Xbox 360 Arcade games coming to a store near you as Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged
Microsoft has announced to retailers the release of “Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged”. This collection will provide unconnected Xbox 360 owners a sample of the great casual games from Xbox Live Arcade.
The disc will include: Geometry Wars, Texas Hold’em, Wik, Bejeweled 2, Outpost Kaloki X, and Hardwood Backgammon. The collection will also contain a 1 month trial to Xbox Live Gold and 100 Microsoft points. It will retail for $39.99 and is slated for early September 2006.
Peter Moore (CVPotIEBitEaDDoMC*) is pushing to extend the Live Arcade brands to retail.
He argued internally (at the Microsoft offices, not inside his head) that original games like Geometry Wars, retro hits like Smash TV and casual games like Hardwood Hearts will extend Xbox 360’s appeal to non-hardcore audiences.
The company is looking to offer the games to the “other 50%” of Xbox 360 gamers that have not signed up to Xbox Live. Via Orangeloungeradio
* Corporate Vice President of the Interactive Entertainment Business in the Entertainment and Devices Division of Microsoft Corporation.
