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The Behemoth is hosting a catalog sale on Xbox Live Arcade this week, discounting the studio's downloadable Xbox 360 hits Castle Crashers and BattleBlock Theater to just $4.94 apiece.

Castle Crashers, originally released back in 2008, is an arcade-style beat-'em-up in which up to four players band together to slay armies of barbarians, demons, and dragons. The more recent BattleBlock Theater puts a teamwork-oriented spin on the platforming genre, challenging players to work together as they clear dozens of included co-op levels.

As a bonus, players who purchase both featured games will unlock Hatty Hattington in Castle Crashers and the Knight in BattleBlock Theater. The Behemoth's sale continues through April 14.

[Image: The Behemoth]

Carbon Games' browser-based real-time strategy game AirMech will see an expanded release on the Xbox 360 this summer, publisher Ubisoft announced today.

The upcoming game is titled AirMech Arena, confirming earlier reports. AirMech Arena on the Xbox 360 will be free-to-play, and will include single-player, multiplayer cooperative and multiplayer competitive gameplay modes in which players fend off invading armies by commanding giant transforming robots.

Carbon Games will support AirMech Arena with frequent updates, introducing new playable units, maps, and special community events in the months following its initial release.

[Video: Ubisoft]

Mojang's sandbox build-'em-up Minecraft remains a popular favorite on the Xbox 360, surpassing 12 million units sold as of this month.

"It is pretty amazing!" Mojang's Daniel Kaplan stated in response to the latest sales milestone. "I remember when we started talking about sales numbers that we would be super happy to sell 1 million copies. That would have put us on par with [Battlefield 1943] and Castle Crashers, which both are awesome games, so that was something to aim for. We never even dreamed of selling 12 million!"

Minecraft previously topped 10 million sales in December last year. Mojang and development partner 4J Studios will continue to update Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition with new content in the coming months, including a Candy Texture Pack due to launch on April 18.

[Image: Mojang]

Driving through the streets of Jet Car Stunts must be pretty stressful - there are chasm-like gaps leading to the blue abyss below, and there aren't even guide rails lining the edges of its loops! Then there's the clean, simplistic geometry and levitating rings, which are kind of pretty until you've crashed into them a dozen times. PS4, PS3, Vita, Xbox 360 and Steam's PC users can witness Jet Car Stunts' hazards firsthand when it lands on the platforms in Q2 2014.

The tricky racer will have 36 tracks across three different modes, including a Puzzle Mode. While the press release doesn't specify what the other two play styles will be, the mobile counterpart includes Performing, Time Trial and Tutorial modes, so Jet Car Stunts' port may pull from that pool. [Image: Grip Digital]

International Games System's time-manipulating, gravity-shifting physics puzzler Constant C is getting a worldwide release via Xbox Live Arcade on March 12, Japanese publisher 5pb revealed this week.

Constant C stars a rescue robot stranded aboard a space station where time has stopped. The robot can restore the flow of time using its Time Circle, temporarily bringing surrounding objects out of stasis and restoring gravity. Later stages require advanced techniques, challenging players to rotate their surroundings and manipulate inertia in order to dodge traps and solve puzzles.

Constant C is also available for Windows via Desura. A Steam version has been successfully Greenlit, but is not yet available.

[Image: IGS]

Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet's band of superheroes can no longer assemble on the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network. The game's PSN listing now notes that the game is available in a "disc only" format, while the XBLA listing doesn't offer a price or way to purchase the game. Revealed in 2010 as a sequel to Marvel Super Hero Squad, Infinity Gauntlet's cast brawled their way through hordes of Lethal Legion followers in a plot related to the second season of a Cartoon Network series.

Infinity Gauntlet's digital unavailability follows the disappearance of several Marvel-branded games earlier this month, as well as Capcom's pulling of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 in December. It's possible that Disney's acquisition of Marvel in 2009 is resulting in lapsed licensing agreements, but no explanation has been given as to why these games have been removed from console storefronts. In contrast, the more recent LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is still available in both stores.

Of course, you can still hunt down retail copies of any Marvel games you were still considering purchasing. Considering warnings for some of these delistings were scattered across social media accounts, retail copies might be the easiest option to keep track of anyway.

