Announcements

I was wrong. SPFIITHDR let me down. But in its place are two other highly sought after titles beginning with the letter "S". The long awaited and gritty Street Trace:NYC is joined by Jeff Minter's triptastic Space Giraffe. Both clock in at 800 MSP and They will be available at the usual time on this Wednesday, August 22nd.

This marks an XBLA first: two new IPs debuting on the same day for 800 MSP each. Street Trace:NYC will be available at 800 MSP. Apparently, Gamerscoreblog got a little confused with all the dancing lights in Space Giraffe and tried to price it a little high but Jeff Minter says 400 MSP. And there was much rejoicing. Yay...

Remember to check out my previous previews of Street Trace:NYC: Gameplay, Single Player, and Multiplayer.

Also, screens for Space Giraffe are here. Street Trace:NYC, here.

[via Gamerscoreblog]

[Update]: Pricing information corrected. Stupid mistake ruined my whole post...grr...

Is it really a mystery anymore what game we'll be getting next week? Okay, so maybe I'm jumping the gun again, but it seems like the evidence is mounting for Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix's imminent arrival.

Here's the rundown. It missed its July release. Capcom opened up the official site. IGN's ads pronounced that it was "available for download" nearly two weeks ago. We got the achievements. We even got some themes and gamerpics. Then, a bevy of tempting screenshots. And now, it has its own page up and running at Xbox.com. Can we just get the game already!

Who do they think they're kidding at this point? It's coming out next week.*

Do you think any of these other games will be its partner in Wednesday's crime?

*XBLArcade's wild speculation on the release of any XBLA game confers no guarantee or warranty against massive disappointment should the game not arrive as predicted.

[via Xbox.com, thanks El ViX]

This is just a reminder that if you wanted a chance to win 4000 MSP and a limited edition NinjaBee t-shirt you better get your entries in soon. All entries must be submitted (as per the contest rules) by August 16th, 2007 (aka tomorrow).

And up to this point there are very few entries (3 as of my last count) so you all have a good shot at winning. Get to it!

[via the NinjaBee Forums]

Yesterday, at GameFest 2007, Marc Whitten (General Manager for Casual Games) made some bold predictions about the future of XBLA. Or are they? Maybe not. Predictions below:

#1 -- 45 million downloads by the end of 2007

#2 -- More than 100 XBLA games by the end of 2007

#3 -- XBLA revenue to double in the next fiscal year

Besides those predictions he also revealed that XBLA games have an average financial return of 156% after 12 months on the service and that XBLA has raked in over $30 million.

Analysis and discussion after the break.

[via Gamasutra]

Today, the winners of the Dream-Build-Play contest were finally announced at the launch of Gamefest 2007 (a Microsoft-run development conference focused on XNA). After whittling the field down to 20 finalists the panel of judges have finally selected the winner. Actually, I should really say winners because the top 4 contestants are all being offered publishing deals with Microsoft to bring their games to XBLA. So who won and what are the games like? Read More.

For those of you not predisposed to smashing your controllers buttons with furious speed and intensity comes word that Band of Bugs will be getting its first single player expansion pack today (in fact it's out now!).

The expansion pack, titled Red Kingdom, will include ten single-player missions, two new units (a cavalry-type unit and a catapult-type unit), and also an entirely new tileset for all those map editor fanatics.

The pack comes in a 250 MSP (which in my mind is a total steal).

I remember playing much of this pack back when I visited the good folks at NinjaBee and it was loads of fun. With this expansion, the map packs (one is free), and a title update that fixed all those pesky bugs (the ones NinjaBee didn't intend) this is definitely a title worth a look if you haven't given it a shot yet.

And knowing NinjaBee, this won't be the end of their DLC plans.

[thanks to NinjaBee's Steve Taylor for the heads up!]

[Update]: Added the official press release below.

As if Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix was not enough title, rumor has it that XBLA may soon host Penny Arcade Adventures On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode One. (Mental note: send the boys at PA a nasty note about trying to type that...thing!)

The rumor comes to us via that obsolete form of media known as a "magazine", specifically EGM's September 2007 edition.

The Gaming Target story was *just* updated to state the following:

"UPDATE: The developers have confirmed they are looking into making the game for one or all of the next-gen systems, but nothing is official just yet. Looks like EGM jumped the gun on this one."

So, there you have it folks. PAAOTR-SPODEO will (hopefully) be coming to XBLA. (Spodeo = a potato wrangling event, just FYI.)

[via Gaming Target, thanks to Xbox360Fanboy]