Empire Interactive is officially ready to bring another title to the Xbox Live Arcade in 2008. The developer has revealed plans to bring Pipe Mania to a slew of platforms this year, including the Xbox Live Arcade. Empire Interactive was behind the original release of the game back in 1989 and the title has seen numerous ports on over a dozen platforms since then.

The nature of the game is quite friendly and simple to get down with, as all you have to do is lay down pipes on a tile grid to keep the flow moving. If you're still a little confused about the concept, Xbox 360 owners that have played BioShock should be able to get into the game quite nicely thanks to the hacking concept that was featured in the title.

There's no immediate word on the release of Pipe Mania except that it'll be arriving on the Xbox Live Arcade sometime in 2008. Empire Interactive plans to add new modes of gameplay, themes, and mechanics.

[via CVG]

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]