Microsoft is counting the days to 2014 with sales on a random assortment of digital Xbox 360 goodies, Major Nelson announced. Each day brings new, limited-time deals beginning tomorrow with discounts on the Games on Demand version of Borderlands 2 (75% off) and the game's collection of DLC.

In addition to the limited daily sales, Xbox Live has a slew of discounts on a mishmash of digital content beginning tomorrow and running until December 23. Highlights include Spider-Man: Web of Shadows for 67% off its regular price, Guardians of Middle-earth for 67% off, and 65% off BioShock Infinite.

For a complete list of discounts, check Major Nelson's blog, where daily deals will also be posted.

Developer Serellan's Takedown: Red Sabre was scheduled to reach both Steam and the Xbox Live Arcade on September 20, but the game has yet to pop up for Xbox 360 owners. Creative Director Christian Allen posted a video update to the game's Kickstarter page this month, explaining that the studio's decision to hold the game back was made to address issues and add improvements.

Allen explains that the Xbox 360 version had "technical certification requirements" it did not pass. While Serellan fixed those, it decided to hold the game a little longer to implement the improvements made to the PC version since its initial launch.

Allen notes the studio will need to "work with" Microsoft and publisher 505 Games to determine a new launch date for the Xbox 360 version. A general launch window was not offered.

This is the latest trailer for Capy's Super TIME Force, and while their last one was awesome, this might be even better. Forget expensive cinematics or insomnia-curing developer diaries; this is how you sell a video game.Read more...

MercurySteam's exploratory platformer Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate HD will hit Xbox Live Arcade this Friday, October 25, bumping up its previously announced Halloween release date.

Released for the Nintendo 3DS earlier this year, Mirror of Fate follows up on the events of the Castlevania series reboot Lords of Shadow with a new side-scrolling quest featuring Castlevania 3 star Trevor Belmont. If you can wait until November 5, Mirror of Fate HD is included as part of the DLC-bundled Castlevania: Lords of Shadow Collection for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Microsoft Studios revealed that its free-to-play Xbox Live Arcade multiplayer game Happy Wars has been downloaded more than six million times since its launch in October last year.

To mark the occasion, developer Toylogic has dropped the price of in-game item modification and forging by 50 percent. The studio will launch a variety of content updates during this month's Happy Wartober event, starting with the recent introduction of the turret-building Engineer class.

Happy Wars is available as a free download for Xbox Live Gold subscribers. Microsoft Studios additionally notes that Happy Wars: Season 2 is set to premiere in 2014, though no details regarding the update have been announced.

This week's launch of Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+ brings plenty of DLC in tow, extending Pac-Man's ghost-munching reign of terror in a new series of levels based on classic Namco arcade games like Dig Dug and Rally X.

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+ is up for purchase on Steam. This week's batch of new DLC is also available for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of Championship Edition DX.

Who spends $500 to play a $20 downloadable game? I do, if the game's the spiritual successor to the Panzer Dragoon series. Fresh Crimson Dragon screens and a new trailer out of TGS seal the deal. Read more...

This week's Xbox Live deals, which are good until Monday, August 19, include the Hitman HD Pack, Just Cause 2 and Deus Ex Human Revolution, each 40 percent off ($15). Additionally, Hitman: Blood Money ($10) is 50 percent off while El Shaddai ($5) is discounted by 75 percent.

Major Nelson also gave us a sneak peek of what deals are in store for August 20 to August 26, and we have to admit, we're a little more excited for next week. The deals include Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, Rumble Roses XX and the Silent Hill HD Collection at 33 percent off, as well as a gaggle of games discounted by 50 percent: Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3, Zone of the Enders HD, Deca Sports Freedom, Otomedius Excellent, Silent Hill: Homecoming, Silent Hill: Downpour, Saw and NeverDead.

Lastly, four new games are available today on Xbox Live's Games on Demand service: Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2, Metro: Last Light, Midway Arcade Origins and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.

Xbox 360 developers may be able to self-publish their games on Xbox Live Arcade starting this August, according to a recent update from The Pinball Arcade developer FarSight Studios. Microsoft, however, maintains that there have been no official changes to the Xbox 360's publishing situation: "We have not announced any changes to our publishing policy for Xbox 360," a representative told Joystiq.

