According to this press release here, Konami has stated that Frogger will be the first of their titles to hit the market place scheduled for (everyone's favorite) early summer time frame. The other announced titles (including Contra, Time Pilot and Scramble) will be out of that.

One of the best parts of the press release was this line:

...with additional major franchises launching in 2006 and 2007

it sure does pour!!!

So we were all waiting hoping that with E3 we'd catch a glimpse or two of a couple of new XBLA games. Well did we ever... 10 games that were unannounced before today. They are:

Dig-Dug
Rally-X
Frogger
Contra
Super-Contra
Track & Field
Time Pilot
Scramble
Sonic The Hedgehog High Speed
Lumines Live

And this is just a start for Namco, Konami, and Sega, with more promised down the road.

As promised, Uno is now available for download on the marketplace. There's no official site for it yet on Xbox.com, but as long as it's available for everyone, who cares :)

BTW I'm sure there will be tonnes more info coming out of the MS press conference, so stay tuned.

As mentioned earlier, we will be finally getting to enjoy some card playing fun when Uno is released on Tuesday May 9th. The bad news is that this seems to be the only XBLA game that is coming out during E3. Let's hope that they release a couple surprises along the way.

Here is the enitre E3 List

Microsoft announced today (via their Power Up Digital Magazine) a new game from Gastronaut Studios called Small Arms. Also released was the fact that they have named Mutant Storm 2 to be "Mutant Storm Empire".

Both games are scheduled to be release Summer 2006 (but who knows when they will actually see the light of day).

It seems that some info is starting to leak out from the pre E3 darkness. According to a press release from PopCap, they are going to be in Microsoft's booth showing of the XBLA version of Heavy Weapon.

PopCap describes the game as:

Heavy Weapon is a classic arcade-style side-scrolling action game in which the player strives to defeat hordes of enemy armies in the form of tanks, jeeps, fighter jets, helicopters and other land- and air-based vehicles. Power-ups that provide additional speed, shields, firepower and other capabilities help the player overcome increasingly nasty enemy forces and bosses while progressing through levels representing the oppressed (fictitious) countries over which the war is being waged. Since launching for Web and PC Play, Heavy Weapon has been downloaded more than 10 million times.

The multiplayer survival game to be included exclusively in Heavy Weapon for Xbox Live Arcade will be on display at the E3 expo. This game mode allows the player to test his/her tactical prowess with up to three friends on a high definition widescreen display. The single player survival game is already a frenzied battle where the player is pitted against inexhaustible enemy forces. In multiplayer mode the action is even more furious, with as many as four sets of cannons blazing and endlessly intensifying waves of enemy forces. The ensuing chaos would make even a battle-hardened Geo Wars veteran sweat! Stop by the booth, grab a controller and get your nuke on.

If you want to see more of Heavy Weapon, head over to the PC versions site here

That's right folks, it seems we only have to wait another week or so to get our digital card game fix. According to a Press Release reported on Xboxic, mixed in with all that demo and trailer goodness is XBLA's Uno.

Check out the complete list here