Frogger has now been added to the recent additions section of the XBLA page over at xbox.com. Frogger? This week? Hopefully.

We would like to thank xblarcade user qwerty for discovering this one.

UPDATE: Microsoft has added a Frogger section in the xbox.com forums (credit goes to xblarcade user audie for spotting this one). Also, for any of you who don't visit majornelson.com, Microsoft's offices are closed for the holiday, so there will be no new marketplace content today.

Following it's temporary 'recent addition', Texas Hold 'Em Poker now has an official forum on Xbox.com. While we haven't heard anything concrete regarding a release date to any titles, it was said plenty of times back in March, that intentions were to have a "double-header"; Texas Hold 'Em Poker, and Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting releasing at the same time. While that was 3 months and some days ago, could it still be the case...? With both titles added to the forums, are we going to see at least one of titles release in the coming weeks? Is the "floodgate" opening soon? Only time will tell, folks.

We'll keep our eyes open, and our ears peeled.

Well, not really, but that's what Microsoft claims on their XBLA games page. Today they added this much anticipated poker game to the "recent additions" section, placing it right up there with the 5 month old Marble Blast Ultra. News on this game was basically nonexistent for a few months, but with all of these mentions of Texas Hold'em over the last few weeks, it has to be getting close...a July release is seeming more and more likely.

My favorite part of this is the estimated release date of March 2006.

UPDATE: As noted above, Microsoft has now removed Texas Hold'em from the recent additions page. They probably realized that a March 2006 release might not work out.

I recently discovered the DreamStation podcast and they have been running a multi-part interview with Ross Erickson, XBLA Portfolio Manager, over the last few weeks. Although the first 2 parts of this interview have been entertaining, they have revealed nothing new. However, while previewing part 3, expected to be available next week, they revealed some of the discussion with Ross involving the upcoming XBLA release of Texas Hold'em Poker.

Apparently, the game will allow up to 8 players at once and will support the upcoming XBox Live Vision camera peripheral. Along with this information, they also revealed that this camera functionality is at least part of the cause of the delay because they are having difficulties getting 8 camera streams to run smoothly...that's really not that surprising.

We'll keep you posted on any other news from part 3 of the Ross Erickson interview, but in the mean time, you can listen to the first 2 parts of this interview here.

This fall, Microsoft is releasing a compilation disc of XBLA games, presumably for the unfortunate XBox 360 owners without a broadband internet connection. The package will include: Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, Bejeweled 2 Deluxe, Hardwood Backgammon, Wik: Fable Of Souls, Outpost Kaloki X, and the soon to be released (hopefully) Texas Hold'em Poker. The collection will set you back $40 and is currently slated for an early October release. You can view the box art here.

Pompom has put up a collection of new screenshots for their upcoming sequel Mutant Storm Empire. The 20 high-res shots (plus a logo) seem to be of the first two worlds. With how the game is shaping up and with online co-op, this game is quickly becoming yet another "must have" for XBLA

You can go check out the screenshots here.

Thanks for the heads up McLean78

In an article at MTV ( I still find it odd to get gaming news from MTV ) it was revealed that Small Arms will have an Achievement that it's director calls "Six Degrees of 'Small Arms.' " (it's not yet clear if that will be the actual name of the achievement yet). The way it works is that the four people who work at Gastronaut Studios will initially be the only ones with the Achievement, as soon as someone plays with any of the four, they will also get the achievement. This viral effect will continue on and on, with each new person gaining the achievement and the ability to "spread" the achievement on to others. Another interesting thing is that Microsoft is hedging their bets and making the achievement worth zero points, just in case the spreading doesn't occur as expected.

Personally I love the idea and hope other developers start coming up with unique and interesting achievements.

With the summer now fully upon us, we had to dig even deeper than normal to bring you these rumors.

The XBLA version of Texas Hold'em may include a "tells" system.

Rumor: The version of Texas Hold'em coming to XBLA is being developed by Carbonated Games (a MS subsidiary) and will have more than a few things in common with the Bicycle version they just released on MSN Gaming Zone, including the "tells" system.

Our Take: We asked MS to comment and they wouldn't even confirm that it's Carbonated that are developing it. That said, I'd say it's a pretty good guess that it'd be them since Texas Hold'em> is a first party game and what would be the point of having two divisions making different versions of the same game? Add to that how much everyone has loved how Uno turned out, it just makes sense for CG to be developing it.

As for the "Tells" system, it sounds like a great idea, and if CG is developing it, you'd have to guess that the game is going to be running on the same basic framework (although it does look different from the screenshots we've seen so far), so it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that they'd share this feature.

A third Pompom game might be making it's way to XBLA

Rumor: Bliss Island will be the third XBLA game developed by Pompom Software.

Our Take: This one seems to make sense, after the success Pompom has experienced with Mutant Storm Reloaded and the upcoming Mutant Storm Empire on Xbox Live Arcade, you would imagine that they'd be pretty happy with XBLA. Add to this that the official site has three other locations stating "Coming Soon" (one of which is known to be the PSP) and you've got a pretty decent argument that we'll be seeing it at some point in the future.

... For the 8th time? This time, Xbox Australia points towards a July 30th release. While it is rare that any Arcade game gets a specific release date other than "the end of April" or "sometime this year", especially Street Fighter II, believe it when you see it folks.

If the release date is correct, which we doubt it is.. could you at least 'throw us a bone', Microsoft? Where are the other Arcade games?

Also, since when did any marketplace content release on a Sunday? I think it's just a 'safe' way of saying 'sometime in July'.

UPDATE: It looks like that date for Street Fighter II has changed on Xbox Australia, to an incredibly vague "2006". .. We liked the "July 30" a bit more.

In the August issue of OXM, their calendar of events for XBox Live lists August 6th as "Texas Hold 'em Poker night on XBLA". That night happens to be a Sunday, and new content is never added to the XBox Live Marketplace on the weekend, so the game would need to be released before that weekend. Although we won't know for sure until then, this scenario seems reasonable. On last week's Major Nelson podcast, it was hinted that the game was coming along nicely but was caught up in legal issues with the sponsor. Hopefully, they will get that all cleared up so we can be playing free poker on XBox 360 in less than 6 weeks.

It might be worth mentioning that OXM previously gave a release date for Marketplace content (PDZ Map Pack 1) well in advance and they got that one right.

UPDATE: Apparently, OXM's calendar of events isn't always a reliable source for XBLA release dates. We would like to thank our readers for this tip.