Meanwhile: "Microsoft has just announced that indie developers (like FarSight) can now self-publish on Xbox Live Arcade instead of being required to find publishers for their games," FarSight's announcement reads. "Microsoft has stated that the new program will open in August- we will do everything we can to get The Pinball Arcade (and all of the new Table Packs) back on the Xbox 360 as quickly as possible."

Microsoft announced earlier this week that indie developers will be able to self-publish on the Xbox One, but no mention was made of the Xbox 360 or the existing Xbox Live Arcade. The Microsoft representative we spoke to said that the company will be "sharing more about self-publishing on Xbox One at Gamescom."

Three new game bundles have been released on Xbox Live Arcade, giving hefty discounts to select grab-bags of games. The Action Packed bundle hacks together Bloodforge, The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile, Dungeon Fighter Live, Islands of Wakfu and Unbound Saga. Next up is the NinjaBee Bundle, which includes Band of Bugs, A World of Keflings, Cloning Clyde, Outpost Kaloki X and Ancients of Ooga.

With the exception of Cloning Clyde, all of these games normally cost $10 ($15 in the case of Bloodforge), so the savings are certainly substantial. Take note, however, that these bundles won't give you an extra copy of a game you already own.

TrueAchievements also spotted a Kinect Bundle listed on Xbox.com, which features Dragon's Lair, Wreckateer, Diabolical Pitch, Home Run Stars and Haunt. Strangely, it has no price and there doesn't appear to be any way to purchase it via Xbox.com or the Xbox 360 itself. There was an ad for the bundle in the Xbox 360 games section, though it appears to have been pulled. We've contacted Microsoft to see when or if the bundle will be available.

Responding to fan questions on Reddit, Monaco: What's Yours is Mine developer Andy Schatz claims that his studio's efforts in porting its co-op stealth game to the Xbox 360 were "largely wasted," due to unexpectedly low sales.

Schatz theorizes that many factors contributed to Monaco's poor sales performance on Xbox Live Arcade, including a weak demo and a last-minute delay that prevented a simultaneous release on PC platforms. Schatz revealed that a widespread bug related to online play proved especially troublesome, due to his team's inability to reproduce the issue on developer hardware.

"I was never depending on the Xbox being our primary revenue generator, but I was very disappointed in Xbox sales nonetheless," Schatz said. "We put a ton of effort porting the game, and to have that effort be largely wasted was really disappointing."

The PC version of Monaco is currently taking part in Steam's Summer Sale, and will be featured in an upcoming community vote.

This year's Summer of Arcade event kicks off on Xbox Live August 7 with Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, the Starbreeze-developed Xbox Live Arcade game where players must simultaneously control a pair of brothers stuck in the wilderness. Brothers will launch at 1,200 MS Points ($15).

James Silva's Charlie Murder, a 2D beat-em-up starring a punk band for 800 MS Points ($10), will launch the following week, on August 14, Major Nelson reports. On August 21, VectorCell will push out its remake of classic adventure game Flashback for 800 MS Points ($10), and rounding out this year's festivities is TMNT: Out of the Shadows on August 28 for 1,200 MS Points ($15).

State of Decay developer Undead Labs has been "thoroughly evaluating the possibility of adding co-op multiplayer" to the game and apparently determined that there isn't one. Co-op multiplayer was originally planned for the game, but ultimately scrapped as Undead Labs thought its inclusion could delay the launch of State of Decay for as much as half a year. An update on the developer's forums dashes all hopes that multiplayer might've someday made it into the Xbox Live Arcade hit.

In an update on the forums, "Undead Jeff" explains that it would take close to nine months to get multiplayer into the game. "We could 'check the box' and shoehorn multiplayer in sooner than that, but it wouldn't be a great experience, and certainly not one we'd be proud of," he explains. On top of that, pursuing multiplayer would inhibit Undead Labs' ability to support the game with further title updates and DLC.

As for future games, "Undead Jeff" says, "Multiplayer will be the absolute heart of any future State of Decay games. As many of you know, we've always had ambitious plans for the future of State of Decay, and those plans have not changed."

Undead Labs, developer of State of Decay, has issued another title update hoping to strip away some of the unsightly crud clinging to the Xbox Live Arcade game.

