Microsoft Xbox Live Arcade to Offer '80s Games

Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it would add retro video games as part of its offerings in Xbox Live Arcade. The first game to be available through the program would be "Frogger," costing the user 400 Microsoft Points, equivalent to $ 5.00 USD.

Over the next five weeks, the Redmond Company plans to release a game every Wednesday. In each game, Microsoft has updated the classics to support better graphics, as well as creating new ways to play through the company's Xbox Live service.

Xbox Live Arcade has been a surprising success for the company, with over five million free trial games downloaded, and over one million actually purchased. Microsoft said that use of the service has been across a broad segment of customers, including hardcore gamers and beginners alike. Currently, 20 games are available through the service, however, Microsoft has plans to increase that to 50 games by the end of the year.

From now until mid-August, a new classic 1980s style arcade game of the Pac-Man and Galaga ilk will be added to a list of such games available for free download by Xbox 360 owners.

The free downloads will only be trial versions, however, serving as enticements for users to purchase them. If Microsoft's figures are to be believed, the Xbox 360 games download business could turn into a nice little earner for the company. So far, according to Microsoft, about 5 million trial games have been downloaded in the past 8 months with more than 1 million of the downloads being converted into purchases.

The irony of avid gamers spending money to download ancient computer games on a console with super graphics capabilities should not be lost on anyone. However, those of us who used to deposit coins into the Space Invaders console at local bar for hours on end remember how addictive those games were.