- The Xbox Live Family Gold pack is no longer available. Originally introduced in November 2010, the four-pack of year-long Gold memberships was a popular deal among families, allowing discounted membership as well as Family Center content management. (Via Joystiq)
- TimeGate studios, developers of Aliens: Colonial Marines and XBLA's Section 8: Prejudice, recently underwent layoffs. Twenty-five employees were laid off. The president of the studio, Adel Chaveleh, confirmed to Polygon. "This is never easy, and we're doing all we can to assist those developers affected." Sources told Polygon that the layoffs were a result of the game getting many negative reviews and lack of a publishing deal.
- Starting this month,Microsoft will be selling a 320 GB media hard drive and as an added bonus, a few games will be included on the drive. Major Nelson reports that XBLA titles Ms. Splosion Man and Pinball FX (with Sorcerer's Lair) will be included, as well as the 360 title Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. The drive will be available for $129.99.
- Runner 2 is known for its flashy graphics, quick game play and fun music. Now fans can purchase music from the game with the Runner Extended Play album on Disasterpiece. The album is composed of five different tunes ranging from 30-34 seconds in length. The price starts at $1 for all five tracks, but buyers can elect to pay more as they see fit.
- Might and Delight, developers of the puzzle platformer Pid, announced via Facebook the release of a patch that will fix the "save bug" that has caused many players some frustration. This patch is available now on XBLA.
- Multiple WayForward developers have formed a new company, Yacht Club Games. WayForward's previous XBLA releases included: BloodRayne: Betrayal and most recently Double Dragon Neon. In a release, the team at Yacht Club Games describes themselves as a team "synonymous with retro revivals." Continuing, they stated, "We want to make games that you play together with friends and family. Most of all, We want to give everyone the same collective types of game experiences that have defined our generation."
- Charlie Murder is an RPG brawler that is scheduled to be released at some point in the near future. However, in anticipation for the game's future release, Ska studios has released a song from the game's soundtrack. The punk song was written by the game's creators, James Silva and Michelle Juett Silva, and gives a small glimpse at the theme for the upcoming game. It is available now for download. (Source: Joystiq)
- Nostalgico, developer of the upcoming game Craymore, has hit its Kickstarter goal. The developer touts the game as "A True First-Class Take on the Action-RPG Genre." Our own Nick Santangelo confirmed with Cryamore developer Esmyrelda Maximus that the game's developer has plans to come to XBLA, as well as other platforms. Originally, the Kickstarter was looking to hit a goal of $60,000, but has nearly hit $250,000 with 5909 individual donations. In addition, a sneak peak of the demo has been released.
Newsbits: XBLA Family Gold pack discontinued, soundtracks, and developer news
