With a little more than 5 weeks away from being released in the United States, Microsoft's Xbox 360 is starting to build some steam towards the starting line of the next-generation console race. One of the built-in features of the Xbox 360 is the Xbox Live Arcade, featuring simple games for the casual gamer to download and play instantly. Microsoft announced a list of 21 Xbox Live Arcade games to be available during launch, with 35 to be available by summer 2006.

Amongst the list of launch games are four Midway arcade classics such as, Gauntlet, Joust, Robotron 2048, and SmashTV. All four of these games have made an appearance on the first Midway Arcade Treasures title; however, Xbox Live Arcade offers Midway a direct to consumer distribution channel with very little costs involved, no DVD disc to master or box to ship. In addition, these versions are Xbox Live enabled, which means online multiplayer.

As the Xbox 360 matures and Xbox Live Arcade gains in popularity, perhaps Midway will open up their catalog and provide more and more classic arcade titles to Xbox Live Arcade. One very likely scenario is an online Xbox Live enabled version of the classic Mortal Kombat arcade games.

If Midway charged $10-$20 for a Xbox Live enabled Mortal Kombat or Mortal Kombat II, would you be comfortable enough to buy the title directly through the Xbox Live Marketplace? If not, why?

That'll be near £5 here so i would probably download MK2 aslong as it was ARCADE PERFECT, i mean NO dodgy start button like the one found on MAT2 and Shaolin Monks to fight Smoke and maybe a bit longer Fatality time.

Originally Posted by : Masta-Dante
That'll be near £5 here so i would probably download MK2 aslong as it was ARCADE PERFECT, i mean NO dodgy start button like the one found on MAT2 and Shaolin Monks to fight Smoke and maybe a bit longer Fatality time.

I agree that Midway has been very lax in their QA control over the previous releases of Mortal Kombat arcade games. I'm surprised that Ed Boon hasn't taken a more proactive role to ensure that the games are 100% perfect. Any Mortal Kombat fan would agree that the MAT versions of MK have been less than stellar. Inexcusable bugs such as the Start button mapping in MKII truely have tainted the image of the arcade revival campaign as a greedy play by Midway to capitalize on their impressive back catalog of arcade titles. Perfection would absolutely be warranted if this game is to be a strong focal point of Midway's Xbox Live Arcade support. Lets hope someone on the MK team owns up to the project and ensures that everything is true to the original going forward. Perhaps the Sony QA MK: Shaolin Monks debacle can be a big eye opener for the MK team and they start paying more attention to these "side projects".

Yeah, I would buy Mortal Kombat 1 and II if I could play it on Xbox Live. Thats tournaments right there!

Hell ya Id buy it if they released MK 1-3. I think $10 each if they were Live enabled wouldnt be too unreasonable.

Originally Posted by : ebm62980
Hell ya Id buy it if they released MK 1-3. I think $10 each if they were Live enabled wouldnt be too unreasonable.

I would think that Live enabled would have to be a required feature for these Xbox Live Arcade games. Midway remade Joust with new graphics and multiplayer through Xbox Live. That's going to be killer. I think Midway will see some good revenue from their Xbox Live Arcade games and I think they will definately want to resell Mortal Kombat to everyone all over again for $10.

Yep, Midway did sign up and Gaunlet is going to be on it. It would be an offense if MK1 and 2 dont get added.

I might very well buy an X-box or X-box 360 for this. I know that that isn't all but I really enjoy online games and an online Mortal Kombat would be heaven for me. The only thing that would stop me was if Midway join up in the download thing for the Nintendo Revolution, and online then if it was online-capable. Sue me, I'm a fanboy