XBox Live Arcade... Dead?

I just got a mysterious $10 check in the mail from Microsoft. Says on it "Thanks for trying this Microsoft product!" and "XBox Live Arcade." Curious, I pop in my disc and check for New Releases.
Nothing.
Just says "COMING SOON!"
All the other games are still there, ready for download, thankfully.
Now, I've already gotten Astro Pop and Mutant Storm and had a fucking ball with both, but I really wanted to see what else would come. Guess we'll never know.
Has there been official word that I haven't noticed?

Odd. I believe MS will be planning on mentioning some new releases at E3 -- which would seem feasible since that's the perfect opportunity for secret announcements and other significant mentions.

If they were going to kill it, an official press release would've been presented by now.

I never knew of an arcade feature, how can I access it?

It's a disc, one with Ms. Pac-Man on it free. If the service is dead, I'm glad I just used the demo versions of stuff. I'd love to see the service used to its full potential though, so hopefully, it isn't dead.

I'm still curious on why I have $10 from Microsoft.
Not that I mind, of course.

call and ask them.

They charged too much for it anyways.... let it die.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by bahn

call and ask them.

---

but spend the money first.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by toxic

They charged too much for it anyways.... let it die.

---

Yeah. The prices scared me away from this. Far away. Never had an interest in it because of such.

It was stupid that in addition to being ridiculously overpriced, you needed a disc to be able to download the games AND that disc was hard to come by. I never noticed Arcade demos or startup code on any Official Xbox Magazine discs, which seems a no-brainer.

They actually meant to include 12 Live Arcade sample levels in the Feb issue of OXM, but screwed it up at the last minute. The disc sleeve advertised Arcade demos but contained none of them. :bang: A day too late and a demo short.

The one game I was interested in was the Arkanoid clone, Reflector: Lost Worlds. Anyone ever try it?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ChaoofNee

XBox Live Arcade... Never Alive.

---

Fixed. Not sure if it makes sense.

Who cares, no one subscribed to the sevice anyway. Just let it die.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DougDaBroadcasta

Who cares, no one subscribed to the sevice anyway. Just let it die.

---

Yeah! Was a pretty shitty setup.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Grave

Yeah. The prices scared me away from this. Far away. Never had an interest in it because of such.

---

Agreed.

I would've bought Bejeweled and Bookworm, but not for more than 5 bucks.

I bought Mutant Storm for $10, got the Live Arcade disk for free, and consider it an excellent use of my gaming time. The problem is that there was a total of one game out of maybe a dozen that was worth owning, at least for me. On the other hand, I got to mess around with a few demos for free. Honestly, just so long as I can still access Mutant Storm I don't really care that much. It was pretty obvious that Live Arcade was a good idea executed badly.

I got at $10 rebate in the mail today too. That's Volume 2 of PlantES sorted out, then. :)

James

I will again reiterate my idea of MS working with Sega to create/steal a Genesis emulator and sell the games for less than $5 a pop. For things that have been published to death (Sonic, Golden Axe, Sonic, Sonic, Sonic), sell it for around $2~$3. They need to make the emulator Live Aware, too. Basically, give the players something they can goof off on while waiting for friends to show up. All the better if you can get some netcode in there so multiplayer games could be played over Live. Assuming there is a decent response from the consumer base, start working with Atari, Capcom, and Konami to do the same for their properties. Think of it as an iTunes model for getting classic games (buy what you want), as opposed to the compilation method of selling the Sonic Mega Collection (or Midway Arcade Treasures, etc) or the stealing method of downloading ROMs from the Internet.

If XBLA is dead, it's Microsoft's fault. They seem to have this problem with pricing in the software world. Everything is either free or horribly overpriced with them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Wolffen

it's Microsoft's fault. They seem to have this problem with pricing in the software world. Everything is either free or horribly overpriced with them.

---

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Wolffen

I will again reiterate my idea of MS working with Sega to create/steal a Genesis emulator and sell the games for less than $5 a pop. For things that have been published to death (Sonic, Golden Axe, Sonic, Sonic, Sonic), sell it for around $2~$3. They need to make the emulator Live Aware, too. Basically, give the players something they can goof off on while waiting for friends to show up. All the better if you can get some netcode in there so multiplayer games could be played over Live. Assuming there is a decent response from the consumer base, start working with Atari, Capcom, and Konami to do the same for their properties. Think of it as an iTunes model for getting classic games (buy what you want), as opposed to the compilation method of selling the Sonic Mega Collection (or Midway Arcade Treasures, etc) or the stealing method of downloading ROMs from the Internet.

If XBLA is dead, it's Microsoft's fault. They seem to have this problem with pricing in the software world. Everything is either free or horribly overpriced with them.

---

Exactly!

Releasing their Live arcade disk with an overplayed arcade hit from the 80's, was such a bad idea. The timing was poor as well. They released the disk, shortly after Midway's -Arcade Treasures 2 came out. I'd rather spend the $20 on a compilation of games I want to play, than $10 for one beat down old arcade game and a bunch of demos.

My guess is it's dead since all this stuff has pretty much moved to the Xbox 360's version of Live. Oh, and it's free there.

Actually, they've updated since then.

Nintendo should learn a thing or two from this ... sure it's cool to say "you can play thousands of games from decades ago", but in practice almost no one actually wants to.

The Revolution's backwards compatibility via download will most likely be pay-per-play and a flop.

I'd love to play some older stuff on this service. Mainly stuff that hasn't been released five hundred times, for less money. Hopefully, MS doesn't fuck up the 360's Arcade service like they did with this one.

I still stand by my previous comments. With the behind-doors E3 demo, it looks like Sega is going all out for the 360. Why not devote 3 or 4 people to an XBLA project? Once they're done, they're done. They just give MS the software and the ROMs, and they start collecting the money.

