Microsoft Game Studios

In a surprise move Twisted Pixel Games has decided to take The Gunstringer to stores. No word yet as to why the switch happened, but if we had to …
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Fans of Hydro Thunder Hurricane who also own a Windows Phone 7 device can now get their boatin’ on anytime they like. Pixelbite Games and Microsoft Game Studios have …
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Small Arms was developed by Gastronaut Studios and released  by Microsoft Game Studios on November 22, 2006. It’s available on the XBLA Marketplace for 400MSP.

When the XBLA service was first introduced to me I felt like there wasn’t enough substance to keep me interested. Geometry Wars was there day one which was fantastic, but other than that most of the games really didn’t look too original or polished. Then I heard about Small Arms. It was released exactly a year after the release of the Xbox 360 and I was very excited to get my hands on it. Despite drawing from experiences like Super Smash Brothers on the various Nintendo consoles, the Small Arms formula feels unique and interesting which, when accompanied by the odd looking cyborg critters you get to play as, gave the game a strong sense of originality which the platform needed at the time. Read More

Castle Crashers was developed by The Behemoth and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released on August 27th 2008 for 1200MS points.

The Behemoth have quickly become a developer to watch. After starting life with the flash game Alien Hominid on Newgrounds they expanded the game to consoles and eventually to XBLA with Alien Hominid HD. The game had a unique and striking art style created by artist Dan Paladin, and breathed new life into the almost forgotten side-scrolling shooter (complete with punishing difficulty).

After Alien Hominid The Behemoth moved onto a completely new game in Castle Crashers. This time they decided to have a go at another classic genre, the side-scrolling brawler. Dan Paladin’s unique art style remains, but Castle Crashers is a much bigger and more ambitious game than Alien Hominid. The Behemoth took the basic 2D brawler gameplay and added a few things on top, with an RPG-like (or lite?) leveling system and a little more depth to the brawling itself.

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According to Joystiq, the Halo game that started it all will be re-released November 15, 2011 with high-definition graphics, 1080p support, and all new art assets. Multiplayer …
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We’ve spent the past week searching the internet and hounding our industry contacts in an effort to compile the ultimate 2011 XBLA Game Release List. We anticipated on heck of a year for Xbox Live Arcade. So epic we couldn’t even fit everything on one page. So without further ado, check out the list:

Check out the rest here:

XBLA Fans Anticipated 2011 Releases: A-C
XBLA Fans Anticipated 2011 Releases: D-F
XBLA Fans Anticipated 2011 Releases: G-M
XBLA Fans Anticipated 2011 Releases: N-R
XBLA Fans Anticipated 2011 Releases: S
XBLA Fans Anticipated 2011 Releases: T-Z
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Remedy’s psychological thriller Alan Wake will be making his debut on Microsoft’s Games on Demand on November 23rd, as I stated in the title. It’s strange to see a …
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The founders of Vector Unit are no strangers to game development. After working for several years at bigger companies, Ralf Knoesel and Matt Small decided it was time to form their own company with the goal of making “big games in small packages”. Games that felt like full retail experiences but were meant for downloadable services like Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.

With their first title, Hydro Thunder Hurricane, that goal was achieved. With a small team of about 8 people and some art outsourcing, Vector Unit managed to create the sequel fans had been dreaming of for 10 years. This is an interview with Matt Small, co-founder and creative director at Vector Unit. He shares his views on the franchise, the upcoming DLC pack and the future.

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