Home

Foundation 9: One For All And Twenty(Three) for XBLA

Wed, 2007-08-29 16:58 — LunarDuality

Foundation 9 Entertainment has just announced that they have now released 20 games for XBLA. Not sure how they arrived at that number as I count 23, as of today. Could this bit of PR be in response to PopCap's fightin' words about being the "#1 XBLA Developer"?

Perhaps you do not recognize the name Foundation 9. Most likely that derives from the fact that the company consists of "11 proprietary development studios around the world". However you probably know of Digital Eclipse (their downloadable game brand) or Backbone Entertainment (one of their development studios). Both are integral in the XBLA strategy of Foundation 9.

Whether they have 20 games or 23 games on XBLA in immaterial. Either number brings Foundation 9's contribution to around 25% of all XBLA games. They are a driving force in the retro gaming space and have now begun branching out into new games with Bomberman Live. No doubt their support and successes will continue as XBLA grows.

The full breakdown of their XBLA portfolio after the break.

  • Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Emeryville)
  • Bomberman Live! (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Vancouver)
  • Golden Axe (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Emeryville)
  • Rush'n Attack (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Vancouver)
  • Sonic The Hedgehog (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Emeryville)
  • Yie Ar Kung Fu (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Vancouver)
  • Castlevania: SOTN (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Charlottetown)
  • Contra (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Vancouver)
  • Defender (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Vancouver)
  • Frogger (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Vancouver)
  • Gauntlet (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Vancouver)
  • Gyruss (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Vancouver)
  • Joust (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Vancouver)
  • Paperboy (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Vancouver)
  • Robotron: 2084 (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Vancouver)
  • Root Beer Tapper (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Vancouver)
  • Scramble (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Vancouver)
  • Smash TV (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Vancouver)
  • Super Contra (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Vancouver)
  • TMNT Arcade (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Vancouver)
  • Time Pilot (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Vancouver)
  • Track & Field (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Vancouver)
  • Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (Digital Eclipse - Backbone Vancouver)

Comments

Posted on: Wed, 2007-08-29 18:16 #1
They also did Streets of

They also did Streets of Rage 2 (at least, from what I saw on the opening of the game)

Anyway, I had no idea they had released all these games. That's incredible.

Posted on: Wed, 2007-08-29 18:44 #2
I imagine that building a
I imagine that building a strong emulation platform and sharing a codebase for all the basics of XBLA titles (achievement hooks, guide interaction, menus, etc.) makes the process easier and easier with each game. Plus they have plenty of experience with Certification so they know exactly how to handle it.
Posted on: Wed, 2007-08-29 20:00 #3
Ah, now it makes sense.

Ah, now it makes sense. When I first saw that press release elsewhere, with no mention of which 20 games they made, I was like "Foundation who?"

Posted on: Thu, 2007-08-30 03:07 #4
20 games
I'll tell you how they arrived at 20 games: that's an old press release. It says they have 20 with the release of Bomberman Live. That means it was before Super Contra, Track and Field, and Puzzle Fighter, which brings is to your 23. However, I'd count 25, because they also did Ecco and Streets of Rage 2.
Posted on: Thu, 2007-08-30 03:49 #5
You're right about the
You're right about the timing of the release being off but it's definitely not an "old" press release. It was put out yesterday (look at the date on it)...but apparently PR was a bit behind.
Posted on: Thu, 2007-08-30 20:30 #6
I've always considered

I've always considered Digital Eclipse's arcade emulation platform hit-or-miss compared to MAME, especially on Konami games, which has lead to issues with a number of those titles.

Personally, I'm most disappointed with Gyruss, as I spent many, many hours playing that title, both in the arcade and on MAME. The timing of the original sound effects & music in their emulator is off, and always sounds "wrong". The new explosion graphics obscure the action, leading to quite a few suspect deaths.

The quality of the Vancouver translations are fairly inconsistent. Time Pilot, which preceded their Gyruss release, actually turned out quite well. Joust, Robotron, and Smash TV, all before they started futzing with the graphics and sound, were also pretty decent.


Warning: INSERT command denied to user 'dbo261357483'@'74.208.16.80' for table 'watchdog' query: watchdog INSERT INTO watchdog (uid, type, message, severity, link, location, referer, hostname, timestamp) VALUES (0, 'php', '<em>INSERT command denied to user &#039;dbo261357483&#039;@&#039;74.208.16.80&#039; for table &#039;sessions&#039;\nquery: sess_write\nINSERT INTO sessions (sid, uid, cache, hostname, session, timestamp) VALUES (&#039;c2332e0b9b48bf1c2d21a0392b1465f0&#039;, 0, 0, &#039;207.241.237.235&#039;, &#039;&#039;, 1318751839)</em> in <em>/homepages/46/d158123744/htdocs/0.3/upld/drupal-4.7.2/includes/database.mysql.inc</em> on line <em>172</em>.', 2, '', 'http://xblarcade.com/node/1087', '', '207.241.237.235', 1318751839) in /homepages/46/d158123744/htdocs/0.3/upld/drupal-4.7.2/includes/database.mysql.inc on line 172