Rumor: Puerto Rico coming to XBLA
by Kevin Kelly 
{ Mar 2nd 2007 at 1:33PM }
It looks like board game lovers are going to be getting even more Euro gaming goodness. At least, that's what the signs are pointing to. We already know that Xbox Live Arcade will be getting games like Settlers of Catan, Alhambra, and our personal favorite Carcassonne, but according to some rumors at GameStooge it looks like another Rio Grande Games classic will be coming down the pipeline ... Puerto Rico.
Apparently in the threads over at BoardGameGeek.com (which is a fantastic site for board games and such, along with the equally as fantastic FunAgain.com) the German gaming site BrettSpielWelt has taken down their online version of Puerto Rico, and replaced it with a message that another company has purchased the rights for "online exploitation." And c'mon, no one is better at exploiting things than Microsoft, right?
Puerto Rico is a fun game that takes about an hour to play, and is all about shipping goods and building cities. It's been critically hailed as one of the best games of the past twenty years, already has a PC version out, and it's continually voted the number one game at board game sites, and it sure would be nice to see it on XBLA.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
jack @ Mar 2nd 2007 1:45PM
i thought they meant Puerto Rico the beautiful Caribbean island :-/
Andy Witmyer @ Mar 2nd 2007 1:51PM
Puerto Rico is my favorite board game of all time. Nothing is left to chance (except for the plantations that are drawn). It's 100% strategic. God, I might have to a 360 now - with Catan and PR, that becomes nearly irresistable.
PS - you don't build cities in Puerto Rico - you build improvements in San Juan. N00b!
Jose @ Mar 2nd 2007 7:04PM
I feel very happy to see this game (the best board game ever made, and I say it because Im a prod Puertorican living on the island :D) coming to XBLA!
Hopefully they wont buy the rights to the name. Then we will have to rename my beautiful island! But I guess they dont know theres an island going by that name like everyone else! xD
Supino @ Mar 2nd 2007 2:10PM
This is a classic.
I think Microsoft are planning wonderful stuff for XBLA - it just isn't comeing out fast enough!
Bob @ Mar 2nd 2007 3:36PM
Now all we need is Princes of Florence and Medici!
Miguel @ Mar 2nd 2007 2:15PM
Puerto Rico was published in 2002 which is hardly 20 years ago. How about some fact checking on the aforementioned boardgamegeek.
andres @ Mar 2nd 2007 2:12PM
There is a typo in the title
Will @ Mar 2nd 2007 2:22PM
ZING! You were right, thanks Andres.
Will @ Mar 2nd 2007 2:24PM
#5 - That was my bad. That should have said "most critically acclaimed games of the past twenty years". Fixed it, and thanks for the heads up.
Jonah Falcon @ Mar 2nd 2007 2:31PM
Now, how about Ticket to Ride, MS?
Game Artist @ Mar 2nd 2007 2:54PM
Awesome! Puerto Rico is a great game. How about powergrid and el grande too?
mj @ Mar 2nd 2007 3:01PM
I love this idea, but it's not a great fit, considering how long of a game it is, and how difficult to learn.
Jonah Falcon @ Mar 2nd 2007 3:21PM
"I love this idea, but it's not a great fit, considering how long of a game it is, and how difficult to learn."
Oh, please - Carcassonne is a longer game, and learning the proper placement of meeples in fields is just as tricky.
Erwos @ Mar 2nd 2007 3:49PM
The base game is easy. The expansions are what makes it crazy.
I hope they have the expansions! ;-)
Hikaru @ Mar 2nd 2007 4:22PM
Whoa! I live in Puerto Rico and I don't know what's this game about!
otisgibbon @ Mar 2nd 2007 4:45PM
I don't know if I should be ashamed or proud that I've played just about every game mentioned in this thread. My brother owns all of them. And I agree they are all good games.
otisgibbon @ Mar 2nd 2007 4:48PM
I don't know if I would want to play any of these over Xbox Live though. It's bad enough when someone gets analysis paralysis and you have 3 other people in the room to keep you company. It would suck having to wait by yourself for someone in another part of the world to make up their mind.
Grindstone @ Mar 2nd 2007 6:51PM
Wow, PR is probably my favorite board game, and this is an incredible announcement in my opinion. otisgibbon, perhaps a time limit will be implemented, say 5 minutes, for each player to make a decision. If a decision isn't made in those five minutes, their turn is skipped(?), not sure, just opining on the matter.
joe smith @ Mar 2nd 2007 7:22PM
I don't know this game -- pretty good? I am really looking forwad to Carcassonne and Catan. Also would LOVE to see Ticket to Ride.