Originally Posted by Hasney (Post 3136232)

VF5:FS cabinets will have Twitter posting support to "re-energise" the American arcade market.

lol.

Originally Posted by Descructoid.com

Dance Central, otherwise known as "the one currently exclusive Kinect game that people are using to try and justify the whole horrible idea", will have downloadable content, obviously. Unfortunately for you lot, Harmonix has confessed that Dance Central's DLC will actually be more expensive than Rock Band's. There's a good reason though, allegedly.

"Because [Dance Central DLC] comes with a brand new unique routine with the three difficulties," explains project lead Kasson Crooker, "we have to: engage the choreographer, find the song, license the song, come up with a routine, get them into a [motion capture] suit, shoot all the choreography, integrate the animation, build the filter system, the flash cards, the [voiceover] for 'Break it Down' -- it's a pretty elaborate process that is not only a lot more expensive, but a lot more time consuming."

So there you have it -- Dance Central DLC costs more to make, ergo it costs more to buy. But Kinect's THE FUTURE OF VIDEOGAMES, so it's worth it, right?

Originally Posted by Kotaku

Sega is bringing back its beloved Dreamcast this fall—or at least two of its more memorable games, in downloadable form—but what of its predecessor, the sometimes spectacular but relatively unsuccessful Sega Saturn? Sega has not forgotten it.

In fact, Sega is "thinking about ports of Saturn games" for future releases. It has already ported a handful of Saturn era titles to the PlayStation 2—Nights Into Dreams, Panzer Dragoon, Last Bronx, etc.—but it may abide fan wishes for more recent retro remakes.

"What we announced this time is a project where we will have consecutive releases of titles that were debuted on Dreamcast," Sega producer Yosuke Okunari told Impress Watch, as translated by Andriasang. "Separate from this, we're of course thinking about ports of Saturn games. It's the same as how Sega Ages and Virtual Console were separate existences. It's not that we have no intention of porting Saturn titles, so please share your requests."

We've already made our selfish wishes for Sega's next batch of downloadable Dreamcast games, but if they're going to give us an inch, we're going to take a yard.

So, let's get this list started. Burning Rangers, Panzer Dragon Zwei, Shining Force III...

Originally Posted by Penny Arcade

Playstation Plus exists because running a free service might be good PR, but it's terrible business...

Originally Posted by Kotaku

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets...arcade0_01.jpg

Starting next week there will be a new way — a third way — for Xbox 360 users to browse the 250-some Xbox Live Arcade games offered through Microsoft's console. No, the first two methods weren't good enough.

Xbox Live Arcade on the Xbox 360 launched in the fall of 2005, with Geometry Wars Retro Evolved leading the pack of arcade-style games that cost five or 10 bucks. The high volume of weekly XBLA releases caused a problem: cluttered content. Enter the 2008 "New Xbox Experience" with its streamlined interface and, well, not a streamlined enough one to efficiently display 250-or-so XBLA games.

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets...ionarcade2.jpg

That brings us to attempt #3: Destination Arcade. Next week, Microsoft will launch an app that Xbox 360 users can download to their console and use to sort through XBLA games better.

"It was starting to get cumbersome," Microsoft producer Justin Robey told Kotaku today. "Destination Arcade is an a opportunity to find games better instead of having to browse through a big list."

The Destination Arcade is designed to offer some of the things shoppers of physical, disc-based games enjoy, such as the ability for you to, in Robey's words, "look at games your friends have played" or "have that guy behind the counter who can say what games are like the ones you like."

The way this works is through the better filtering options in Destination Arcade and an extra content-rating system. Users of Destination Arcade will be able to sort games by developer, rating or price, and also check a tab for a list of the games that are on sale. They'll also be able to "like" games similarly to the way you can thumbs-up something on Facebook. Destination Arcade will keep track of those likes and let you see a display of which games your friends like the most. Another piece of the app will look at which games you like and find ones that are similar and worth recommending.

Microsoft has an impressive Summer of Arcade roster of games coming later this season and surely doesn't want you having any trouble finding the good stuff. In a race to keep up with the best parts of the Steam store or Amazon, Microsoft's Xbox 360 store for XBLA is getting better. It took them three tries, but if it works, why not?