Limbo was Best-Selling Summer of Arcade Title

This year’s Summer of Arcade was pretty consistently awesome. It offered something for pretty much everyone. An arty platformer. A nostalgia-fuelled arcade game. A hardcore pixel-art multiplayer platform action RPG that causes clumsy genre descriptions. And the triumphant return of Lara Croft.

Of these titles, Limbo was the only original creation. All of the others were based on established franchises. And, interestingly, Limbo ended up outselling all of the others by “a long stretch”, according to Microsoft Game Studios VP Phil Spencer.

“I think there was a time when LIVE Arcade was about IP that people knew,” Spencer said, in conversation with Joystiq. “It’s changing though. I really think coming out of Braid, Shadow Complex, Limbo […] that it’s changing a little bit. We see that in the market, that it’s becoming less about iconic IP that people know and it’s becoming more diverse.”

Spencer certainly has high praise for Limbo, branding it “probably [his] game of the year right now”.

This is great news for independent, experimental developers. Limbo is not the kind of game that would ever see a retail release. It’s experimental, it’s different and it’s arguably not for everyone. But placing it within that $15 “impulse purchase” territory meant that a lot more people were willing to give it a shot. Particularly as they could easily try out the game for free and decide if it was something they wanted to spend time with.

Hopefully Limbo‘s success will mean many more cool, experimental titles from smaller, independent developers. Microsoft certainly seem keen to encourage these. Fall’s “Game Feast” LIVE Arcade event focuses on some excellent-looking indie titles.

It seems like the $15 price point is becoming established as an appropriate level for this type of experience. A few hours of gameplay, playable in either short segments or longer sessions. And most importantly, providing an experience with a little more depth than simple retro arcade ports or twin-stick shooters.

These games are appealing to older gamers. They’re friendly to a hectic adult lifestyle, whereas a lengthy RPG is something which time has to be set aside for. With these games, adult gamers with families and jobs can feel that they’re getting a worthwhile experience whilst not eating into the rest of their lives too much. And that’s a good thing. It means retail releases can be set aside for the epic or lengthy blockbusters of the world. And downloadable titles can focus on these shorter experiences.

So what’s going to be the next Limbo?