or betas. We have ballots and awards. In the past it's always been won by multiplayer games (because Torque still has the best net code around) but this year we had a single player game win because it was so well polished. It was an interesting transition where we saw a lot of innovative and interesting gameplay, some of it not even done with our technology.

"There was a game called Facade, which was interactive AI storytelling. You go into this couple's living room and they're in the middle of a fight and they're about to break up. You have to reconcile them. Interesting stuff."

Out in the Fringe
"So there's some really, "fringe" stuff [happening in the community], but it's interesting to play, it's fun but you're not going to see anybody risk big budgets on them, and yet, Microsoft was our largest sponsor," says Moore. Microsoft said that it was looking to sponsor some innovation and they knew it wasn't going to come from the mainstream guys. It's going to happen in places like this where they can get the Sundance effect."

So when will other publishers pick up on this opportunity? "They've been trying but the economies of scale just aren't functional for their business model. There are some smaller publishers like Playfirst and Oberon, and they're bringing some money to the table."

Being Non-evil
"One of our core principles is that the author of the content is the owner of the IP. As a publisher, we want to be a non-evil publisher, which we don't think exists out there today," says Moore. "We've seen all the contracts and we know what they're made of. Any contract we put into play we have to feel good as a developer signing, not just a publisher."

So then where does Garage Games fit? What exactly is its position in the value chain?

"We provide the technology and we provide business counseling when they get approached by larger publishers. And that's been getting more and more formalized over time as more competitors come in and are looking at the talent that we're building," Moore explains. "We're not trying to be proprietary. There's no first rights or first looks. They don't have to publish with us. We want to be the best opportunity, but we have about 50 teams that we're investing in, teaching them how to design their games, how to polish and how to finish. We've resisted trying to do full production on it, because at that point, it raises the question of 'whose IP is it?'"

So while it's largely the contribution of sweat equity, cash is occasionally laid out on some projects. "We do sometimes write some checks to get some art done or other bits. We'll facilitate but those hard costs will come back off the top when we get done. We're not going to take an equity position in their company and it's not like we're going to own their IP.

"This acquisition hungry industry continues to cannibalize itself. It eats its young, its creatives. There really isn't any soul left in a lot of the games out there. Whether they're sequels or Hollywood IP, there really isn't any creativity going into these games. This is partly because of the schedules that they have to get done on and the feature lists that they have to hit. Basically, we recognize that these are the forces of the market. These are the economic factors. We say that we want to change the game. Online distribution is one of the solutions."

If it's going to be nimble, the company has to be small to keep fixed costs low, so as to maintain it's non-evilness. Last year, the company was eight people. It has grown in the past twelve months to 28. "We're doubling very rapidly. Of the 45,000 people in our community, we're bringing some of the best of breed internal."

Being the Best Publishing Opportunity
"For the most part, we'd like to be the best publishing partner for the 50 or so projects we incubate. If they get another deal, we're willing to do the farm team work in order to get this vibrant community going.

"The success of these guys is what it's all about. If they can create good creative stuff, and we help them get discovered or picked up, we feel great that there's some vibrancy happening.

"In one case, had we not been here to help PomPom make it the next so many months, we wouldn't see Mutant Storm Reloaded showing up on Live Arcade. In another case, to launch a title with a console [with Marble Blast] took Microsoft getting what we're about. It's a real step forward for [indies] to be on the front edge, instead of trailing on the console space. There's a lot of those back stories happening and it helps create the necessary infrastructure in which you can have a vibrant industry.

"We're still growing from a billion dollar opportunity today because we're tapping into economic potential that isn't profitable enough to catch the eye of larger publishers."

Funding
Right now about 75% of Garage Games' revenue comes from the licensing revenue of development tools. In addition to the $100 license, if you're using it for commercial purposes, it's $500 per programmer seat if you're building a game and don't qualify for an indy license. An Xbox 360 license for a full game would be $25,000 while the tools are still in beta. When it's out of beta it will be $50,000 per title. Xbox Live Arcade use is $10,000.

"We're seeing a lot of revenues off of our tool chain, but we're not $1m a hit plus back-end royalties like a lot of our competitors," says Moore. "We just think we can take a much more democratized approach with pricing that makes sense to the value structure that's being offered."

Competition?
"We haven't had [competition] any yet. You can look at open source stuff, and it's like five or six years behind us. You can look at a few of the other small engines, but they're really just little renderers, not full animation systems. Our terrain right now on our next generation engine offers a 200 kilometer visual distance. Our water is 50 kilometer with full shaderized textures. But we're putting the building blocks together to build what we feel will be necessary to build next generation games. We've got a Wiki where people will give resources back and become a single point of documentation. We have a series of books that's just been announced with GT Press A.K. Peterson."

By Christian Svensson
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Business Week

More Indy Love! :D
 
Xbox Live Arcade for Xbox 360 games that will be available on 2 December include:

Bankshot Billiards 2™ (1200 points) – pixelStorm, Inc.
Bejeweled 2 (800 points) – Popcap Games
Gauntlet (400 points) – Midway Home Entertainment
Geometry Wars Retro Evolved (400 points) – Bizzare Creations
Hardwood Backgammon (400 points) – Silver Creek Entertainment
Hardwood Hearts (400 points) – Silver Creek Entertainment
Hardwood Spades (400 points) – Silver Creek Entertainment
Hexic® HD (full version included free with Xbox 360 System) – Microsoft Game Studios
Joust (400 points) – Midway Home Entertainment
Mutant Storm Reloaded (800 points) – PomPom Games
Outpost Kaloki (800 points) – Wahoo Studios
Robotron 2084 (400 points) – Midway Home Entertainment
Smash TV (400 points) – Midway Home Entertainment
Wik: Fable of Souls (800 points) – Reflexive Entertainment
Zuma (800 points) – Popcap Games


In addition, each Xbox Live Arcade game on Xbox 360 offers a fully playable trial version, enabling gamers to experience their favourite arcade games in high-definition before deciding to purchase.

“We’re incredibly excited about providing gamers with that they want – inexpensive and entertaining digital content delivered right to their Xbox 360,” said Peter Moore, Corporate Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Publishing for Xbox at Microsoft. “Xbox Live Marketplace puts the buying power directly into the consumer’s hands, allowing each person to choose digital content they want, when they want it.”


Bankshot Billiards 2 is the equivalent of $15 so hopefully the cost is indicative of the quality. I may import a 12 month Xbox 360 Live Value Pak because this game comes with it and we don't have the value pak options that you guys are getting.

Jesiatha, you were right about Marble Blast Ultra not being available at launch. Hopefully it shows up before Xmas.

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/9751/...lace-Content-Available-at-Launch-of-Xbox-360/ - More info on Markletplace stuff on there too.
 
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