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The future for Krome's Game Room

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One of the common questions raised after the news of Krome Studios' impending closure is what will become of the Game Room arcade. Krome took on the task for Microsoft of creating and updating Game Room, an online arcade space for Xbox 360 and PC with regular releases of downloadable retro games. It offered online multiplayer, cross platform leaderboards, voice chat, the ability to view other player replays, medals and achievements, and was launched on March 24, this year.

The Game Room has met with a rather mixed reaction from gamers who had issues with the service ranging from the delays in game pack releases, the pricing for game packs, and the lack of real arcade hits on offer. Extremely obscure Intellivision and Atari 2600 titles did little to whet the appetites of arcade fans who were promised the chance to "relive the glory days of classic arcade games in their original forms". However, considering that arcade publishers could release their retro games on Xbox Live Arcade for a much higher price than licensing it to Game Room, it could very well be the main reason why Game Room has a considerable lack of big arcade titles on offer.

While Krome Studios has managed to release the latest Game Pack this week (Game Pack 11 which includes one solitary Konami arcade title called Jackal), Denton Arcade Game Examiner is reporting that Krome has already finished Game Pack 12 and 13, which is set to include Sunset Riders, Galaxian, and Double Dragon). They report that the future of Game Room will continue and that Microsoft will be handing over its development to another company.