Limbo won XBLA summer by miles

By Tom Bramwell Published 20 September, 2010

Phil Spencer says it's his GOTY.

Haunting 2D platform puzzle game Limbo was the big winner in this year's Summer of Arcade promotion on Xbox Live Arcade according to Microsoft's Phil Spencer.

Spencer, who is vice president of Microsoft Game Studios, said it was evidence that XBLA was diversifying.

"Our number one Summer of Arcade game is Limbo," he told Joystiq. "By a long stretch."

"We see that in the market, that it's becoming less about iconic IP that people know and it's becoming more diverse," he added.

"I love Limbo. I think Limbo's probably my game of the year right now."

What, not Halo: Reach? Come on Phil - stay on message.

Check out our Limbo review to discover why many of us may end up agreeing with him.

The first 15 minutes of Limbo.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (27) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • madgerald Verified Studio Head of PR & Marketing, Colossal Games LTD #1 2 years ago

    I was completely blown away by the audio/visual style of Limbo, but I felt really let down by the game's length and over-simple puzzles. And the ending was very poor IMHO.

    Not worth the 1200 points.

  • PoundHound #2 2 years ago

    I really liked Limbo, but Lara Croft: GoL was my fave Summer Of Arcade game.

    I had a little look at the leaderboards the other day for the 3 SoA games I bought, which gives me a pretty good idea of the sales.

    Limbo around 410,000; Hydro Thunder around 115,000: LC: GoL around 65,000.

    LC deserves more.

  • funkateer #3 2 years ago

    One of the most beautifully designed games ever. However I agree the gameplay didn't really stack up to the design.

  • mingster #4 2 years ago

    I'm sure it's good but was overpriced. Will pick it up when on sale.

  • jag10 #5 2 years ago

    played it on little big planet lol:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GntUCaV_bOY

  • mfnick #6 2 years ago

    " had a little look at the leaderboards the other day for the 3 SoA games I bought, which gives me a pretty good idea of the sales.

    Limbo around 410,000; Hydro Thunder around 115,000: LC: GoL around 65,000. "


    I think the price was probably a major factor in the later XBLA games not selling anywhere near as much. 1200 points each was bound to stop people people buying more than one. & since LC was the last released people had alreday bought 1 or 2 XBLA games at 1200 each & either had run out of points by then & couldnt be arsed to buy more or just didnt want to blow another 1200 points so soon.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #7 2 years ago

    I need to finish this; Got stuck somewhere and haven't played it since. Has been awesome right up until that point though.

  • metalangel #8 2 years ago

    I gritted my teeth at the price for Hydro Thunder. It was great, true, but it was still too expensive. So it was the only one I bought. I don't care how great Limbo is, for 1200 points and that short, wallet says no.

  • wizlon #9 2 years ago

    Was very enjoyable but not my GOTY, not by miles.

  • butler` #10 2 years ago

    I really liked it but generally agree with madgerald. Doubt it'll make my GOTY for those reasons.

    I also think LC: GoL isn't doing as well as it should be. It's a great game, especially co-op.

  • Eraysor #11 2 years ago

    I thought Monday Night Combat was the best one of this summer. Nowhere near as good as last summer though; Shadow Complex is still the best XBLA game by miles.

  • afray #12 2 years ago

    Yes but what did Kirsty think?

  • Drpwnage #13 2 years ago

    9 quid for 4 hours of high quality gaming - if you measure a games 'worth' to you with pence per hour criteria then Limbo may not seem good value. However as one of the 400k+ people who purchased Limbo it was the perfect size at an impulse buy price, exactly what I want from XBLA title, a beautiful, haunting game that didn't require a large investment of time to run through.



  • ApatheticRhino #14 2 years ago

    Limbo was fantastic. I felt the level design was excellent, the way it had your emotional reactions fighting with your rational puzzle solving ability really gave a unique and strong character to the game. Approaching Limbo as just a 'puzzle-platformer' is a horrible disservice.

  • BigDannyH #15 2 years ago

    I really liked Limbo, but I expected too. Was more surprised by LC which was an awesome co-op game.

    Shame it didn't sell as well because they really should make more offline co-op games. I don't understand where the market's gone?

  • Scarbir #16 2 years ago

    Congrats to the Limbo developers who did a splendid job actually selling the fine art. My favorite was Lara Croft though. Can't believe it only sold 65,000 times. It's so cool to play along with a (girl)friend.

  • DiamondIce #17 2 years ago

    Although Limbo wasn't a long game I will play it again. I lose things from my memory as if it was a sieve, so it should play like a new game to me in a few months time.

    Lara Croft TOL was very good value and the co-op feature added even more depth.

    During the summer I hardly put a disk into the 360 because of the quality of arcade titles.

  • SpookyTang #18 2 years ago

    Worth every penny although not in my top 5 games of the year, i come from the days when games lasted 2 hours (hello sonic!) and cost 40 quid at retail. If you can afford it then buy Limbo.

  • Cronan #19 2 years ago

    It was down to price for me, 1200 is too much money. I bought (and loved) Limbo, at 800 I probably would have got the Lara Croft game. I don't think it helped that Hydro Thunder is one of those "meh" games for me and (I think) lots of others too.

  • qwertymz #20 2 years ago

    I played the demo for Limbo, but the review from EG was slightly too spoiler-ridden for me... might wait till some of the details I read are forgotten before I buy it.

    My favourite was definitely LC: GoL. Spent more than 7 hours on the main campaign, then ages more on getting achievements and the like. Packed in more than 12 hours in that game - now THAT is value for money!

  • uzivatel #21 2 years ago

    Limbo may be great, but I think Monday Night Combat and Lara Croft are better games.
    Looking at the leaderboard, MNC did pretty well, but Lara Croft ... I just dont understand it - its such a great game, the franchise is well known and the reviews were positive ... why cant it sell better? I realize the online coop thing did damage sales and that some people may pick it on other platforms (unlike the other SoA games), but I would expect the sales to be 200k+ or at least 100k+.

  • metallicorphan #22 2 years ago

    meh....for me it was DeathSpank(at least XBLA GOTY),but each to his own i guess :)

  • MasterNameless #23 2 years ago

    "played it on little big planet lol:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GntUCaV_b...

    That does look like a really brilliant recreation. Says a lot for the design tools in LBP.

  • Dogs-not-Gods #24 2 years ago

    Fabulous game, atmospheric, fun to play and worth the points. However, given the length of Limbo, showing the first 15 minutes pretty much covers 20% of the entire game.

  • Sonic_D #25 2 years ago

    So stupid not to make it 800 points. I and many others would have bought it in, now I'll wait till it hits the sale in a year.

  • Syrette #26 2 years ago

    Great.

    Take note MS - INVEST IN SOME NEW IPs.


    Oh, and NOT ON KINECT.

    Cheers (caps for emphasis).

  • Quixz #27 2 years ago

    What Sonic_D said! :)