Overview
The Summer of Arcade is a promotion that was launched by Microsoft in 2008 to highlight five marquee XBLA titles in the summertime. The promotion takes place over five weeks, with a new title being launched on the service every week. The first Summer of Arcade gave players the incentive to purchase the titles by entering anyone who bought the select titles within the period of the promotion into a prize draw to win 10,000 Microsoft points, an Xbox 360 Elite, and a 12-month subscription to Xbox Live. The following promotions offered players chance to gain a set number of Microsoft points back for buying games included in the promotion, such as 400 points for buying three games and 1200 for buying all five games. In 2011 instead of offering points back in exchange for buying a specific amount of games included in the promotion, players who brought all five games in the Summer of Arcade got the then-upcoming title Crimson Alliance early and for free.
Selection for the Summer of Arcade program is highly desirable due to increased marketing efforts that surround the games included in this promotion. However, while the Summer of Arcade has seen the release of some of the best games on Live Arcade, including Castle Crashers, Limbo, and Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, they are not necessarily all as stellar, as seen by the inclusion of Castlevania: Harmony of Despair and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled, extremely low-quality titles included in the promotion to increase sales.
Below is a list of games that have been included in the Summers of Arcade (prices accurate at time of release).
Summer of Arcade 2013
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