This week on XBLA: Absolutely Nothing

Wait, didn't they make that big deal a few weeks ago when there was down time and they said that there wouldn't be anymore for quite some time?

Just give me Alien Hominid already. Seriously, I would love someone to explain to me why it takes so long for these finished arcade titles to be released.

It's really lame that there's no reason for me to dump money into microsoft points when there's really nothing out or nothing coming out.

And yes, the video is the lamest thing I've seen in a while. It's almost an insult to anyone who looks forward to releases.

Friggin' weak, man! Microsoft is going to have to step up its game now that it has competition. Why we STILL haven't gotten Alien Hominid HD and Castle Crashers is completely beyond me.

JR

Actually the gamerscore blog has deleted the post that claimed no XBLA release this week.

In its place they posted a comment that things are still being finalized. So who knows.

Microsoft does seem like they are falling behind with their XBLA, especially considering all the games that come out for Virtual Console constantly. I already have a page full of VC games compared to maybe 5 XBLA titles. The fact that 360 owners are waiting on Alien Hominid when Wii and PS3 owners can play the game through backwards compatibility just adds insult to injury.

And wasn't Symphony of the Night supposed to hit XBLA sometime before the end of the month? Ugh, UGH.

Hahahahaha funny video.

In other news, if this is true, fuck you M$. Again.

"Do us a favor. The next time you don't have anything to offer, just give it to us straight. Don't play cute about failing to meet the demands of your audience for the umpteenth time."

Yeah, because the Virtual Arcade and PlayStation Store are doing great bringing us fun, original content like... and...

Seriously, say what you will about the quantity of Live Arcade titles. Its lineup, in terms of new, original stuff, trounces its console competition, and based on the announcements made regarding new, original stuff, that trouncing doesn't seem like it's gonna stop anytime soon.

I just can't wait for the day when the Virtual Console and PlayStation Store are held to the same standard the Live Arcade is, because oh boy, there's gonna be a fanboy free-for-all then.

Probably a good thing.

I'll be too busy playin' Crackdown to care about any arcade game this week.

Yeah, because the Virtual Arcade and PlayStation Store are doing great bringing us fun, original content like... and...

fl0w this week, and Tekken 5:DR the next? And I think Q-Bert is in there at some point as well if you like your retro arcade ports.

Virtual Console Mondays > Inconsistent XBLA Wednesdays...

Heh, I'd laugh if this was a clever marketing scheme to launch not 1, not 2, but 3 XBLA titles after the maintenance tomorrow. That, would be HUGE.

Xbox Live Arcade was so cool when I first got the 360 and there were all these titles already available for trial... but the number of titles being released that aren't old arcade games (i.e. boring)is disappointing. I mean Castle Crasher is the only original XBLA game I think I'm looking forward to and I'm only interested in 2 or 3 others...

I mean the Virtual Console seems to be gaining steam so Microsoft should pick up the pace.

"fl0w this week, and Tekken 5:DR the next? And I think Q-Bert is in there at some point as well if you like your retro arcade ports."

And compare that to Geometry Wars, Mutant Storm, Small Arms, RoboBlitz, Heavy Weapon, Marble Blast, Cloning Clyde, Assault Heroes, etc. And there's over a dozen good retro games, most of which have been updated with things like co-op, online play, etc.

And again, in terms of announced titles yet to be released, the Live Arcade's offerings absolutely trounce other similar console services in terms of new, original stuff.

Don't get me wrong, the Live Arcade isn't perfect. But it seems to be the one service that draws the most criticism, and that blows my mind. Hell, the Live Arcade is pretty much thee reason we are seeing and will continue to see these sort of small, fun, mostly indie games on all of our current and future consoles.

There is absolutely no excuse for this. While Worms isn't one of my most wanted XBLA titles, we've known for MONTHS now that it has been finished, and is going through the XBLA guys damn 'certification' process. (which is probably completely meaningless) And to add onto it, they decide to completely mock the people who care a lot about the Aracde like myself with this little 'forecast.'

Honestly, over the course of two months (though not including next week) they've managed to released the following:

1 original game (Heavy Weapon, which I gleefully purchased because at that point I hadn't purchased a title in almost a month)
1 update to a released game from October (Lumines Live!, which I'm not regretting, since it's managed to suck up a lot of my time in the past couple weeks)
3 games from like over 100 years ago (Ms. Pac-Man aka the game that was free for the original XB Arcade, Root Beer Tapper and Paperboy...ugh)
Oh yeah, and finally (marking with this weeks release) 3 weeks of NOTHING!

A disgrace, if you ask me. MS' XBLA department needs a kick in the ass, because they're doing an absolutely terrible job.

