Are people still playing Toy Soldiers? I have a code for the full game if someone wants to trade me an 800 point code. Lemme know!

Xbox Live Arcade Grows During Weak Month, Realizes 30% Growth Over Last May

June 22, 2010 - As per the released report by Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment, LLC (FADE), the Xbox Live Arcade marketplace saw a reduction of 23% in gross revenue when compared to April, but also realized a favorable 30% increase compared to May 2009.

FADE estimates that gaming revenue on Xbox Live Arcade reached $5.8 million USD in the month of May, compared to $7.6 million USD in April - a drop of 23%. Despite the drop, May has always been Xbox Live Arcade's worst month, as represented by a paltry, estimated $4.5 million USD gross last year. Year to date estimates stand at $39.7 million USD - up 10% from this point last year.

Microsoft also broke records on the number of titles released during May. 10 new titles were released during the month - which is the most during 2010 by a wide margin (February saw 6 new releases, and every other month has seen 5). May 2010 ranks as the 3rd most prolific month on record for XBLA, with only June and September 2009 seeing more releases.

"Microsoft has continued to work with product strategies, and content lineups for Xbox Live Arcade, which has resulted in strong growth for the platform this year. For the past 3 months, major changes have been made to Xbox Live Arcade which has resulted in 28% year-on-year growth since March." said Benjamin Schlichter, Director of Research and Analysis at FADE.

New titles did well during the month, with 'Metal Slug XX' leading the way with an estimated 21,000 units sold at $15.00 USD. 'Doom 2' outsold Metal Slug XX in terms of units, but not revenue, realizing 24,000 units sold at $10.00 USD during the week of tracking available on the market. Shoot-em-up renovation 'RayStorm HD' also did well, selling an estimated 14,000 units at $15.00 USD. Despite all the new releases, a familiar favorite 'Trials HD' was the top title of the month, selling an estimated 31,000 units at $15.00 USD. FADE estimates that Trials HD is nearing the elite million seller category, and will join exclusive company with 'Castle Crashers', 'Battlefield 1943' and 'UNO'.

FADE Top 10 Estimates for May 2010, by Revenue:

1. Trials HD (RedLynx) - 31,000 downloads
2. Toy Soldiers (Signal Studios) - 27,000 downloads
3. Castle Crashers (The Behemoth) - 24,000 downloads
4. Metal Slug XX (SNK Playmore) - 21,000 downloads
5. Doom 2 (id Software) - 25,000 downloads
6. Battlefield 1943 (EA Dice) - 15,000 downloads
7. Raystorm HD (Taito) - 14,000 downloads
8. Rocket Knight (Konami) - 13,000 downloads
9. Magic: The Gathering (Stainless Games) - 18,000 downloads
10. Perfect Dark (Rare/4J Games) - 17,000 downloads

June 23rd Game Room releases include: Casino, H.E.R.O., Laser Blast, Black Widow and Triple Action.

H.E.R.O. is a lot of fun. I can see the Game Room sluggishness being a problem though.

Star Strike (INTV) is in that pack too and I'm getting that shit, for sure.

Wow and I still recognize none of them off hand, LOL!

So I did some research, hope this helps some people.

Casino - 1978 Atari 2600 Game: blackjack, five-card stud poker, and poker solitaire.

H.E.R.O. - 1984 Atari 2600 Game, stands for Helicopter Equipped Rescue Operation. Looks bloody awful (no offense).

Laser Blast - no clue.

Black Widow - 1982 Atari Arcade Game, fixed shooter similar to Robotron 2084.

Triple Action - Intellivision game from 1981 that has three separate games: racing, tank combat and flying.

Hrmmm...so after research, I'm still rather meh about this week :/

Laser Blast is a 2600 game by Activision.

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I can't wait to get RISK on live.

This 2600/Intellivision/Arcade mix each week has gotten stale fast. Put some 5200/7800 games in there.

But, Utopia (INTV) is in there too, so yeah.

H.E.R.O.? Really? Awesome!!

I played that from time to time on the Commodore 64, can't tell you it was a good game since I never played it for particularly long sessions, but I always loved what I did play and, well, holy nostalgia batman.

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Damn, I played the heck out of Utopia, I made need to get that.

Damn, this Risk demo is taking forever.

Damn.

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Looking at it this morning, I think Kaboom and Crackpots was in there too.

I think there was a glitch and all 15 titles were available when it should only have been those 5. I wonder if that's still like that?

From what I hear, Kaboom is totally fucked thanks to lack of adequate input devices.

