Research firm: XBLA has best month ever

By Fred Dutton Published 22 September, 2010

128k sales for Limbo alone.

Xbox Live Arcade enjoyed its strongest sales month ever in August, a market research firm has claimed.

According to figures from Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment (FADE) reported by Edge, the service brought in $17.5 million last month compared to $16.5 million in July.

Monday Night Combat led the way with 187,000 downloads, Castlevania: Harmony of Despair came in second with 131,000, and they were closely followed by Limbo with 128,000.

So, cause for celebration or merely a step in the right direction? Last week an XBLA developer called for better marketing to educate users that the service even exists.

Those who do patronise the service have plenty to look forward to in the coming months. Take a look at Microsoft's recently-unveiled release schedule.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (20) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Negotiator #1 2 years ago

    Limbo is superb, a little on the short side, but stll worth the money.

  • matrim83 #2 2 years ago

    GoL deserves to be in there too. It was the best of the bunch IMO.

  • GamesConnoisseur #3 2 years ago

    Marketing or more importantly, the recommended ratings by users, popularity etc needs to be overhauled completely.

  • Goodfella #4 2 years ago

    Enjoyed Limbo a lot but yeah, too short.

    Edit: Hmm, minus 2 for saying it's good but too short, while Negotiator gets +2 for saying pretty much the same.

    Some idiots on this site.
    Edited by Goodfella at 22/09/10 @ 09:43

  • mfnick #5 2 years ago

    How the hell did Castlevania HD do so well? Its shit.

  • MiniAmin #6 2 years ago

    The XBLA developer who called for better marketing is right on the money. XBLA's advertising is poor, I have friends who have played Geometry Wars 2, and are immediately addicted to it... Then they'll usually ask whether I bought it from Game or Gamestation.

    Microsoft have an astonishing tool to reel "casual" gamers and yet they know nothing about the service.

  • matrim83 #7 2 years ago

    I always wondered why didnt they do more disc based releases for XBLA compilations. If they threw in the entire SoA on a Disc for like 30 bucks I would get that in a second. And I think a lot of people who dont buy MS points or stuff over XBLA would buy it too.

    Just seems like a missed opportunity.

  • Negotiator #8 2 years ago

    Have to ask is the Lara game worth getting because EG gave it 9/10 but Edge gave it 6/10, so I can't decide if I should buy it.

  • Alex_976 #9 2 years ago

    The marketing for xbla games is poor. It's only from gaming sites that I have an idea of what is worth downloading.
    It needs to be the startup tab when you turn the 360 on, needs upcoming release dates of future titles, more promo movies before the game is released, maybe incorporate user comments or reviews to give more feedback for a Joe bloggs if it's worth dishing out the points.
    He'l even do special deals on buying points.
    MS need to get people asking 'what's that'

  • muscleblade #10 2 years ago

    Lara is a strong 7 imo. Limbo is a 9.

  • benfresh76 #11 2 years ago

    Lara Croft is at least an 8/10, and that's only based on my experience of the game in single player...it really is excellent, I struggle to see why it did so badly given the figure here...I mean, Castlevania? There's no justice.

  • butler` #12 2 years ago

    In what way is Lara:GoL a 6? :\

  • JBlokeUK #13 2 years ago

    What's with all the M$ love EG? More often than not I come on here and it seems that 75% of news published here is 360 best ever at this and that etc.

    I come here to read about gaming news on ALL platforms, not just 360...

  • mfnick #14 2 years ago

    Probably because that is where the vast majority of sales are. Well, for core games anyway.

    When the PS3 gets good sales it's still reported on (Joe Danger for example). Its just it happens less than on 360. & say what you will about the marketing of XBLA theres no doubt its leagues ahead of the marketing for Wiiware & PSN. Plus Halo Reach has just been released so thats obviously going to create a lot of 360 headlines.

    Sure Move has been released too, but that seems to have snuck quietly onto shelves with no fuss whereas Halo's in your face where ever you are.

  • edhe #15 2 years ago

    @jblokeuk My money is that there's more news on the 360, since it's the most performant console financially with the most going on right now.

    The site is not biasing towards the 360, it's just go more news.

  • lucky_jim #16 2 years ago

    Ok, ok, I was one of the people saying that this year's Summer of Arcade looked shit. I was very, very wrong (Castlevania notwithstanding).

    GoL is a fantastic game, I'm glad the EG 9/10 review convinced me to buy it.

  • DAN.E.B #17 2 years ago

    For me GoL is a well deserved 9
    I prefered it to the tomb raider games.

  • darleysam #18 2 years ago

    Although Microsoft themselves said Limbo had the best sales..
    one of these things doesn't belong!

  • PoundHound #19 2 years ago

    Wow, I didn't know about the sales figures for Castlevania and MNC. That means tha LC:GOL was, by an enormous distance, the worst selling SoA game this year. That's a shame.

  • metallicorphan #20 2 years ago

    so i am expecting September to be even better,as Dead Rising Case Zero had 300k sales right?(although at only 400 points)..even if it was released on the 31st August

    and today they have some pretty big games out -Deathspank 2,Alien Breed 2,Serious Sam 2 and Hydrophobia next week