The advantage of VC is that it directly ports a bunch of old games. XBLA comes out with new or upgraded material on a semi-regular basis, and that's good enough for me. I would rather have a certified, working game a week late. than a half-baked, rushed-out-the-door game. And how can you bring up FlOw without mentioning how many times Sony has "shafted" their customers with delays?

OMG it's friggin XBLA and people are crying like they just delayed Halo. Are you kidding me? I barely even pay attention to these games. They are just nice little surprises...not something to judge the console on, which I might add has tons of actual next-gen games to play.

When is Settlers coming out? That's all I care about. I thought I heard February, but there's only a week and half left of it....

who hear watches x-play? great, great and FAIR show. how can people complain when arcade games regularly get higher reviews than ps3 launch titles. focus on whats at hand people. sony needs a kick in the ass(out the door)

@19 oh please X-Play is notoriously anti Sony.. no doubt come the fall they'll have a whole week of shows dedicated to 'Halo 3' and 'amazing' it is and let's not forget that they practically think that the Wii is the most innovative next-gen console ever.. X-Play is joke, a pale shadow of it's former self.

When your release schedule for the past two months looks like this....


(nothing)
Ms.Pac Man
B.S. Lumines add on
(nothing)
Tapper
Paperboy
(nothing)

....you know you have screwed up. I mean I liked Paperboy and Tapper, but I think I'm in the small small small small minority of people who like those two games. So really, you've gone almost two whole months for most people without something good. Now I know VC is just straight ports, but at this point, does it matter? Am I really going to brag that I have leaderboards on Pac Man when Wii owners are playing Streets of Rage!?

Nintendo gets my money again this week. Microsoft is so fucking inept and stupid.

Is this even official? The video seemed very tongue in cheek considering the opening bit about adding 5-10 more spots for the XBL rewards program by year's end. I'm taking it with a grain of salt for the time being.

But goddamn, even though Crackdown hits tomorrow, no XBLA release AGAIN would really piss off a lot of people. You're breaking my heart XBLA.

Wow, what a lame thing to complain about. When they do release a game, Joystiq is there to bitch about how lame it is. When they don't release a game, Joystiq is there to bitch about it. When a game is released that isn't a retro arcade game, Joystiq is there to bitch about the game being another shooter that utilizes both analog sticks.

Boo fucking hoo. Crackdown's coming out, and that's worth far more than whatever we may (or may not) be missing out on this week. Oh, and Alien Hominid blows chunks. Quit getting so excited over a crappy old Flash game.

Crackdown comes out tommorow, so I'm fine not getting an Arcade game this week, but the video was a bit harsh to those who do look forward to new releases on Wednesday. Especially since the only people who are going to see that video are people checking gamerscoreblog.com looking for new XBLA content.

The video just made the certification guys seem cocky.

Awww but I like Lumines. You people are so harsh to a great Top 10 XBLA title.

Well aren't we just feeling like a bunch of ungrateful little bastards?

May I point you in the direction of the 51 games already on XBLA? I mean, Jesus, there's got to be SOMETHING you don't already own.

@Drew, where'd you get the number 52? Wikipedia says there are 45 XBLA games for the 360 and 52 VC games for the Wii.

A-freaking-MEN!

The way Microsoft is handling the XBLA (I have been calling it Xbox Lame Arcade for a while now and they are only helping to cement that name into my personal lexicon) is just pathetic. For what was billed as one of the strongest selling points of the 360 and delivered what some consider to be the strongest launch title they have really been slipping since then. They need to stop relying on PopCap and Midway and Atari and get some better developers and games out before EA takes it over. Stop this lame one-a-week (if we are lucky) BS and do what is necessary to get some quality titles on the service. Gobble up a few talented shareware developers. Start hiring hookers to give BJ's at meetings to secure the rights to third parties back-catalogs (it obviously worked with Midway).

Hopefully Bryan Trussel doesn't have his head stuck quite as far up PopCap's asses as Greg Canessa did. Look at what you are doing right (damn near nothing besides getting Symphony of the Night and a few other truly classic titles i.e. not just old ones like Tapper) and look at what you are doing wrong (one game a week, mostly old games that only a few people remember and even fewer actually care about [see Tapper], and when you do get a game from a decent franchise it isn't even the good version [MK3 and SF2HF instead of MK2 and SSF2]). And then look at your competition and see what they are doing right (okay so you can't hope to compete with Nintendo when it comes to a killer back-catalog of games but you could have gotten Sega interested in your service a lot sooner and Nintendo's VC titles may not all be quality but your best post-launch as been about their average and at least they are offering up quantity when quality fails). You have the early to mid-1980's arcade scene covered so now how about getting us some early to mid-1990's 16-bit console and arcade titles like UN Squadron, Altered Beast, King Of The Fighters, and maybe even some Squaresoft titles like Chrono Trigger or Secret Of Mana. Whoever made the rule that XBLA is only for casual games was a moron. The hardcore will embrace it more readily than casual gamers if you just provide us with games we actually want to play. Crazy idea I know but you might try releasing a few titles that appeal to your core audience. Or was it these casual gamers who waited in lines for days and kept your machine sold out for months in it first launched? And bought millions of copies of Geometry Wars?

