From July 30 to August 27 of this year, Microsoft released one ridiculously high quality XBLA game a week, building a foundation for its revered and dramatic Summer of Arcade. And when I say “ridiculously high quality” I am not using a classic Chad hyperbole. Between Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, Braid, Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Galaga Legions, and Castle Crashers, there really wasn’t a mediocre game in the bunch.
Just this morning the first official results from the Summer of Arcade came in and the news is pretty encouraging. According to Major Nelson:
Over the course of the five-week Summer of Arcade program there was a 58 percent increase in unique members purchasing titles, and August broke the monthly revenue high by 67 percent. August was also the first time that an Xbox LIVE Arcade game landed in the top 3 most-viewed pages on Xbox.com.
Pretty awesome, huh? It’s comforting to know that games this good sold through the roof and helped XBLA add to its snowballing critical success. Hopefully more independent designers will look at this positive news and release more creative, unique games on the download service. I think we can all agree we have hit our limit on subpar XBLA games.
Would you be excited for a Fall, Winter, and Spring of Arcade or could your wallet not take it? What would be your dream five-week lineup (I vote for a new high-def Battletoads game)?
