In the midst of Microsoft revealing Xbox Live Arcade's delisting policies, most missed that Microsoft is also constructing a formal first-party XBL Arcade studio.
Microsoft has aided a number of studios in publishing XBL Arcade games, but mostly avoided the development stream. That's apparently changing in 2008.
We don't know much about the development initiative yet, but Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft's product management director for Xbox 360 and XBL, teased their plans in a recent chat with MTV Multiplayer.
Greenberg said Microsoft's XBL Arcade studio would adopt a business model akin to their relationship with Epic Games for "Gears of War." Epic Games is not exclusive Xbox 360 studio (they published "Unreal Tournament III" on PlayStation 3 first last year), but the "Gears of War" franchise has been heavily Microsoft-funded in terms of development and marketing.
According to that logic, Microsoft should be announcing a series of development partnerships in the coming months. Who would you like to see them work with?
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