XBLA was a joke on the original Xbox and so far with a few exceptions it has been a joke on the 360. Time to reevaluate the game-plan coach. Your defense isn't holding and your offense is non-existent.

You'd think this was pre-school the way people cry about not getting a new game.. I bet the people bitching about not having anything this week are probably the same people who bitch about stuff that actually gets released. I don't remember seeing anything when I signed up for Xbox Live that guaranteed I'd get awesome downloadable games every week for the rest of my time here on Earth.

@20

How does being Anti-Sony make X-play a bad show?

Besides they don't only poke fun at the ps3, they also do it to the Wii and the 360. I mean what do you want them to do, lie and say that the ps3 is so great and awesome? The reason why they bash on the system,like every other gaming show, site, magazine, is because it's so easy to.

I got Crackdown at 12:00 EST and I don't care.

I'm mainly only interested in the Sony consoles this generation so far (Got PS2, PSP, and ordered a PS3 for launch), I think this kind of behaviour is lame.
Before I bought my PSP, I kept reading that it had no games, loadtimes sucked and similar, and I allmost didn't buy it.
However I did buy it, and the games wich have been coming out is top quality, and look fantastic aswell.. I play it allmost as much as my PC.

Paperboy and Worms are both games I would most likely buy, if it were available on Playstation Network, and I didn't have allready own a copy of it.

If this is the original Worms, it is a fantastic game, it's actually a real awesome game to pull ahead and have a offline multiplayer match, when getting drunk with your friends. :)
The sound effects by Team 17's Bjørn Lynne is awesome (Dr. Awesome, in this case), if you can play this game with a friend, you'll be having a huge amount playtime on your hand, and it's definately worth the money. :)

Paperboy is very old classic, wich I had on the Amiga, even tough it were a port from the C64 game it were great, not sure how I would rate it today, but it's an excellent game to waste time on. :)

Needless to say, this isn't games wich is going to sell the system, it's all about making their product better for the consumers, and gain their money.

Needless to say, alot of people wait on titles like this, and when they get delayed, it's pretty idiotic to rejoice in their misery..
Have in mind, that you too will sooner or later, be in the same boat, when the title you are interested in gets delayed.

All consoles have some really great titles going for them on the downloads.
360 have Geometry Wars, Worms, Paperboy.
Wii has Zelda, Super Mario.
PS3 has a GT HD, Gripshift, Tekken: DR, Lemmings.

I doub't any fanboys aren't secretly jelous on some of the other consoles titles. :-/

This is a good thing for us gamers, since it will make Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft compete harder, if they feel like _their_ product is meeting stiffer competition, and they are the ones who has the ability to earn money, if they can get us gamers to buy their product.

Dude, don't diss Chris Paladino. That guy is awsome. I play on Live with him all the time. All he is Public Helper for Microsoft. Don't get on him!

"Microsoft must be running low on original ideas"

*snicker...

So...wasn't Sonic announced at E3 2006?

Where is THAT?

Well face it...buying "that" console one year ago wasnt a smart idea was it..poor contruction (noisy, overheating, repeated failures), crippled (no HDMI, HD, "choice" between 0 GB and 12 GB), AND a much improved PS3-grade 360 being launched now to rub it in. And on top of it - within just 4-5 months of launch the PS3 is catching up in terms of games. Download games: Flow, Calling all cars, Qbert, Tekken and GT HD and Gripshift - at par or better than 360 already. And on disc: Resistance, F1, Motorstorm, GoW2 (the PS2 game that looks better than most 360 games!) plus Lair, Heavenly Sword and all sudden non-exclusives (R6,Oblivion, GRAW2, Saints Row) to follow soon.

There is absolutely no reason that the VC should be as expensive as it is. Every single game that is available at gamefly should be on the VC and it shouldn't cost so much for a single title. I am glad Nintendo is making money but they should cheapen the prices to 1 and 2 dollars at the very least. 6 bucks for a nes game is kind of expensive. How much is gameflys monthly bill? Maybe $15 a month. You can find all the old school games from ,multiple systems on there as well. It is just kind of a rip off although I am guilty of buying a few must have VC's (like F-Zero)

I always find it funny how Americans call the map of the USA as "the map of the world".

I allready played Absolutely Nothing this morning. It sucked.

People that are taking this to the extreme are just idiots. What are you comparing them to? The PSN doesn't have much, less than Live had at this point in its span. And you are impressed by the VC? Ha! They are slowly releasing games with straight emulation. People have emulated all these games for fun and released them illegally to the world for free, just for shitz and giggles. Nintendo does it, charges you $5+ a pop, and you are in awe.