The update is substantial, enabling a V-sync option designed to eliminate screen tearing. It also addresses pathing issues for zombies and soldiers in "The Armory" mission, improves analog stick sensitivity when aiming and squashes a bug that prevented story progression involving one of the survivors, Quentin. This second update follows a first attempt by Undead Labs to address some of the technical issues plaguing State of Decay.

After its debut earlier this month, State of Decay has been quite the success, reaching 250,000 copies sold in its first 48 hours and eclipsing half a million in sales as of last week. An MMO sequel, codenamed Class4, has always been planned at Undead Labs, though it's currently stuck in limbo at Microsoft.

As demonstrate in our recent Man of Steel discussion, I love me some I Fight Dragons. I also love pixel art. So when the Nintendocore band teams up with the makers of Xbox Live Arcade's Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds for a pixel-perfect music video for their song "Move", why it's the best day ever. "If I could have picked the ideal music video for "Move" it might have been something along the lines of 'Four badass anime heroines going on a beat-em-up rampage while pixelized versions of IFD to cheer them on,” said Brian Mazzaferri of I Fight Dragons via official announcement. “And much to my delight, the universe has willed such a video into existence through our collaboration with the excellent folks at Mages." If I should ever catch I Fight Dragons live, I will be sorely disappointed if they do not look exactly as they do in this video. I will forgive them if they play this song a dozen times in a row, to simulate this morning's marathon video replay session.

There's a pretty massive Sega sale going down on Xbox Live right now. Many games and DLC packs are $5 or less. In the $5 camp are Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, Sonic Adventure 2, Jet Set Radio, Nights into Dreams and Crazy Taxi. Other downloads, such as Guardian Heroes, the Sega Genesis Sonic games (including Sonic CD) and Space Channel 5 Part 2 are only two bucks each. You'll also find a number of $10 Games on Demand titles, including Sonic Generations, Condemned, Sega Superstars Tennis ... and Sonic Unleashed.

Finally, if you haven't tried out Ron Gilbert's latest adventure, you can pick up The Cave for $7.50.

Don't stop or you'll die.

This is the prevailing theme of State of Decay, Undead Labs' sandbox survival-horror game for Xbox Live Arcade. It's a game focused on the chores of survival in a post-apocalyptic world: scavenging for supplies in vacant buildings; trading and aiding neighboring groups; comforting and managing emotional states of your own survivors; and, of course, dealing with the occasional zombie attack on your home.

State of Decay is constantly pulling you in many directions, making it difficult to decide what mission you should take next or what resource you should hunt down. The deluge of missions, radio messages and scavenging cycles never stops, and the hostile nature of the environment itself hardly provides incentive for pause to soak in the scenery.

Undead Labs' zombie game State of Decay is set to launch on Xbox Live June 5 for 1,600 MS Points ($20). The news comes via Major Nelson on Twitter, with Undead Labs confirming the date on its blog. No word on a date for the PC port yet.

Undead Labs announced it was working on a zombie MMO in 2009. In early 2011, the company revealed a title codenamed Class3, which was positioned as an open-world zombie game targeting XBLA that would serve as a precursor to its announced MMO. In 2012, Undead Labs re-branded the downloadable game as State of Decay, which still retains its focus on survival mechanics in an open-world environment.

It shaped smartphone gaming in the early days of the App Store. Today, it's available on nearly every capable mobile device. It may even be lurking at your local arcade.

Next month, a Kinect version of Lima Sky's runaway hit, Doodle Jump, could be coming to Xbox Live Arcade, according to a recent Australian ratings classification and evidence uncovered by self-proclaimed Xbox Live Marketplace watchdog, "Lifelower."

The Australian Classification Board confirms Smoking Gun Interactive as the developer behind the upcoming Doodle Jump for Kinect. Lifelower, meanwhile, has obtained boxart and a gallery of purported screenshots, suggesting that the game is nearing completion. Lifelower expects the game to launch near the end of June at 400 Microsoft points.

A Kinect adaptation of Doodle Jump was first announced back in 2011 when creator Lima Sky outlined its plans for expansion after surpassing 10 million paid downloads on mobile platforms. We've reached out to developer Smoking Gun Interactive for more information.

Wolfenstein 3D is back on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network in North America after a brief absence, and is coming to PSN in Europe soon. You can snag id's seminal shooter for $5 on Xbox Live Arcade, PSN or Steam.

