Developer | Microsoft |
---|---|
Launch date | November 6, 2004 (Xbox) November 22, 2005 (Xbox 360) |
Discontinued | April 15, 2010 (Xbox) July 29, 2024 (Xbox 360) |
Platform(s) | Xbox, Xbox 360 |
Status | Discontinued (Xbox) Active (Xbox 360) |
Website | marketplace |
Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is a video game digital distribution service available through the Xbox Games Store, Microsoft's digital sales platform for the Xbox 360. It focused on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers. Titles ranged from classic console and arcade video games, to new games designed from the ground up for the service. Games available through the XBLA service ranged from $5–20 in price, and as of October 2016, there have been 719 Xbox Live Arcade titles released for the Xbox 360. Prior to the Xbox 360, "Xbox Live Arcade" was the name for an online distribution network on the original Xbox, which was replaced by the Xbox Live Marketplace.
The Xbox Live Arcade service was officially announced on May 12, 2004, at Microsoft's E3 press conference [1] [2] and launched on November 6, 2004, for the original Xbox game console. [3] The XBLA software was obtained by ordering it on Microsoft's website. It was sent by mail on a disc that also contained a free version of the Ms. Pac-Man video game. [4]
To generate greater publicity for the service, the disc was also distributed with special issues of the Official Xbox Magazine and as part of the Forza Motorsport Xbox console bundle [5] The service launched with six titles and expanded its library to twelve titles by the end of the year. [6] Once connected to Xbox Live, customers could purchase additional titles by using a credit card, or download a limited trial version of a game. Prices for the games range from $4.99 to $14.99. [7]
List of Xbox Live Arcade games released on the original Xbox since early 2011 (27 titles) | ||
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On November 22, 2005, XBLA was relaunched on the Xbox 360. The service was integrated into the main Dashboard user interface, and the Xbox 360 hard drives were bundled with a free copy of Hexic HD . [8] Every Arcade title on the Xbox 360 supports leaderboards, has 200 Achievement points, and high-definition 720p graphics. They also have a trial version available for free download. These demos are playable and most of them offer only a fraction of the levels, modes, and content of the full game. A full version of the game must be purchased to allow the user to upload scores to the leaderboards, unlock achievements, play online multiplayer (with a few exceptions), and download bonus content. [9] Several new features and enhancements have been added through software updates including a friends leaderboard, additional sorting options, faster enumeration of games, an auto-download feature for newly released trial games, and "Tell a Friend" messages. [10] The original size limit imposed by Microsoft for Xbox Live Arcade games was 50 MB, in order to ensure any downloaded game could fit on a 64 MB Xbox memory unit. The limit has since been changed to 150 MB, then 350 MB, and now 2 GB, the latter of which is a technical limitation of the system (rather than an arbitrary limit imposed by Microsoft). [11] On September 12, 2012 the 2 GB limit was raised to an unknown number with two titles, Red Johnson's Chronicles and Double Dragon Neon weighing at 2.68 GB and 2.24 GB, respectively. [12] [13]
On July 12, 2006, Microsoft launched the "Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays" program, which promised a new Arcade game to be launched every Wednesday for the rest of that Summer. [14] When that summer ended, Microsoft announced that new titles for XBLA would also be released on Wednesdays. [15] In order to promote the service in retail, Microsoft released Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged Volume 1 as a compilation disc of six games. [16] On October 18, 2007, Microsoft announced the Xbox 360 Arcade console SKU which includes full versions of Boom Boom Rocket , Feeding Frenzy , Luxor 2 , Pac-Man Championship Edition , and Uno . [17] On May 22, 2008, Microsoft's general manager of Xbox Live, Marc Whitten, detailed changes for the service that included increasing the size limit of the games to 350MB and improving the way digital rights management is handled. Furthermore, Microsoft created an internal games studio to create "high quality digital content" for XBLA. [18]
On July 30, 2008, Microsoft announced the XBLA Summer of Arcade. Anyone who downloaded one of the titles released over August, ( Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, Braid, Bionic Commando Rearmed, Galaga Legions and Castle Crashers ) would be entered into a prize draw with a grand prize of 100,000 Microsoft Points, 12 Month Xbox Live Gold subscription, and an Xbox 360 Elite console. Another Summer of Arcade began the next year on July 22, 2009. Anyone who purchases all the titles released ( 'Splosion Man, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, TMNT: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled, Trials HD and Shadow Complex ) will receive an 800-point reward. The next Summer of Arcade began on July 21, 2010, and features Limbo , Hydro Thunder Hurricane , Castlevania: Harmony of Despair , Monday Night Combat and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light . [19] A "Shopping Spree" promotion ended November 1, 2010, in which anyone who spent over 2400 points during October 2010 received an 800-point reward.
