Major Changes Still Coming to XBLA, Only a Week Later

Destination Arcade, Microsoft’s new service for Xbox Live Arcade, has been delayed by a week and will now launch concurrently with Summer of Arcade.

Last week, Microsoft revealed Destination Arcade, a new content-sorting system for Xbox Live Arcade that was set to launch in two days. The company has now announced that Destination Arcade is instead going to go live a little later than originally intended.

Major Nelson broke the news on his blog this morning, stating, “I wanted to let you know that the Destination Arcade release date has been moved to next Wednesday to kick off the launch of the Summer of Arcade. We’ll start on July 21st with Limbo, followed by Hydro Thunder Hurricane, Castlevania Harmony of Despair, Monday Night Combat and we finish it off with Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. Also remember that if you purchase all five titles, and you’ll receive 1200 Points back.”

This is a pretty last-minute change of schedule, but there’s no way to tell if it’s due to a need to fix some bugs or if Microsoft just wanted to create a single, major, product launch. In terms of timing, having Destination Arcade launch alongside the Summer of Arcade event makes a certain amount of marketing sense.

Currently, Destination Arcade is still only planned for the United States. No other plans for other markets have been revealed.