Summer of Arcade sales spike 200%

Microsoft has seen significant success with its Summer of Arcade promotion. During its initial run in August 2008, the Xbox Live Arcade promotion heralded the release of such acclaimed downloadable titles as Braid, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, and Castle Crashers. The string of hits boosted Xbox Live revenues by 67 percent over the same period in 2007, according to Microsoft.

This year's Summer of Arcade, which began with the July 22 release of Twisted Pixel's Splosion Man and continued through the August 19 bow of Epic Games' Shadow Complex, has also seen healthy returns. Microsoft said this week that 2009's Summer of Arcade set a new monthly revenue record for the service, with sales spiking 200 percent over last year's program.

Save for Splosion Man's $10 (800 MSP) price tag, the remaining four games in Microsoft's Summer of Arcade promotion run for $15 (1,200 MSP). On July 29, Capcom added Marvel vs. Capcom 2, with Ubisoft's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-shelled following on August 5, and RedLynx's Trials HD joining the pack on August 12.

Microsoft further noted that three of the top-five biggest debuts on Xbox Live were Shadow Complex, Trials HD, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Trials HD, and then Shadow Complex, also secured Xbox Live records for most-downloaded single-player games during their first week, Microsoft said.

The June 1 launch of Microsoft's free-to-play 1 vs. 100 community game has also seen success, with the publisher stating that the trivia title has accrued nearly 3 million downloads. According to Microsoft, 1 vs. 100's adoption rate puts it within the top 10 most popular game-related downloads on Xbox Live, and more than 500,000 people play on average each week.