Console Monster writes: "It's Wednesday and this year currently looks poor for the Xbox Live Arcade with no title release today. Fortunately, new Castle Crashers content releases today along with the following for Wednesday 14th January 2009:

Castle Crashers - King Pack
Price: 160 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox Live Regions
Description: Add to your arsenal of good with 2 new playable characters plus additional weapons and animal orbs. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/Live/accounts.
Size: 108 KB

Rock Band: Lenny Kravitz Pack 01
Price: 550 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox Live Regions
Description: Build your Rock Band library by purchasing this song game track pack: Lenny Kravitz Pack 01. This pack includes "Let Love Rule," "Are You Gonna Go My Way," "Freedom Train," and "Mr. Cab Driver" by Lenny Kravitz. PLEASE NOTE: Rock Band game disc is required to play song game tracks. This song game track pack includes four song game tracks at a discounted rate over individual purchases. Many Rock Band songs are available as both a multipack and as a single game track. These songs are exactly the same (unless expressly noted as a special version or remix). Be aware that it is possible to download the same song twice so please carefully consider your purchases. For song credits, visit www.RockBand.com. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.
Size: 117 MB..."
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Microsoft and The Behemoth have announced a new downloadable content pack for the Xbox Live Arcade game Castle Crashers.
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Castle Crashers is finally getting a title update just in time for the holidays. Multiplayer problems plagued the game causing disconnects when it was first released.

Other issues such as the corruption of save files were present. The patch has been in the works for quite some time now and is now on track to be released Wednesday morning.

Although the game was released four months ago the patch has taken just as long. The update first went through the QA process at Microsoft. A mod on the official forums promises specific details on the patch in the coming hours.
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The Behemoth have announced via their official forums that Microsoft has approved a patch for Castle Crashers, which will be releasing at 2 AM Pacific time on Wednesday.
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Xbox360Fanboy Writes:

Ever since its release, Castle Crashers has suffered from wonky Xbox Live co-op gameplay, a problem developer The Behemoth has addressed and promised a prompt fix for. Now, after over 3 months of patient waiting and hearing word that the game fixing patch entered Microsoft certification, we still have no Castle Crashers patch. So, we reached out to the crew over at The Behemoth to learn what's taking so darn long and were told:

"We're working with Microsoft to get the title update out as quickly as we can. Sadly, we can't get into details about the certification process, but we've resolved the game's issues with data loss and networking in addition to other bugs. We can't really comment on the release yet as we're not allowed to talk about it because of Microsoft, but the update's release is definitely reaching the end of the process.

We've received great support from our fans on our forums in identifying issues. That feedback has helped out a lot and we're really honored to have such an awesome group of fans in the community."

So, The Behemoth is keeping mum, but still plans on releasing the patch as soon as possible. Hopefully sooner than later, because our XBLA focus has moved on over these past few months. That said, The Behemoth could lure us back with some new DLC ...
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The Behemoth, developers of the notorious acclaimed game Castle Crashers has recently posted on their blog that a title update is on the way.
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Ripten: "In a new interview with, Xbox LIVE boss, John Schappert, tells us that Xbox LIVE offers a way to get games out in front of consumers that would have a difficult time doing so via the traditional retail channels."

He goes on to explain the recent success of XBLA in this area.
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Joystiq finally has some news on the long-awaited patch for Castle Crashers. According to a post on developer Behemoth's site, the problems (including connectivity issues) have been "knocked out" and the team is currently verifying the updates before sending it off to Microsoft for certification.

In perhaps one of the biggest understatements, the post states, "we are aware that many of you are unhappy about the wait" but explains that they had to fix all known issues at once, as opposed to release incremental updates. Certification can take a few weeks, so don't hold out hope for seeing the patch before Halloween. There should be more than enough titles to keep your attention in the interim.
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Kotaku reports: So Microsoft's Xbox 360 Summer of Arcade promotion has come and gone, a five-week blitz of the best that Xbox Live Arcade has to offer, all part of a commitment made by the company at E3 to shift their focus more towards quality rather than quantity. According to a media alert issued today by Microsoft, the push was a massive success, with a 58% increase in Xbox Live members purchasing games over the course of the month, shattering the monthly revenue high for XBLA by 67%.

