ILoveXBLA has heard word that the SNK pamphlets that are being handed out at TGS have some fantastic news on them. In addition to the recently announced Fatal Fury Special, it seems that XBLA will be graced with Metal Slug. While no release date has been announced, this will certainly have many people checking off an entry on their wish list.

 

Well it seems that something finally got past one of the NinjaBees. After teasing us all with "SWAT" as the codename for there next project, we finally know what it's real name is going to be: "Bugs of War". While it slid past us on our first read through of the IGF finalist list, it was pointed out to us that NinjaBee has the forth XBLA title on the list. The Entrant Page for Bugs of War describes the game as:

I don't know about you guys, but with the absolutely brilliant atmosphere that they brought to both Outpost and Clyde, I can wait to see what wacky things they put in a tactics game. While were still waiting for an official announcement from Microsoft, which hopefully will bring some screen shots and more info, this is certainly enough to get us excited.

And to think, it has only taken them 5 months to create it. MS better get a few more XBLA Wednesday slots available for them.

You can check out the entrant page here.

 

Starting in early 2007, you'll be able to put your pellet munching skills to the test in an attempt to have Microsoft fly you down to New York City to play. No other details are known at this point other than they will be taking the top 10 players on the Leaderboards

With my horrible skills at this game I certainly wont be getting the call, but do any of you think you've got what it takes?

As part of this morning's TGS press release by Microsoft there were 4 more XBLA games announced. Gyruss, New Rally-X, and Rush'n Attack will be available everywhere, but Yie Ar Kung Fu will be exclusive to Japan.

As far as I can tell this is the first time that we've seen a territory locked XBLA game, as soon as it's out I'll be setting up a Japanese account to try it out as it's the game I want the most from this list.

You can check out the whole press release here.

Jeff Tunnell, co-founder of GarageGames, has posted a very in depth and interesting look at the numbers behind XBLA. While I won't go too in depth in it here the basics (as far as he could tell them without breaking NDA) were this:

• Marble Blast Ultra cost close to $300,000 to develop
• It sold approximately 120,000 copies
• At $10 USD a piece, it made approximately 1.2 million
• Developers get to keep between 30%-65%
• At 65% (his number not mine) they brought in approx. $780,000

He also mentioned that while MBU is considered one of the highest grossing XBLA titles, it would be considered a failure to some publicly traded studios who look for at least a 5x return on investment.

 

[UPDATE] It seems that I forgot to add the link. You can check it out here.

Microsoft has put out a press release about the "bringing it home" event they are doing for TGS & X06. Included in the press release (available here) was the very interesting quote of:

While there has been tonnes of speculation around the net this morning as to what this is, it's interesting to look at the wording. First it looks like this will be the actual release of the game (otherwise this will be the first time that we've seen a preview video on Live for a XBLA title). Secondly it's a "never before announced" title, which rules out Dig Dug (it was announced at E3 this year). What this leads to is the theory that this game will actually be released on the 27th, the first day of X06.

What the title is, is anyone's guess, but considering all the Virtual Console info that came out last week, I'm betting that nobody will be denying the fact that this will be a "major" release.

Eurogamer is reporting that Lumines will be released in "The middle of next month." as confirmed by it's creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi at Nordic Game in Sweden. While this will certainly offend some people, it's good to see that we'll be getting it soon.

You can check out the whole article here.

JDude11 gave us the heads up that the official XBLA site now has a Dig Dug page up and running, the interesting part is that it has tomorrow (the 20th) listed as the release date. Add that to the existing TotemBall page with the same release date and it looks like we'll be doubly "blessed" this week.

While I'm starting to tire of the constant Coin-Op Classics, this one has a special place for me. What games will you guys be getting? both, neither?

Jeff Minter has posted a flashback inducing clip on his blog showing off "Space Giraffe". While the game is not quite done yet, you can definitely see the direction that he's heading. It's been along time since I've seen a game that you can instantly tell is going to be one of those games that people either love or hate, there wont be any in between here.

Check it out here.

With everyone wondering what the push back to 2007 and a partnership with Virtual Toys will mean for HoopWorld, Joystiq went strait to the source for some answers. Discussing development on XBLA and the omnipresent 50MB limit, it's an interesting interview that you can check out here.

Thanks to 3Suns for the heads up.