When you had a block of games that included the return of Lara Croft and a new downloadable Castlevania title, would you have expected an artsy puzzle-platformer to emerge as the best-selling game of the bunch? Perhaps Microsoft Games Studios VP Phil Spencer didn’t expect it either, but he says it’s part of a changing tide on Xbox Live Arcade from established IPs to original creations.
Speaking to Joystiq, Spencer revealed that Limbo was “our number one Summer of Arcade game by a long stretch.” This, despite the fact that three of the four other titles in the Summer of Arcade lineup — Hydro Thunder: Hurricane, Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light — were either new entries in popular franchises or the return of an older classic.
“I think there was a time when Live Arcade was about IP that people knew,” Spencer said. “It’s changing though. I really think coming out of Braid, Shadow Complex, Limbo […] that it’s changing a little bit. We see that in the market, that it’s becoming less about iconic IP that people know and it’s becoming more diverse.”