In addition to seeing a Genesis library, the other thing I'd love to see is an actual ARCADE. Get together with Sega, Capcom, Konami, Midway, and Atari, and work on a product akin to MAME. Again, integrate it w/Live and, if possible, setup the system to allow people to play together across Live, talk smack or coordinate, etc. Have a high score system that is retained...and, since MS is pushing micro transactions, set this virtual arcade up as 25 cents a game. Rather than paying $10~$20 to download an old arcade game that you may or may not want, instead you simply spend your virtual quarter to play on the virtual arcade machine. Again, once the programming is done, there is no product to package and deliver. The publishers just wait for their cut of the proceeds, the consumer gets some enjoyment and nostalgia, and XBLA becomes a place for more than just VelocityGirl.

I saw someone who (supposedly) works on XBLA on the GAF boards recently. When pressured about the exorbitant pricing for current XBLA games, especially when compared to all the good XBOX games one can purchase for $20 these days, he responded that his wife wouldn't spend $5 on one of those game, but she would spend $20 to play Bejeweled, because she enjoys it. Bollocks. If my wife wasn't a gamer, she'd never buy a system just to spend twenty more dollars on a game she can play on MSN Zone for free. At launch, GAMERS will be what drives the 360. Casual players will come eventually, but MS can't focus on them at launch, If anything, they should be building up the service to make money off of people like us (by delivering product we like and will spend money on) so that they can offer more free stuff to the casuals to help them get their toes wet.

Right now, XBLA is an idea with incredible potential, especially as a prime example of micro transaction-purchasable content. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't seem to know what to do with it. I just hope they figure it out in the next 5 months.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Wolffen

set this virtual arcade up as 25 cents a game.

---

Hmmm... intriguing. It would certainly fix the usual emulation problem of just putting in 50 credits and plowing through the games.

How does everyone else feel about this?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Buzzatronic

Nintendo should learn a thing or two from this ... sure it's cool to say "you can play thousands of games from decades ago", but in practice almost no one actually wants to.

The Revolution's backwards compatibility via download will most likely be pay-per-play and a flop.

---

Dont underestimate the stupidity of hardcore Nintendo fans.

((Looks at all the sales of 20 dollar Ice Climber))

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Korly

Hmmm... intriguing. It would certainly fix the usual emulation problem of just putting in 50 credits and plowing through the games.

How does everyone else feel about this?

---

I think it's a bad idea, because if it's on my Xbox, i want to be able to continually play it as long as I want. In the end I could end up paying well over the $10 I would have been charged otherwise.

Why not offer both options?

I think it would be great if they had a buy option or single play. That way people that want to play once or twice only need to spend 1 dollar or less and those that want to buy it can. I am not sure how many people want to play zzyzzyxx but I don't mind spending 2 dollars and then never seeing it again.

The problem with all of these proposals (which are good) is that its not up to Microsoft. Its up to the copyright holders. If the copyright holders dont want the game on singleplay, the game doesnt get put on singleplay. If the copyright holder charges a $10 per-download fee, then MS isnt gonna sell the game for $5 on XBLA.

Of course, they could negotiate hardcore with the copyright holders to get the prices down (like what Apple did with iTMS, and the labels have been trying to get them to raise the price ever since) but it wouldve been a waste of time on XBLA because the potential was so limited.

But, MS wants to reach a lot more people with 360, so anythings possible...

I'd hope that MS would get "hardcore" with the copyright holders. They need to beat into them idea that once this is out there, they don't have to pay for anything. They don't need to press, seal, deliver and advertise discs like they do with traditional compilations. They don't have to pay for an expensive cartridge for the GBA. They give MS the ROMs and software, let MS deal with delivery of the content, advertising, and transactions fees/collections, and cash the check from their cut. If they want MS to price the game at an outrageous amount in XBLA, so be it. If they look at their XBLA sales and see that they suck, MS can turn around and show the amazing money rolling in on someone else's game that is priced according to demand, then say "We told ya."

For me, XBLA offers me a chance to play something for 10~15 minutes whilst waiting for friends to show up online, or when I only have 10~15 minutes to play and don't feel like popping in full game. Arcades used to be about socializing, competition, and wasting a little time while you had some cheap fun. XBLA has the potential to offer some of that again (especially if they can build in a "spectator" mode).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Wolffen

With the behind-doors E3 demo, it looks like Sega is going all out for the 360.

---

You mean the platform agnostic tech demos of Virtua Fighter, Sonic, and House of the Dead?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yoshi

You mean the platform agnostic tech demos of Virtua Fighter, Sonic, and House of the Dead?

---

That just happened to have been demoed on the 360.

And Jeux France (according to the babelfish translation) reported that VF5 would be exclusive to the 360 (granted the translation could be interpreted to mean it's exlusive at the end of the year to the 360 since it will be the only next-gen system out at the time).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Wolffen

That just happened to have been demoed on the 360.

And Jeux France (according to the babelfish translation) reported that VF5 would be exclusive to the 360 (granted the translation could be interpreted to mean it's exlusive at the end of the year to the 360 since it will be the only next-gen system out at the time).

---

Thanks for the link. I wish we were lucky enough to have all Sega's stuff on one platform again (just in case they stop sucking miraculously).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yoshi

Thanks for the link. I wish we were lucky enough to have all Sega's stuff on one platform again (just in case they stop sucking miraculously).

---

I wouldn't hold my breath.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NApOLm321

Why not offer both options?

---

I'll never complain about a variety of options, as long as they include one I like :) I know some people may prefer that, because they may end up hating a game, or they beat it and never feel like playing it again. Although that's what I feel free demos are good for.