As we enter the second week of Microsoft’s second annual Summer of Arcade, research firm Forecasting & Analyzing Digital Entertainment has released its Xbox Live sales estimates for the first half of 2010, and the results are rather surprising, particularly given what title topped the best-sellers list. Here’s the list:

FADE Top 10 XBLA Title Estimates for H1 2010, by Revenue (USD)

1.Toy Soldiers (Signal Studios) – $4.6 million (1200 Microsoft Points)
2.Trials HD (RedLynx) – $4.4 million (800 – 1200 Microsoft Points)
3.Castle Crashers (The Behemoth) – $2.9 million (800 – 1200 Microsoft Points)
4.Battlefield 1943 (EA DICE) – $2.5 million (800 – 1200 Microsoft Points)
5.Perfect Dark (4J Studios) – $2.4 million (800 Microsoft Points)
6.Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Capcom) – $1.8 million (800 – 1200 Microsoft Points)
7.Family Game Night (EA Bright Light) – $1.7 million (400 – 800 Microsoft Points)
8.Shadow Complex (Chair Entertainment) – $1.2 million (800 – 1200 Microsoft Points)
9.Magic: The Gathering (Stainless Games) – $900,000 (800 Microsoft Points)
10.Call of Duty Classic (Infinity Ward) – $800,000 (1200 Microsoft Points)

Follow the link to G4TV and read the full story:

Xbox Live Arcade Has Earned $46.1 million This Year -G4TV.com

Bothell, Wash. – June 30, 2010 –Signal Studios will be releasing the first downloadable content for Toy Soldiers, the hit Xbox LIVE Arcade game. The Kaiser’s Battle will be available for download on Xbox LIVE June 30, 2010 for 400 Microsoft Points.
The Kaiser’s Battle (also known as The Spring Offensive) was a series of offensives by the German Army along the Western Front in 1918. The DLC will allow players to enter the fray as the French Army, take on a new experimental boss, and battle into the midnight hours in new multiplayer and Survival Mode maps.

Detailed description of The Kaiser’s Battle follows:
• Play as the French Army! In addition to entirely new French Unit Skins, players can choose from two new units including the French Hotchkiss Machine Gun and French Canon de 75 Howitzer.
• New French Mini-Campaign! Three new single player levels including: Blucher-Yorck, Operation Gneisenau and The Last Offensive.
• New Experimental Boss, the mammoth German K-Wagen!
• Players can battle it out with their friends in split-screen or on LIVE with two new Multiplayer Maps, Georgette and Mountain of Reims.
• Survival Mode is back and bigger than ever before! Fight to the last man standing in a new and much larger Survival Mode environment!
• Three new Achievements: Base Rat – Players who find all the golden cubes hidden in the new French single player campaign will earn 15 gamer points; Land Ship – Players who defeat the German K-Wagen Boss will earn 25 gamer points; Grass Cutter – Players who get a 40x blast combo will earn 10 gamer points.
• Keeping with the unique art style of Toy Soldiers, new French inspired art will be available including: new French soldiers and officers, unique French Props, and much more!




For more information, press only:
press@signalstudios.net

Bothell, Wash. – June 1, 2010 – Signal Studios is pleased to announce a title update for the hit Xbox LIVE Arcade (XBLA) game, Toy Soldiers. Signal Studios has made the following improvements, which will release on Xbox LIVE at 2 a.m., PST:

Facebook Match Defense: Toy Soldiers Integration:
Integration with Facebook Match Defense: Toy Soldiers now includes a Survival Mode enhancement. Players with linked XBLA and Facebook Match Defense: Toy Soldiers accounts will receive an extra 10 base health points in the Toy Soldiers XBLA Survival Mode, if the player’s team has won the last war in the Facebook meta-game. As an additional bonus, Survival Mode is now unlocked for all players.

Bug Fix Highlights:
• Survival Leaderboards overwrite bug fixed
• Sniper Tower controls support Southpaw and Inverted options
• Awarding of Brass Hat Achievement fixed
• Major source of multiplayer disconnects affecting certain players fixed
• Multiplayer tuning and balancing
• Re-spawn Timer exploit fixed

About Signal Studios
Signal Studios is a Seattle-area developer of video games and interactive software applications. Signal’s founders combine years of experience across all disciplines in the games industry, working as leads and developers together at some of the industry’s top studios and publishers. Signal is actively developing multiple projects across several platforms, using its proprietary engine and toolset, SigEngine™. Built from the ground up to facilitate today’s demanding content creation needs, SigEngine™ provides an extremely optimized and user-friendly production pipeline.

Sales top $10 million in March, after a less-than-stellar January and February.
By Steve Watts, 04/27/2010

As the retail space is starting to see signs of recovery, online game sales seem to be improving as well. GamesIndustry.biz reports that March 2010 was a record-setting month for Xbox Live Arcade sales. According to the market research firm Forecasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment (FADE), March sales topped $10 million for the first time ever, amounting to a 41% increase over 2009. This is fresh off the heels of a disappointing February, which brought in a mere $6.8 million according to estimates.

The firm cites Microsoft’s Block Party promotion, particularly the tower defense title Toy Soldiers. It was the month’s biggest seller at an estimated 209,000 downloads, or $3.14 million in dollar form. Perfect Dark took second place with 161,000 downloads amounting to $1.61 million. Scrap Metal, also part of the Block Party promotion, came in seventh place with about $270,000 in revenue. The full list of FADE sales estimates is below:

Toy Soldiers – 209,000 units ($3.14m)
Perfect Dark – 161,000 units ($1.61m)
Trials HD – 53,000 units ($0.80m)
Battlefield 1943 – 37,000 units ($0.56m)
Castle Crashers – 34,000 units ($0.51m)
Hasbro Family Game Night – 32,000 units ($0.32m)
Scrap Metal – 18,000 units ($0.27m)
Marvel vs. Capcom – 25,000 units ($0.25m)
Shadow Complex – 13,000 units ($0.20m)
Magic: The Gathering – 16,000 units ($0.16m)

Original Story on 1up.com:
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3179010