Geometry Wars Leads Xbox 360 Arcade Downloads

In an official statement to consumer website IGN, Microsoft has revealed details of the most popular downloads on the Xbox Live Arcade service for the Xbox 360 console, one of the most consistently praised aspects of the Xbox 360 launch. Although exact sales figures for the titles have not been announced, the top ten most popular worldwide Xbox 360 downloadable titles have been ranked in order, with Bizarre Creations’ Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved coming out on top, as follows: 1. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2. Gauntlet 3. Smash TV 4. Bejeweled II 5. Zuma 6. Bankshot Billiards 2 7. Outpost Kaloki X 8. Mutant Storm Reloaded 9. Joust 10. Wik: Fable of Souls Putting this in some kind of numerical perspective, specific recent reports have revealed over 200,000 trial downloads of Geometry Wars and 45,000 paid downloads since Xbox 360 launch, an impressive tally. Described in some quarters as the “Halo of Xbox Live Arcade”, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved is an updated version of the retro style arcade game first featured as part of Project Gotham Racing 2 on the original Xbox. Though Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved has emerged as the most obvious candidate for a Xbox Live Arcade 'killer app', genuine retro arcade games Gauntlet and Smash T.V. indicate that simple arcade based action titles are so far the most popular on the service, with casual titles such as Bejeweled and original indie games such as Outpost Kaloki X also ranking in the top ten. Most of the games on the chart are available as downloads for 400-800 Microsoft Points, where 80 Points equals $1. Bankshot Billiards 2, though, is the most expensive game on the chart at 1200 Points ($15). The success of the game is likely to encourage both similar genre titles on Xbox Live Arcade, and possibly also higher prices for more complicated games.