Seriously, don't be jackasses. And who the hell cares about old games and flash style ones anyways. I didn't buy a console to pay for stuff that is free on the internet and playable with a non-gaming PC.

That's too bad. I'm sure there'll be a title people actually want next week, though. I don't think too many were rooting for root beer tapper...

Are they loosing the war because of a missed release? Of course not. There's still many reasons to get a Gold subscription. Like, I dunno, online multiplayer!

Xbox 360 still rules. And don't compare XBLA to the Virtual Channel... Microsoft doesn't have any videogames from before the Xbox, and can't whip out one game after the other from a big collection like Nintendo can.

I meant videogames besides the PC...

Oh, and everybody who bought a 360 for XBLA raise their hands! No? Ok....

Damnit, MS hypes XBLA too much not to be releasing anything for it week after week.

At least this means we don't have to sit through another terrible Midway port. Paperboy was decent, but the aspect ratio for SDTV's is goofy and the "online co-op" they advertise consists of a little text that shows the other person's score while you play like normal. Lame.

Haha Map of the World is America, thats funny, really it is, thats good...

So wheres Worms?

@36 rfom,

I know you are a notorious fanboy, so maybe I shouldn't even post. But, I want to for some reason.

I've already gotten $400 worth out of my 360. I had pretty much made it there before the PS3 even launched. The gaming I enjoyed before PS3 was so worth it that I can't ever feel any regret. If MS pulled the plug on the 360 today and I had it to do over again, I'd still have gotten a 360. Anything from now on is just gravy, and we're only a year in. This is probably the best console I've ever owned. That, or I've just had more free time to enjoy it. Either way, it rocks.

How exactly does the PS3 getting a few good games make anyone regret their 360 purchase. It has nothing to do with it. Of course the PS3 will get games, duh. The 360 is also coming out with a lot of excellent titles as well. It isn't like I can't get a PS3 if it appears to be worth it. Only fanboys like you are bound to a single system and open to feelings of regret.

To tell you the honest truth, I don't know anyone with a 360 that regrets it. I have two friends with the PS360 combo and they both really regret not ebaying their launch PS3's. They barely ever play the PS3; only for an occasional rfom match with PS3-only friends. They both play their 360's 10 times as much, easily. That is regret.

Face it, you waited a year for the PS3 under the assumption that it would "blow the 360 away", both technically and with software. Now, the curtain is drawn and you find yourself with a system that has about the same graphics and less good games. You waited a year to be sitting with a system that is less fun to play. You waited a year to get excited about Oblivion, Saint's Row, and a few other old 360 games. If you had a 360, you could get these games quite cheap used, rather than paying full or near full price for them 6 months after they were cool. I mean, you are looking for arguments at how "the PS3 is quickly catching up". I guarantee you a year ago you would have been saying that the PS3 would blow the 360 away right out of the gate, not require a year or more to get to where the 360 is now, as if the 360 won't be another year ahead in a year. I mean, you use the fact that the PS3 is getting old 360 ports as a reason I should regret getting a 360. Weak.

The PS3 made the mistake of launching late with an equivalent gaming technology. Now, you pay the price. Well, at least it is a cheap blu-ray player.

I will own a PS3 eventually. But currently, I have friends with the PS360 combo and they basically only play the 360. That is all I need to know right now. Once they tell me they play their PS3 a quarter as much as the 360, I'll think about getting one. I refuse to get a system because it's company promises there is a future in it. I got a 360 because I had played my friend's a bunch and it was tons of fun. Now when I go to that same friend's house to try the PS3, he only wants to play 360.

PEOPLE LOOK AT THIS:

Microsoft has NEVER said that there would be a game EVERY week. Just that IF there were a game to be released it WOULD be on a WEDNESDAY.

While I wish MS would get with the program, it's hard to bash them too much when Sony isn't adding conent to their PS Network any faster. The difference between MS/Sony and Nintendo is that Nintendo is just dumping ROMS into an emulator. That's easy. So their efforts can hardly be compared to Sony/MS who are releasing a mix of original and updated content. Nintendo can dump as much as the want on the VC, I'll still never buy a game until they are more than just a ROM running on an emulator. Some people are fine with that... and that's cool. But I'm not going to bother.

You guys are a bunch of retards. I mean seriously, MSFT never promised there will be a game every wednesday. Plus they are not just releasing ROMs of the arcade games. If that was the case the znes emulator has done a better job than all of them combined. MSFT adds achievements, HD display, online multiplayer and leader boards.

I also don't think it was ever their plan to flood the marketplace with arcade games. Nintendo really shouldn't release too many games at once because titles will conflict. I'm sure not many people is going to buy more than one arcade game in any week.