Activision had originally published Wolfenstein 3D on consoles just a few weeks after Bethesda acquired id Software in 2009. Bethesda's Pete Hines told Joystiq the re-rating was a necessity for both the ESRB and console manufacturers. "No changes. Was originally published through Activision, so now that it's reverted back to us we have to jump through ESRB (ratings go to the publisher, they don't "follow" the game to a new publisher) and console hoops (game has to be "re-certed" by the new publisher)."

A new entry in the series, Wolfenstein: The New Order, is currently in development at MachineGames, with a tentative launch window slated for later this year.

Your patience has paid off, as today Capcom has issued the full Capcom Arcade Cabinet collection, a cheaper bundle of all 17 games previously issued in piecemeal packs or as individual downloads. The all-in-one pack is available starting today for 2,000 MS Points ($30), a saving of $15 over purchasing all five game packs.

Capcom Arcade Cabinet highlights games from the publisher's catalog spanning the years between 1984 and 1988. The full list of 17 games within the Capcom Arcade Cabinet are Black Tiger, Avengers, 1943, The Battle of Midway, Ghosts n Goblins, Gun Smoke, Section Z, Side Arms, Legendary Wings, Trojan, Commando, The Speed Rumbler, Exed Exes (Savage Bees), 1942, SonSon and Pirate Ship Higemaru. There are also two secret games: 1943 Kai and Vulgus.

The Xbox 360 accrued an arguably bad reputation in terms of indie games publishing over the past few years. Many vocal observers - players, mostly - saw Xbox Live Arcade as a closed, unsupportive platform that asked developers for thousands of dollars to update their own games, and Xbox Live Indie Games was a stagnant hole filled with Minecraft clones and zombie games.

Microsoft may have to overcome this public perception with its next-gen Xbox conference today at 10 a.m. PT. But from an indie developer's standpoint, the issues in publishing with Microsoft are different - or nonexistent.

"Working with Microsoft is great," writes James Silva, one half of Ska Studios and creator of The Dishwasher series of XBLA games. "I have heard a few stories that contradict my experience, and I know quite a few people who are happier on platforms other than XBLA, and that's fine for them. XBLA is a closed, carefully curated platform with its own set of fairly rigid standards and protocols."

Ska Studios works with only Microsoft, publishing The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai after winning the Dream Build Play competition in 2007, and from there developing The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile for XBLA, I MAED A GAM3 W1TH ZOMB1ES 1N IT!!!1 on XBLIG and a version on Windows Phone, and now polishing another XBLA game, Charlie Murder.

Silva makes enough money developing games for Microsoft platforms to support a life of developing games for Microsoft platforms. He says that with Microsoft as a publisher, he retains full creative control, and Microsoft supports him in terms of bug-squashing, meeting goals, play-testing, and even taking him to dinner when he's in town.

"Shortly after The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai launched, I absolutely spent a night at my producer's cabin in Snoqualmie, drinking IPA and playing around with GarageBand," Silva says. "Yes, it was fine, it was fun, and it's unfortunate that 'everything's fine' doesn't really register as newsworthy, because there is currently a 'Microsoft is bad for indies' narrative trending in gaming news."

Deep Silver will publish an upcoming gesture-based racing game for Kinect called Freefall Racers. The first breadcrumb in this trail comes from an Australian rating that has surfaced, outing Deep Silver as publisher.

The developer is Smoking Gun Interactive, whose most recent work includes two Kinect experiences, Mars Rover Landing and Home Run Stars, so a new Kinect project would make sense. The Vancouver-based studio at least partly funded Freefall Racers with help from the Canadian government, as evidenced by the $461,243 contributed through the Canada Media Fund (PDF) last year.

Our first glimpse of the game is courtesy of environmental artist Anthony Leonati, who published six screens from Freefall Racers on his personal website. In addition to the screens, he also pegs Freefall Racers for Xbox Live Arcade, though his LinkedIn profile indicates he has since moved on from Smoking Gun to become a senior environment artist at EA.

We've followed up with Deep Silver and Smoking Gun Interactive for comment and will update this post accordingly.

[Thanks, lifelower]

What's in Summer of Arcade this year? We don't know, but we have some strong suspicions.