Believe it or not my favorite part about video games isn’t the games themselves but the way they bring people together. Arguably no show demonstrates this bond better than PAX. Thousands of likeminded individuals flooded Boston this past Easter weekend. It didn’t matter where you worked or what you did or what you had to do when you hit the ground again on Monday; for one glorious weekend everyone was an equal: a gamer. It didn’t matter if your weapon was a die, a mouse, a controller or one’s own body. Everyone at this show had a passion for games.

A few of us from XBLA Fans made the trip and had the honor of mingling and checking out some of the upcoming XBLA titles for 2012 and beyond. We were able to hear developers in their element talking to fans about their projects. It was an amazing experience. Our own Andrew Crews has already elaborated on this issue, but in the end you remember the little things. That being said, there were some amazing games. Check out our full breakdown below!

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Australian game developers Halfbrick have a lot to celebrate this week after the announcement that their hit XBLA game Fruit Ninja Kinect, has now exceeded 1 million downloads since it’s …
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Carving snow while waiting to take back earth
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Microsoft’s first foray into the video game business was a risky and expensive maneuver. Despite having Halo as a stellar launch title and hardware capable of feats its competition couldn’t possibly produce, the original Xbox failed to maintain the flash and evolution of its distant brother: the Xbox 360–which is nearly celebrating its 7^th anniversary on the market.

Console generations generally don’t exceed the pre-determined life expectancy predicted by its creators, but sometimes an unexpected boom of success prompts the decision makers to reconsider. Last November, Microsoft sold 1.7 million Xbox 360 consoles in the U.S., defeating Nintendo’s Wii and 3DS consoles by a large margin. Profit incites investors, potentially explaining why Microsoft has yet to formally announce a successor to its commercial darling. The last thing Microsoft wants to do is create competition for its own product.

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Vita, Darkness, and Kinect, oh my!
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Worldwide Xbox Live Arcade sales data for the week beginning January 30 has been published revealing the top 20 games on XBLA and XBLIG. The Simpsons Arcade leads the pack ahead of Bastion, Fruit Ninja Kinect, the ever-popular Pinball FX2 and robot-brawler REAL STEEL, while a glut of mining games rule on XBLIG.

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Everyone say it along with me: “Xbox, bundle Kinect with free games!” Look, it worked! Nice work, everyone. As seen in the link, Amazon is currently selling Microsoft’s …
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Xbox Live Arcade brought in $144 million in 2011, making it the best year for the service yet. Leading the charts in 2011 were Castle Crashers and From Dust, as they grossed around $4.6 million each, and were both among the best selling XBLA games of the year. For the full list of best selling XBLA games of 2011 read the full article.  Read More

Parties are one of the oldest institutions of humankind, from the time fire was discovered to the latest significant party somebody everyone cares about attended. Perhaps something involving Tony Stark. Whether pre-historic or in fantasy land, parties always need something fun going on. Gaming, as it so happens, is pretty darn fun. However, recently the retail video game industry has decided partying with people within smelling distance means no gaming, and we here at XBLA Fans think that’s mighty stinky of them. In light of that, we’ve made this week’s Friday Top Five about XBLA games that dominate parties in one way or another.

5. Fruit Ninja Kinect 

Not every party has a Kinect, and not every party needs one, but those parties which have one should definitely be slicing fruit with as little regard for fruit-kind or remorse for the millenniums of fruitocide which they have suffered through as possible. FNK is the absolute funkay (get it?) fun time when it comes to arm flailing, personal space invading, or reputation undermining (sometimes all at once)! While this game isn’t four player inclusive like the other games on this list, it’s very fun to play and is a great ice breaker. Since Fruit Ninja Kinect takes advantage of abilities most people acquired and mastered at age three or four (the waving of the arms) there’s really nobody that can’t play this game.

There’s not a lot of depth to Fruit Ninja Kinect unfortunately, and when the party gets over the gameplay, there’s not much chance they’ll get back to it. However, one person can play or two people can play competitively and there will be enough for players to rotate and get their dose of being silly and enthusiastic before everyone’s guilt for the countless fruit deaths starts to take its toll.

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Analyst firm Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment (FADE) has released a new report that shows XBLA revenue increased 18 percent last year to $144 million. From Dust, created by Eric Chahi (Another World) and developed by Ubisoft Montpellier, and The Behemoth’s popular game Castle Crashers earned the most money with $4.6 million each in revenue off 308,000 and 335,000 units sold respectively. Microsoft Games Studio’s Full House Poker moved the most units with 375,000 units sold but was fourth overall in revenue with $3.6 million.

From Dust was part of Microsoft’s “Summer of Arcade” promotion and joins Bastion, Toy Soldiers: Cold War, and  Fruit Ninja Kinect among the top grossing XBLA games of 2011. In total, the Summer of Arcade games listed in the top ten sold over 1.1 million units and grossed $15 million in revenue. Hit the jump for the full list issued by FADE (ordered by units sold):

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