By March 10, 2006, three million downloads had been made on the service. [20] By January 30, 2007, that number had grown to 20 million. [21] The service reached 25 million downloads on March 6, 2007 [22] with 45 million downloads projected by the end of 2007. [23] On March 27, 2007, Microsoft declared Uno to be the first Xbox Live Arcade game to exceed one million downloads. [24] Nearly 70 percent of Xbox 360 owners connected to Xbox Live have downloaded an Arcade title [25] [26] with the attach rate being 6–7 titles per user. [27] Original games typically receive 350,000 downloads in the first month. Titles have an average 156% financial return over twelve months with the first two months of sales accounting for just 35% of total volume. Average conversion rate (from trial download to purchase) across all titles is 18% [23] (a low of 4% and high of 51%). [28] On September 19, 2007, Microsoft announced the top ten Arcade downloads worldwide as Aegis Wing , Uno , Texas Hold 'em , Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved , Bankshot Billiards 2 , Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting , Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1989 Classic Arcade , Worms , Castlevania: Symphony of the Night , and Contra . [25]
With Xbox One, Microsoft has decided to forgo placing different types of games in different channels. As such, Microsoft has discontinued use of the "Live Arcade" moniker, instead grouping all types of games (would-be Arcade titles, retail, and indies) together. [29]
Xbox Live Arcade titles range in price from $2.50 to $20 with the vast majority selling for $10 and under. The games are generally aimed towards more casual gamers, striving for "pick up and play" appeal. [26] Several games were temporarily free, including Texas Hold 'em , Carcassonne , and Undertow . [30] [31] [32] Others are permanently free including Aegis Wing , a game created by three Microsoft interns, [33] TotemBall , a game that can only be played with the Xbox Live Vision camera, [34] Yaris (a Toyota-backed advergame), [35] and Dash of Destruction , which was released on December 17, 2008, as a Doritos advergame. [36] On November 30, 2007, Microsoft introduced "Xbox Live Arcade Hits", where games are permanently reduced in price (a similar concept to their "Platinum Hits" for regular retail Xbox 360 games). [37] As of July 22, 2008, current Arcade Hits include Lumines Live! , Assault Heroes , Zuma , Doom , Bankshot Billiards 2 , Small Arms , Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords , and Marble Blast Ultra . [38] On June 24, 2011 video game website 1UP.com reported that Microsoft was preparing to bring free-to-play games to Xbox Live and said games will include a microtransaction service. [39] The first free-to-play game, Happy Wars , was released on October 12, 2012. [40]
In May 2007, Microsoft announced that games older than six months would become eligible for delisting from the service if they had a Metacritic score below 65 and a conversion rate below 6%. The objective was to "focus the catalogue more on larger, more immersive games and make it much easier to find the games you are looking for." [41] However, Microsoft has never removed a game using this method.
In February 2010, it was announced that nine games from Midway Games would no longer be available for purchase, "due to publisher evolving rights and permissions" (even though Sony's PlayStation Store never did as such with its own downloadable Midway games), referring to the purchase by Warner Bros. of some assets of Midway Games, including certain rights related to the nine games. [42] Similar fates befell the XBLA version of Double Dragon when its publisher went under. Yaris was an advergame that was pulled from the system after a year due to avoid it becoming stale content. Id Software's Doom was pulled from the catalogue due to Id being purchased by publisher ZeniMax Media, and as such the publishing rights were removed from then publisher Activision. [43] From January 19, 2012, Doom was restored to Xbox Live Arcade under new publisher Bethesda . [44] In 2011, Ubisoft announced that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled was due to be removed from the Xbox Live service on June 30, 2011, due to an expired license. [45] Chessmaster Live has also been removed.
