Microsoft Details Xbox Live Arcade Plans

The most recent podcast recorded by Microsoft's Larry 'Major Nelson' Hryb also included an interview with Greg 'Silver Surfer' Canessa concerning the company's recently announced Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays program. Regarding Xbox Live Arcade, of which Canessa is in charge, he noted that Microsoft developed the Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays program as a direct response to consumer demand for more content over the online service. He added that plans are to have 30 new titles available for download by the end of the summer, and 50 total by the end of 2006. He also noted that Microsoft plans to be consistent going forward, with releases each week. However, Canessa added that Microsoft is not “absolutely, 100 percent committing” to releasing a new title over Xbox Live Arcade each Wednesday, but that the goal remains to “drastically” increase the volume of arcade titles available. “There may be a week that we skip,” noted Canessa, “and then a week where we do two titles in a week.” In addition, he also stated that UNO has become the fast selling arcade title over Xbox Live Arcade, and that “six figures” of the game were sold through in two weeks. This equated to over 50 percent of those who downloaded the demo and then went on to purchase the full product. Concerning Microsoft regularly announcing the release dates of Xbox Live Arcade titles well in advance, Canessa stated that this is “one of the main benefits” of the Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays program. “We want to give people the heads up, “ he added. “The right way to do it is to be able to bring some predictability into the schedule, and be able to publish a schedule in advance.”