Looks like publishers are taking XBLA announcements into their own hands. First, a little birdie from D3 told us that Puzzle Quest was coming this week. And now, Empire Interactive's albatross flops unceremoniously down upon our unsuspecting crowd and squawks "Speedball II: Brutal Deluxe will arrive on October the 17th!" At which point, our stunned faces watch as the awkward bird stumbles and bumbles its way back into the air to squawk another day.

My metaphor just ran aground. Nothing to see here.

Looks like the word on the street was only a few weeks off. Now if only they could decide if the logo's "2" is right or if it's "II", I would be one happy blogger.

(Let me foreshadow the coming tide, "Now where the heck is Sensible Soccer?")

[Update]: The price quoted in the press release was 800MSP.

[via Empire Interactive Press Release (PDF link), thanks Xboxic]

Tetris not your cup of tea? How about Speedball? That more your style? If so, put your speculation caps on, grab your mountain of salt, and let's discuss tomorrow.

A poster under the moniker "Stevie D 1969" over at the Xbox360Leagues.net forums has declared that Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe will release this week (aka tomorrow) next to Tetris Splash. How does he know? Probably because of xbox.com which is listing the game's release as 10/3/2007.

But we all know how this goes. Until there is an official announcement, don't get your hopes up too much. Yet. Don't want to get burned.

[Update]: The folks from Gamerscoreblog have confirmed Speedball 2 is not coming this week. The xbox.com page has already been updated. Remember, never trust anything release date related from xbox.com and don't take candy from strangers. The more you know.

[via xbox.com, thanks Joao]

SPOnG is reporting that Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe has been "delayed". Apparently the game is now in certification and will be released sometime in October.

Straight from the horse's mouth (aka Empire Interactive’s James Spice):

It will be out sometime in October, it’s currently with Microsoft.

The game will cost 800MSP (I guess it's following the Marathon mold).

[via SPOnG]

A bunch of tidbits have trickled their way to us here at XBLArcade over the course of the weekend (and this morning) so here's a quick and dirty rundown of the latest word in XBLA.

And remember, we here at XBLArcade love tips! Even if it does take us a little while to get around to them. Here we go down the rabbit hole.

War World and Speedball 2 rated. No fanfare or big surprise there (since we already knew they were coming) but it's good to know nonetheless.

War World garnered what I take to be a 12+ rating and Speedball 2 gets a 6+ rating. (Although, German is not my strong suit.) No word yet on the ESRB.

[via our trusty friend, the USK website]

A whopping 17 screens for the soon to be released Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe have appeared on the Xbox 360 League forums. That's a veritable flood of screens.

Of course, many of them look the same. But I shouldn't complain because this is the first bunch of media we have seen on the game. So, rejoice! And begin your countdowns to the vague "August" release date.

Anybody broke yet or did you save your points for this one?

[via Xbox 360 Leagues]

XBLArcade.com readers truly are ahead of their times. The internet is currently gushing over a "new" press release, which we posted for you more than a month ago. A bit more information came out in this lastest version of the press release as it was revealed that the title will be available in August and for 800 MS points. It definately does seem like a viable price point for the scope of this game, but you have to kind of wonder why we can't also get the new 3D remake that's coming for PC.

In a press release on Yahoo, Empire Interactive have announced that they will be bringing the Bitmap Brothers' classic, Speedball II to the XBLA service. While more information about the title should be coming soon, the list of new features for the XBLA version include:

• All new HD Graphics
• More teams
• Downloadable Content
  
• And most importantly, Online Multiplayer.

As someone on neoGAF pointed out, you can almost hear the chants of "ICE CREAM, ICE CREAM"

Click read more for the complete press release.

[via NeoGaf]