On December 15, 2013, Capcom announced on their blog that Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 would be removed from the XBLA store. Although no specific date was listed, the last date for DLC for these titles was listed as December 26, 2013. [46]
In the history of video games, the sixth generation era is the era of computer and video games, video game consoles, and handheld gaming devices available at the turn of the 21st century, starting on November 27, 1998. Platforms in the sixth generation include consoles from four companies: the Sega Dreamcast (DC), Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2), Nintendo GameCube (GC), and Microsoft Xbox. This era began on November 27, 1998, with the Japanese release of the Dreamcast, which was joined by the PlayStation 2 on March 4, 2000, the GameCube on September 14, 2001 and the Xbox on November 15, 2001, respectively. On March 31, 2001, the Dreamcast was among the first to be discontinued. Xbox in 2006, GameCube in 2007 and PlayStation 2 was the last, in January 2013. Meanwhile, the seventh generation of consoles started on November 22, 2005, with the launch of the Xbox 360.
Microsoft XNA is a freeware set of tools with a managed runtime environment that Microsoft developed to facilitate video game development. XNA is based on .NET Framework, with versions that run on Windows and Xbox 360. XNA Game Studio can help develop XNA games. The XNA toolset was announced on March 24, 2004, at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, California. A first Community Technology Preview of XNA Build was released on March 14, 2006.
The Xbox network, formerly known as Xbox LIVE, is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Gaming for the Xbox brand. It was first made available to the original Xbox console on November 15, 2002. An updated version of the service became available for the Xbox 360 console at the system's launch in November 2005, and a further enhanced version was released in 2013 with the Xbox One. This same version is also used with Xbox Series X and Series S. This service, in addition to a Microsoft account, is the account for Xbox ecosystem; accounts can store games and other content.
Xbox Games Store is a digital distribution platform currently used by Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console and formerly by the Xbox One. The service allows users to download or purchase video games, add-ons for existing games, game demos along with other miscellaneous content such as gamer pictures and Dashboard themes.
Games for Windows – Live or GFWL was an online gaming service used by Games for Windows–branded PC titles that enables Windows PCs to connect to Microsoft's Live service. Users, each with a unique Gamertag, are able to play online, keep track of their friends' status, send and receive messages, gain and keep track of Achievements and associated Gamerscore, voice chat across platforms, and more. Some games allow for cross-platform play, such as Shadowrun, putting Windows players against Xbox 360 players.
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detailed launch and game information announced later that month at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).
Pinball FX is a pinball machine video game for the Xbox 360. It was developed by Zen Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released on April 25, 2007 via the Xbox Live Arcade service. The game features three tables, with six more available as downloadable content, leaderboards and online multiplayer. A sequel to the game, Pinball FX 2 was released on October 27, 2010.
The seventh generation of home video game consoles began on November 22, 2005, with the release of Microsoft's Xbox 360 home console. This was followed by the release of Sony's PlayStation 3 on November 17, 2006, and Nintendo's Wii on November 19, 2006. Each new console introduced new technologies. The Xbox 360 offered games rendered natively at high-definition video (HD) resolutions, the PlayStation 3 offered HD movie playback via a built-in 3D Blu-ray Disc player, and the Wii focused on integrating controllers with movement sensors as well as joysticks. Some Wii controllers could be moved about to control in-game actions, which enabled players to simulate real-world actions through movement during gameplay. By this generation, video game consoles had become an important part of the global IT infrastructure; it is estimated that video game consoles represented 25% of the world's general-purpose computational power in 2007.
