Realising that sci-fi shooters and racing games will not grow the market, Microsoft have today announced their Live Arcade casual gaming line-up for the 360. The mixture of retro and other games usually found on the web and mobiles includes Joust, Jewel Quest and Robotron 2084.
Those 360 owners who buy the console with the hard drive will find a full version of Tetris creators Alexey Pajitnov's new game - Hexic HD installed. Moore also announced that more than 40 publishers and developers will be supporting Live Arcade, including Atari, EA, Llamasoft (yay) and, thanks to earlier legal shenanigans, RealNetworks.
Hype aside, I think MS are on the right track here. Casual gaming is massive, and is growing. And even hardcore gamers occasionally need some time off from the fragging. Of course, the key is cost and how regularly updated the game list is.
