No Xbox Live Arcade online players?

#1 What I think? Either Xbox Live Arcade or the three TGE based games are doing very poorly on Live Arcade. Halo 2 and an ever growing list of regular Xbox online titles could be the reason. If this is true then maybe Xbox Live Arcade developers should concentrate on single player offline games instead of relying on games that require other people to make the game playable and fun. 2 player co-op online modes and leaderboards could fill the "need" to make the game with online content but won't require the game to be completley online to be playable. Though very well put together, from what I've played, these three games have offline modes but they're pretty boring alone and the fun is really brought out when others are involved (I think Marble Blast is just leaderboards though). With no real content to keep you going offline, I don't see why anyone would stick around until players join the server. But I hope I'm wrong and you just live in an area with a horrible connection Matt:). I hope those three games are thriving on Xbox Live Arcade.

But I personally do feel that neglecting offline content, treating it as an afterthought, and simply adding bots is a huge mistake.
-Ajari-

#2 Since the first couple of multiplayer titles launched on XBLA (like Bankshot Billiards and ThinkTanks), it was clear that the lack of dedicated servers was going to potentially hurt online play. Without servers to join (even empty ones), there often seems like no one to play. In reality there are usually a few people looking at the "no games found" screen saying "darn, I wish there were people to play".

This means we have to wait until there are more people that own the game in order to reach a critical mass where there are more servers available to choose from.

Once we realized that there would be no dedicated servers for Orbz on XBLA, we decided to beef up the single player Orbz experience by designing 50 all new challenges ranging over 4 different styles of play. The leader board tracks the number of medals you have achieved in Challenge mode and rates you against other players in the community.

In addition, we also integrated full support for the Xbox Live Friends List. This allows you to see your XBL friends and invite them to a game of Orbz even if they are playing a different Xbox game! Just start a multiplayer server, go into the Lobby options, and check out your friends list.

We're hopeful that the Orbz community on XBLA will grow over time, much like the PC community has. It may take a little longer to reach a critical mass on XBLA but the potential for a larger community is high since there are so many millions of XBL subscribers which have access to the games.

In the mean while, we do our best to try and keep servers up here in the office and play whenever we can. The more people we can talk into starting a server and playing bots for a while until someone joins the better ;)

PS. Thanks for the support of the Torque-based games on XBLA you guys rock.