Anyone here with thoughts on Risk Factions? It seems really well made and deep, but playing the demo, I was getting pretty confused and got my ass kicked by the conmputer. Maybe I need a better tutorial. Anyway, it looks like a solid game and I'll likely buy it soon. I need to keep playing the demo until I actually get the hang of the new rules and maps. Considering it's priced the same as each of the new family game night games, Risk Factions is a very good deal.

Speaking of which, I checked out those three new games. Pictureka is actually pretty good. It's kind of a fast paced seek & find. It's a game for kids, but it plays much better on the 360 than the board game without a million cards flung all over the place and without kids fighting about whether they found the right items or not. My daughter really liked it, so I'll probably purchase that one.

On the other side of the spectrum is Jenga. We all wondered how that would turn out -- it turns out it's very poor. It totally misses the point of the game -- virtual balancing is very different than actual balancing. Maybe they should have waited for Kinect for that game; as it currently is, I'd describe that game as "broken".

I enjoyed the Risk demo. If I can get a couple of friends to get it, I will certainly buy it.

I wish they added a way to skip to your turn in classic mode.

Didn't try Risk Factions, but I did download the demo to Duke Nukem: Manhattan. It was certainly a throwback to the really old Duke Nukem games (for some reason, I'm missing Commander Keen right now) with spicy new graphics and 3-d esque environment. It certainly reminded me of Shadow Complex, but naturally it wasn't all serious like. The demo is pretty good and long, goes three levels and then knocks you out of the boss fight (like Castle Crashers does) wanting you to buy. There appears to be avatar rewards and the humor is of course top notch (as long as you appreciate Duke humor). I will get this at some point, just not sure if now or wait for a sale. 800 points isn't too much, I've been just pretty cheap lately.

On the Game Room games, I simply couldn't get into any of them. H.E.R.O. was probably the best (I do apologize for my earlier comments), but good lord that game looks like it is 100% memorization. My memory isn't the greatest in the world, and it won't do that game no favors.

Maybe because the con-puter was cheating.

As Freud said, there are no mistakes.
Game Room has been a HUGE disappointment. I think their biggest mistake was being so stingy with the classic arcade games. I don't think there's much nostalgia for 2600 games, especially at $3 each. The Game Room stumbled out of the gates and in subsequent weeks there have been very few classic arcade games. It seems now there isn't enough interest in Game Room to make it a desirable site to visit even if good games ever did come out. They should have lined things up so that every week there were a couple of must-have acade machine titles instead of all these Atari and Intellivison games that just don't hold up well or have much of a nostalgia factor associated with them.

which sonic game should i get? sonic 1-4 are on sale for 240pts. i am just gonna get one, so which is best?

I purchased it and played a bit. One thing I noticed, at least through the single-player campaign, was the following stats:

1's rolled: 113
2's rolled: 122
3's rolled: 126
4's rolled: 126
5's rolled: 134
6's rolled: 140

Anyway, with the various specialty boards and powers in the enhanced version, Classic Risk, and local multiplayer, there is a lot of replay value.

I have to agree with Decker. I would love for this thing to succeed but it just hasn't yet. I downloaded one game each from the first two packs and have played demos ever since. 3,4,5 have been deleted off my machine and unless something radically changes, 6 will be next in a few weeks. I honestly give about 90% of the games a try and they are just too old or don't hold my interest (that's sad when I'm nearly 35 years old and have played games since I was about 7).

Intellivision and Atari games for the most part just aren't worth $3 a piece. Maybe like 3 of them bundled together would be worth the 240 points, but not by themselves. I mean I will still go in there and download a pack when they are available...but unless the quality of games change, I'm not too interested.

And by quality of games, I want to see Double Dragon, Mappy, Pole Position, Discs of Tron, something damn it that makes me want to jump up and buy it. I'm not going to sit here and expect X-Men Arcade, Afterburner or something equally ludicrous, but come on give me a little something.

Game Room != XBLA.

I'm not defending it or saying it hasn't been a huge disappointment, but I think expectations were a little off.

Xbox LIVE Deal of the Week:

Critic’s Choice: Next weeks Xbox LIVE Deals of the week are some Arcade favorites:

Defense Grid, 400 Points

PB Winterbottom, 400 Points

Rocket Riot, 400 Points

Darwinia+, 800 Points

Chime, 240 Points

Poker Smash, 400 Points

 

You must be an Xbox LIVE Gold member to access this special DOTW pricing which will start Monday, June 28, 2010. Remember: You can upgrade your membership to Gold a variety of way

Xbox LIVE Games on Demand:

June 29: Tomb Raider Underworld and Command & Conquer 3

Xbox LIVE Arcade:

June 30: Puzzle Quest 2 (1200 Points) and Ancients of Ooga (800 Points)

Avatar Marketplace:

July 1: Crackdown 2