In a blog post he’s since deleted, Xbox Live Director of Programming, Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, announced the “Countdown to 2013” sale for the marketplace. The sale, which begins on December 18 and runs through December 31, will see discounts for a raft of content from certain franchises and publishers on both XBLA and the wider marketplace.

Although the official page has been pulled, the folks over at NeoGAF managed to compile a reasonably comprehensive list of the titles to go on sale and the date their discounts will take effect. Unfortunately, Major Nelson never revealed the discounted prices at any stage. But if you hope to catch any of the games or DLC in the list below for cheap, it may pay to stock up on MSP!

However, the fact that the official page has been pulled (even though most of the details are out in the wild) has us at least a little concerned, so maybe try not to pin all your hopes and dreams on the “Countdown to 2013” sale.

The full list of currently known discounted XBLA items follows:

December 18 to December 31 two-week sale

  • Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition
  • Zuma’s Revenge!
  • The Simpsons Arcade Game
  • Wreckateer
  • Plants vs. Zombies
  • Peggle
  • Peggle Nights Content Pack
  • Fire Pro Wrestling
  • Sonic 4 Episode II
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 2
  • RAW
  • A World of Keflings
  • A World of Keflings – Sugar, Spice and Not So Nice
  • A World of Keflings – It Came From Outer Space
  • Kinect Party
  • Jet Set Radio HD

Daily Deals

December 20 – Platformer Games

  • Fez
  • Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit
  • Sonic Adventure 2
  • Rayman 3 HD
  • Mark of the Ninja
  • Trine 2

December 23 – Summer of Arcade 2012 Games

  • Dust: An Elysian Tail
  • Deadlight
  • Hybrid

December 24 – Trials HD and Trials Evolution

  • Trials HD
  • Trials HD – Big Thrills
  • Trials HD – Big Pack
  • Trials Evolution
  • Trials Evolution: The Origin of Pain

December 25 – Kinect Family

  • Hydro Thunder: Hurricane
  • Rock of Ages
  • Mini Ninjas Adventures
  • Fruit Ninja Kinect
  • Fruit Ninja Kinect – 8-bit Cartridge
  • Fruit Ninja Kinect – Art Box
  • Fruit Ninja Kinect – Space Capsule
  • Fruit Ninja Kinect – Storm Season

December 28 – The Walking Dead

  • The Walking Dead Episode 1 (N.B. It’s understood this episode will actually be free during this week)
  • The Walking Dead Episode 2
  • The Walking Dead Episode 3
  • The Walking Dead Episode 4
  • The Walking Dead Episode 5

December 29 – Family Games

  • Crazy Taxi
  • The Splatters

December 30 – Fighting Games

  • Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown
  • Street Fighter III: Online Edition
  • Dungeon Fighter LIVE: Fall of Hendon Myre

Source: Neogaf (via @lifelower)