Pricing and Releases
Xbox Live Arcade games are purchased using Microsoft Points (MSP). Titles range in price from 200MSP to 1600MSP, with the vast majority selling for 800MSP and under. The games are generally aimed towards more casual gamers, striving for "pick up and play" appeal. Several games were temporarily free, including Texas Hold 'em, Carcassonne, and Undertow. Others are permanently free including Aegis Wing, a game created by three Microsoft interns, TotemBall, a game that can only be played with the Xbox Live Vision camera, Yaris (a Toyota-backed advergame), and Dash of Destruction, which was released on December 17, 2008, as a Doritos advergame. On November 30, 2007, Microsoft introduced "Xbox Live Arcade Hits", where games are permanently reduced in price (a similar concept to their "Platinum Hits" for regular retail Xbox 360 games). As of July 22, 2008, current Arcade Hits include Lumines Live!, Assault Heroes, Zuma, Doom, Bankshot Billiards 2, Small Arms, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, and Marble Blast Ultra. On June 24, 2011 gaming blog 1UP.com reported that Microsoft was preparing to bring free-to-play games to Xbox Live and said games will include a microtransaction service. The first free-to-play game, Happy Wars, was released on October 12, 2012.
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Famous quotes containing the word releases:
“We need a type of theatre which not only releases the feelings, insights and impulses possible within the particular historical field of human relations in which the action takes place, but employs and encourages those thoughts and feelings which help transform the field itself.”
—Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956)