Blog

It’s no secret: many developers who brought their games to Xbox Live Arcade last generation were put off by the process and Microsoft’s policies. Some even abandoned the platform as a result. It may have taken a few years and a lot of complaints, but word of the indie development community’s malcontent finally made it to Microsoft, and the platform holder decided to do something about it. That something is the ID@Xbox, for which 25 games were announced last week at GDC.

So what’s different this time around? Chris Charla, the program’s director, recently chatted with Digital Spy and answered that exact question. One of the biggest complaints about XBLA was its lack of visibility. Gamers who powered on their Xbox 360s and explored the dashboard weren’t finding most XBLA games. It wasn’t the gamers’ fault, though; Arcade games were buried deeper and deeper away in the increasingly convoluted Xbox 360 menu system nearly every time it was updated. Charla, reiterating previous statements Microsoft has made about ID@Xbox, explained how indie games are now easier to find on Xbox One.

“There’s not a separate section,” he told Digital Spy. “It’s just a game is a game is a game. Games that come through ID@Xbox will be right next to games from any other publisher.”

And since all games are just that, indie games will receive access to everything AAA games do on Xbox One: Kinect, SmartGlass, Upload, Twitch recording, achievements, etc. While Charla admitted that discoverability is a continuing problem for indie games on all distribution platforms, he believes that tearing down the walls that separated such games from big budget releases on Xbox 360 is paramount to solving the problem.

Read More

A new trailer was recently released for Keiji Inafune’s Mega Man spiritual followup, Mighty Number 9 and boy, does it look like a lot of fun.

This great looking …
Read More

Did you know that video game music helps the brain by providing a stimulating background that doesn’t interfere with concentration? OK, I can’t prove that. I have no scientific evidence to back it up, but for some games, it seems like it just has to be true.

Xbox Live Arcade is home to some amazing games with some equally amazing music. Composers often sink days, months or even years into crafting the best musical experience for players – dedication that likely goes unnoticed, which sometimes is the whole point.

Sometimes, the best game music can serve as a stimulating background while studying, writing, reading or just doing some housework. Sometimes, you don’t want to notice the music or have it break your concentration. With that in mind, here are the top 10 XBLA soundtracks that serve as the best music to read, study, write or work to.

Read More

Today, most console gamers are familiar with 2K Sports’ Major League Baseball series or Sony’s MLB: The Show, but with 2K Sports letting their license with the league expire, every platform not released by Sony was left without any baseball title.

Major League Baseball has stepped up to fill this void with the revival of R.B.I. Baseball. The franchise came to exist over two decades ago, yet no title has seen the light of day since R.B.I. Baseball ’95.  There was a rumored XBLA revival several years ago; however, that title never materialized in any manner.

Read More

The start of a new console generation can be tough for new hardware, but figures NPD figures reported by Games Industry International show things are going well for both Microsoft …
Read More

It feels like we’ve been waiting on game announcements for some time, but the ID@Xbox team unleashed the floodgates last week for the first wave of titles using the new independent development program. Twenty-five games were showcased at a public event during GDC providing developers a chance for direct fan interaction. The ID@Xbox team released a video highlighting five of the games: Super Time Force from Capy Games, Strike Suit Zero Directors Cut from Born Ready Games, It Draws a Red Box from Other Ocean Interactive, Spectra 8 Bit Racing from Gateway Interactive and FRU from Through Games.

Read More

Capybara announced via a forum post on NeoGAF that new details about the highly anticipated arcade title Below were coming soon. The forum post also states that no new …
Read More

Child of Light, the Japanese-style RPG from the creator of Far Cry 3, has a unique co-operative mode that allows a second player to take control of an orb named Igniculus who aids Aurora, the protagonist of the title, through her journey by distracting enemies in combat, finding items in unreachable places, lighting dark paths and opening up new passageways. Their teamwork is highlighted in a new trailer from Ubisoft:

Read More

Minecraft has been pretty busy recently, launching on PS3 and making movies and all. It may feel like the Xbox 360 edition hasn’t gotten much attention in the past few months, but that will …
Read More

Microsoft’s virtual reality headset project is said to be in progress. The short report in The Wall Street Journal this week was overshadowed by the recent Sony announcement of …
Read More