SpongeBob SquarePants: Underpants Slam is an action puzzle video game developed by Blitz Arcade featuring licensed characters from SpongeBob SquarePants. The game was released on Xbox Live Arcade on December 26, 2007. The game, along with Screwjumper!, is publisher THQ's first game designed for download. It was delisted from the Xbox Live Marketplace in January 2013 after the bankruptcy of THQ. It was later relisted on September 24, 2018, by its successor company THQ Nordic, and was also made available on the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S via backwards compatibility on November 15, 2021.
Roogoo is a downloadable puzzle video game for the Xbox Live Arcade and Microsoft Windows developed by American studio SpiderMonk Entertainment and published by SouthPeak Games. The game is followed by Roogoo Twisted Towers (Wii) and Roogoo Attack.
Xbox Live Indie Games are video games created by individual developers or small teams of developers released on Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace for the Xbox 360. The games were developed using Microsoft XNA, and developed by one or more independent developers that are registered with App Hub. Unlike Xbox Live Arcade titles, these were generally only tested within the local creator community, had much lower costs of production, and generally were less expensive to purchase. The service was released to widespread use alongside the New Xbox Experience, and as of November 2014, over 3,300 games had been released on the service, many receiving media attention. All Indie Games currently require the user to be logged into their Xbox Live account to initiate the start-up of each game. Indie Games were not available in Australia, due to the requirement for all games to be rated by the Australian Classification Board, and the prohibitive expenses involved. The Xbox Live Indie Games program did not continue with the release of the Xbox One, and the marketplace for these games was shuttered on October 7, 2017.
Age of Booty is a real-time strategy video game developed by Certain Affinity and published by Capcom for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Microsoft Windows. Set in the swashbuckling era, the game puts the players in the control of a pirate ship with the goal of looting and capturing towns for a pirate faction, while defeating the enemy ships on the way.
Ticket to Ride is a turn-based strategy video game, based upon Alan R. Moon's German-style board game of the same name, developed by Next Level Games and published by Playful Entertainment, Inc. The game started out as a browser game on November 15, 2004. In February 2017 Days of Wonder abandoned Linux support, although Xbox still seems to support the game having crossed it over to the Xbox One & Xbox X.
'Splosion Man is a 2.5D action platform video game developed by Twisted Pixel Games for the Xbox 360, available through the Xbox Live Arcade digital download service. It was released on July 22, 2009, as part of the Xbox Live Summer of Arcade. Players control 'Splosion Man, an escaped science experiment with the ability to explode himself repeatedly, as he works his way through obstacles and traps trying to exit the fictional laboratory known as Big Science.
Game Room was a social gaming service for the Xbox 360 video game system, Microsoft Windows PCs, and Windows Phone 7. Launched on March 24, 2010, Game Room let players download classic video games and compete against each other for high scores. Players on both Xbox 360 and Windows PCs could access Game Room through their respective versions of Microsoft's Live online services. The servers shut down on October 31, 2017.
Perfect Dark is a 2010 first-person shooter developed by 4J Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 through its Xbox Live Arcade download service. The game is a remaster of the original Perfect Dark, which was released for the Nintendo 64 in 2000. Although the gameplay remains largely unchanged, the remaster features significant technical improvements over the original, including new higher-resolution textures and character models, a higher frame rate, and a multiplayer mode that supports the Xbox Live online service. The story of the game follows Joanna Dark, an agent of the Carrington Institute organization, as she attempts to stop a conspiracy by rival corporation dataDyne.
Pinball FX 2 is a pinball video game for Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows and is the sequel to Pinball FX. It was developed by Zen Studios and published by Microsoft Studios. It was released on October 27, 2010, via the Xbox Live Arcade service. The game includes several new features, such as local multiplayer and the ability to tweak table settings. Players can also import all of the tables from Pinball FX they had previously purchased. The Windows 8 version of Pinball FX 2 was released on the Windows Store on October 27, 2012, two years after the original XBLA release. The game was subsequently released for other Windows platforms via Steam on May 10, 2013. Pinball FX 2 was announced for Windows Phone in February 2012. A sequel, Pinball FX 3 was released in September 2017.
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