Heavy Weapon

Electronic Arts is getting into the new year spirit with up to half-off a portion of its Xbox Live inventory including Dragon Age: Origins, Dead Space 2's Severed DLC, and a slew of sporting expansions...

XMNR: The Xbox LIVE Deal of the Week has gone live today, June 21, and it features the library of games and DLC from PopCap Games including Peggle, Plants vs Zombies and Bejeweled Blitz.

Following the successful launch of PopCap Hits earlier this month, the Mastertronic Group has announced the release date for the forthcoming second edition. PopCap Hits Vol. 2 will feature great titles from the legendary game creators, including: Plants vs. Zombies, Zuma, Heavy Weapon and Feeding Frenzy 2.

Mastertronic has today announced that they have signed a deal with PopCap Games, creator of record breaking game brands such as Bejeweled, Peggle and Plants vs. Zombies, to bring a number of the developers casual for PC, handheld and console formats to retail across the UK, Europe and PAL territories. PopCap Games is widely regarded as a founding father of the casual games industry, redefining social network games and leading innovation in a casual gaming space.

PopCap Games had a successful 2006 on Live Arcade, crowned recently with the release of Heavy Weapon. It doesn't plan to stop there either, according to communications director Garth Chouteau, who expects more new games in 2007.

Mike, from the Xbox Domain has confirmed this rumor. Heavy Weapon is scheduled to hit XBLA on January 17. Thanks, Tom, for sending this in.

In addition to its robust classic arcade roster, Microsoft also delivers a great mix of original development and independent game titles to Xbox Live members this holiday season and into the New Year ... Beginning in January 2007, Atari will release six titles on Xbox Live Arcade throughout the year. Both classic and evolved versions will be available for each of the following titles: Centipede®/Millipede®: defend your village against an onslaught of centipedes, spiders, army ants and more. In addition to the classic mode, the evolution mode offers high definition graphics and special effects like motion blur, trails and particle-based explosions to make the experience as enjoyable today as it was decades ago. Battlezone®: the original tank vs. tank action classic has received an Xbox Live overhaul, adding in exciting new multiplayer modes including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag. This updated version is truly a must-have for any fan of the original, which is also included. Additionally, players can use the Xbox Live Vision camera to watch live video of their opponents. Combine these features with new special effects for weapon firing, impacts and explosions and you have one killer classic as you've never experienced it before. Asteroids/Asteroids Deluxe Missile Command Tempest Warlords .... Xbox Live Arcade's diverse library of titles is going to keep growing, with a particular emphasis on new, originally developed games from indie developers and big studios alike. Over 100 indie developers and virtually every major console publisher in the world are working to develop games for Xbox Live Arcade. Some of the diverse titles we will be releasing by this holiday include: Small Arms (Gastronaut Studios) ¿ an indie-developed original title designed specifically for Xbox Live Arcade, featuring frantic multiplayer brawling combined ...

While PopCap originated as a Web-based form of entertainment, CEO David Roberts told Next-Gen that extending the company's platform reach is one of the keys to growing its business. PopCap games can be found on the web, mobile phones, Xbox Live Arcade, Valve's Steam platform and at retail. If it were up to Roberts, it sounds like he'd love to have a version of Zuma and Bejeweled on everything from your microwave to your washing machine. A couple years ago we were on lots of platforms, but now we're certainly on just about every one you can find for casual games. Maybe Tetris has got us beat but they've had a lot more time to do it, Roberts said. One of the more interesting areas of expansion is the console arena. PopCap already has games including Astropop, Bejeweled 2, Feeding Frenzy and Zuma on Xbox Live Arcade, but the Wii and PS3 are future platform possibilities as well. We love XBLA, confessed Roberts. We were on the XBLA bandwagon early, and we actually have Heavy Weapon shipping very soon now. That's our first sort of Live-enabled multiplayer version of any of our games.