I had a quick chat with Joshua Howard of Microsoft Casual Games, project manager for Uno, Totem Balls and Lumines, not to mention the revised in-box games (think Solitaire, FreeCell) that will be included with Windows Vista. According to man behind the wild cards, downloadable theme decks are headed to XBLM, starting with a replica of the 35th Anniversary deck that Mattel is selling in stores. Most of the theme decks will be based on first party MS titles like Kameo and will cost you a few MS points, although the possibility exists for sponsored editions. You don't have to own a theme deck to see it when you're playing a friend who does. Josh talked up Mattel's enthusiasm for Xbox Live Arcade, which bodes well for future possibilities involving their trademarks. The gamercard pictures you see in the screenshot above are where the video chat windows will go when the 360 camera is released. Apparently, getting the space to re-size properly was a real pain in the ass. By the way, if you want to go mano y mano with the Uno dude, Josh's gamertag is rather low key: joshuah.