Out of the games released, Castle Crashers is being heralded as a stand-out title for all of XBLA, while Braid wound up as the highest-rating XBLA title of all time, with Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 and Bionic Commando: Rearmed also making the top 10. That leaves poor Galaga Legions. There there, little retro redux. We still love you...just not as much. Hit the jump for the full text of the press alert!
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dailygamesnews.com - The fabulous if somewhat pricey Castle Crashers is this week's most popular Xbox Live game with Feeding Frenzy 2 snapping at its heels in second place.
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Major Nelson has published the list of the top 10 Xbox Live titles for the week of September 15:

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles (based on UU's)
1 Call of Duty 4
2 Halo 3
3 GTA IV
4 Gears of War
5 Madden NFL 09
6 Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
7 Guitar Hero III
8 Rock Band
9 Rock Band 2
10 FIFA 09 Demo
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Indie developer The Behemoth released Castle Crashers just over two weeks ago, and has told Gamasutra that the game has now reached 250,000 players, also revealing patch plans for the game and a 5-fold increase in Alien Hominid HD players due to CC's release.

"I'm pleasantly surprised that so many people are playing the game," says Behemoth lead artist Dan Paladin to Gamasutra, confirming that a quarter of a million players are now on the game's leaderboards. "I was optimistic and hopeful for Castle Crashers but I wasn't prepared for the reception it got."
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The Behemoth has been talking DLC for its highly popular XBLA game, Castle Crashers, explaining why there is no chainsaw in the game as expected, and promising that at least two new characters will become playable in the future.
According to The Behemoth, this content was expected to be in the game thanks to various developers and media outlets being able to view Castle Crashers on Microsoft's internal network when it was being tested. Not knowing that what they were viewing was proposed DLC, they expected it to be in the game. Our own Reverend Anthony was quite upset at not being able to play as The King, while I was really hoping for some Necromancer action, so it looks like we'll both be getting what we want, with a chainsaw bonus to boot.
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The Behemoth writes: "We just got off the phone with Microsoft and we had a great talk about updating Castle Crashers, YES!! Looks like we're on our way to getting this title update out and the bigger issues like saving and online connectivity resolved, in addition to other bugs that have been reported. A suggestion for those that might be having some online problems with Quick Match or Custom Match is to possibly try hosting a match instead. Also we've been informed that there are some suggestions out there about how to help recover your lost saved data. Again, we're working on resolving these issues for the update but these might help you in the meantime..."
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Destructoid writes:

"I'd love to be able to report that things are going swimmingly for Castle Crashers, but unfortunately I've had issues with the thing all day. So far I've managed one round of online co-op, and even then, it wasn't long before my character froze and I had to pull out. Since then, games won't connect, and even worse, my Xbox 360 has been (ironically) crashing when attempting to load an Xbox Live game."

"UPDATE:The Behemoth is aware of the issue and claim to be fixing it, in their own cute way"

Money well spent Gents.
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Console Monster writes: "Today sees the release of the last Arcade title, Castle Crashers, classed under the Summer of Arcade but the fun doesn't stop there. Next week there is Pirates vs. Ninja Dodgeball and Shred Nebula and RocketBowl is set to release on Wednesday 10th September. There's also some Castle Crashers content including a rather nice theme, available to download for free and various themes and trailers.

Name: Castle Crashers
Price: 1200 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions

Name: Castle Crashers - The Cyclops Picture Pack
Price: 100 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox Live Regions

Name: Castle Crashers - Knight Picture Pack
Price: 100 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox Live Regions..."
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Magic, mayhem, floating face-biting bat buddies, fish-swords...what's not to love? Castle Crashers, one of the most eagerly anticipated games for XboxLIVE! Arcade, releases today from independent game developer The Behemoth. The studio's award winning second title stays true to the nostalgic 2D Side--S scrolling style with the humour and quality of gameplay we have come to expect from The Behemoth. Featuring all hand-drawn art from talented Dan Paladin, Castle Crashers delivers unique hi-res illustrated visuals like nothing you've seen before.

Castle Crashers features a unique mix of Beat-'Em-Up action along with mild Role-Playing Game elements letting you hack, slash and smash your way to victory. Along the way...
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Crisis averted! Those who fretted over Castle Crashers' reported 1800 MS point entry fee can finally un-tense your muscles and relax. Behemoth has announced on its development blog that the price tag is a more palatable 1200 MS points (US $15). Is that the sweet spot for this month's only online multiplayer game? Castle Crashers begins, erm, crashing castles next Wednesday.
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1800 points? Do not worry, friends... all is not yet lost. Seems that price point is not the official one. Perhaps we're in for something a little more reasonable, 800 points perhaps. Who knows? It's all speculation, really. Dev's words within...
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Four Japanese websites are now saying that two titles in the upcoming "Summer Of Arcade", 'Castle Crashers' and 'Braid', will be costing a little more than the usual XBLA title.
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