Though Spelunky was the best-reviewed Xbox Live Arcade game of July, its sales failed to reach the levels attained by the indie darlings that preceded it. That and more in this month's XBLA analysis.
Gamasutra contributor Ryan Langley examines July 2012's Xbox Live Arcade debuts and continuing successes, with charts and Leaderboard data showing the performance of titles like Spelunky, Quantum Conundrum,and Tony Hawk: Pro Skater HD. It's that time of year again -- the Summer of Arcade, an event held once a year to show off the best and brightest the Xbox Live Arcade can offer. This month we look at Tony Hawk HD and Wreckateer, as well as those titles that didn't make it into the promotion, like Spelunky and Quantum Conundrum. We've pieced together Leaderboard statistics and Metacritic ratings from every title released in July, where available, which allows us to determine how new games have sold and how well they were reviewed. We also look at several older titles that continue to do well, as well as specific downloadable content for games that support it.
Despite Spelunky being a well-known indie darling, it hasn't seen the same popularity of games like Limbo, Braid and Fez. The game added only 17,818 players in the first week for 33,107 players for the month. It is the best-reviewed title, however. Even taking the price difference between it ($15) and Fez ($10) into account, it hasn't seen much money. It's shame that we haven't seen another big indie seller, but the developers should be pretty happy with the great reviews. Bellator: MMA Onslaught, developed by Kung Fu Factory and published by MTV's 345 Games, did not have any leaderboards that we could follow. It was also the worst reviewed title for the month. Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition appears to have sold quite poorly. If people wanted Frogger, they would have picked up one of the previous two releases. The Xbox Live Arcade version was almost purely to complete the rundown of releases, as it also released on WiiWare, PlayStation Network, and iPhone. 
The second week of July also had three releases. Quantum Conundrum received good reviews on PC just a few weeks earlier, as well as a slight push over the competition in the first week, but the game ended up selling slightly less overall than the other two titles -- Zuma's Revenge and Dungeon Fighter. All three titles sold close to the same amount, though Quantum Conundrum was released on numerous platforms at the same time. It was probably the most expensive of the three to develop.
The first release for this year's Summer of Arcade was Tony Hawk HD, a remake of some of the best levels from the original PlayStation games for a new generation. Reviews have been lukewarm, citing some issues with physics and the general "empty" feel of the game. Regardless, it was the best selling new title of the month, adding nearly 100,000 players in the first week for a total of 132,598 players for the month.
The final release of the month was Wreckateer, this year's Kinect title in the Summer of Arcade. While last year's Fruit Ninja Kinect was a resounding success, Wreckateer appears to be the worst selling Summer of Arcade title we've seen. Only 6,629 players were added in the first week, placing it in fifth on the Major Nelson Top 20. 
We continue to follow the DLC for three titles: Pinball FX 2, Toy Soliders, and Trials HD. The latest addition, Pinball FX's third Marvel Pack, slowed down quite quickly and hasn't been performing as well as it could have, but with the addition of mobile platforms for their titles I wouldn't be surprised if the sales are a little more spread over different SKUs now. 
Minecraft cracked 3 million players at the beginning of July, an astounding feat. It continues to be one of the most played titles on all of Xbox - only being bested by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Castle Crashers still adds a lot of players each week - in a month or two it will also hit the 3 million mark.
August will continue the Summer of Arcade with some sales hopefuls - Deadlight, Dust and Hybrid. But there's also a ton of other big titles too - Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure HD and Rock Band Blitz.
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