I recommend Bomberman Live. 2007's best XBLA game if you ask me. Really great multiplayer.

But I'm guessing that MS will pick a game that we can get for free. Like Bands of Bugs or something.

Metal Slug 3
Castlevania SOTN
Bomberman Live
Doom

I'd recommend any of those. I'm hoping to get MS3 personally.

hopefully they dont put a point limit so we can only download joust hehe...but that's a cool announcement

*edit* lol @ disagree...fine i hope we can only download the worst XBLA game of all time and this announcement sucks.

...you get to choose which arcade game you want, ive only played the demos but if i were to choose i'd pick boom boom rocket.....iono, maybe

does anyone have any recommendations for a really good xbla game?

@below, thanks for the recommendations, ill have to mull em over and choose 1.....+bubbles for you

As long as it isn't Yaris 2, I'll be happy.

Dam, I should create my live account. Sh!t.

or wing commander probably. I would rather have texas hold'em. It could also be a title that was recently reduced in price (zuma, etc)

I hope it's not a game I already have. I already have most of the good ones.

At least Microsoft lived up to this one. So basically trading in a week of Live for a free game, I'm down with that.

I want some microsoft points!!!!!

yay, everyone gets Space Giraffe for free, lol

Puzzle quest wasn't that bad. A big issue I found with most of the xbla games is that they're short as hell(nothing like beating contra in under 12 minutes). Puzzle quest takes forever to beat.

is a pretty fun game. People who complained on this ste should shut the hell up seeing as they will be getting a free game for the trouble. Unless they complain that the game isnt one that they like......

to put on their xbu 360 beacuase it sucks to play online games then it get the RROD.

missing the best game on arcade..

Sensible world of soccer!

Classic game.. no modern football game comes close!

I want Ms points and a load of them and a written apology not god damm excuse's i pay good money for a service which they failed to deliver and i'm not a blind rabid fanboy who thinks microsoft can do no wrong you better start treatin your customers better Ms or they'll be off

that someone is bound to be unhappy as they'll already have it! I hopwe they give us a choice of a few

You pay $50 for XBL. XBL is down for half a month. So to compensate MS gives you a free little pacman game....and that makes you happy?? Its like throwing leftovers to pigs. Your $50 XBL is full of 5Okb classics i could play on the internet for free. Compared to FREE psn where you can download games like Super Stardust, Calling All Cars, Everday Shooter, Tekken 5, Warhawk and psone classics. PACMAN? BOMBERMAN? Ever heard of the internet? Get with the times geez. The best part is, you PAY for that "service"

I wan't that JAPANESE side scrolling oldschool shooter thats being released next next week.

Omega somthing or Somehting Omega.

4 or 5 million people logging on all at once with unified accounts with twice to three times the features/multi media severices than any other console service was going to be trouble no matter what a Sony fanboy says.

if they just say you can have any game, i'm definately waiting for SF2 HD remix or Ikaruga! :OD

this is great - to be honest all i've noticed has been slow matchmaking times.

I suggest everyone to get marble blast ultra, quite possible the best live game.

MS will likely choose the game and they will choose the game thats not selling right now so they lose nothing and LIVE users think they are getting something to recompense them for the service being down. cynical but likely true.

Well...won't whoever made the game have to agree to give it away, that's a lot of lost revenue if everyone gets it for free.
Unless Microsoft is going to pay them of directly.

im feeling that fasho

^^

Which is why they will pick one that is not selling well so they can show projected sales figures that will be low so it saves them money. Ifthey give you a choice they have to pay off a dozen or more companies and the process will take a long time as they total up sales for each companies game.

..and we got that for free. I don't see what some of you are crying about. You're getting a free XBLA game because of some minute disruption of service. It's not like LIVE completely shut down or anything. Just goes to show that some people will never be happy no matter what.

but I have been trying to sign up since Dec 27, 2007 an all I get is sign up is unavailable after wasting time with the gamer tag thing and live id thing. This is really annoying especially when all you here from M$ is that things are back to normal. Further M$ has not been forthcoming to on the customer service front either. The short story is no account no compensation. OK fully vented; ah feels so good to get that off my chest.

I rather have microsoft points. I can use them for my xbox 360 obviously but, also they are used to purchase music in my ZUNE online.

free downloadable game = Pacman.

(yep i cant be bothered to read)

they should give you a code to download whatever 800 point game you want

I as a subscriber wasn't even on XBL all the time for 3 days it was having issues, and I damn well know not every 9 million subscribers were on XBL trying to all play games at once.

So I see this as a FREEBIE. I like to play video games but the service was down and my GF got my attention, well of course she was delighted about the service having issues.

I bet you some users probably didn't even know about the problems, only to long on and get a Free game and be like what, What, MS is giving me a late X-MAS present. haha Would be nice if it was any game you want.

I didnt have a single problem, nor did any of my regular Xbox LIVE friends (and family). Didnt have a problem signing up my nephew (whom I bought the Xbox LIVE Vision + 12 mos. for <$50).

But, as ALWAYS Microsoft really knows how to take care of its customers.

Great great news.

If its Joust again im gonna be mad, theyve tried to give that game away for free too many times and the thing is, its ridiculously difficult to play with the 360 controller.

Good thing they are compensating Gold members.

sweet, time to get me some bomberman live

Every time they give a free game for something, or discount games, it is always a game that I already have. It will probable happen again, since I own like 20 arcade games.

Not too shabby, better than a kick in the teeth :-P

Eat a D1CK.

In a lot of countries there is no XBL!

Personally I would rather have a free month of Xbox live. But it makes sense that they would give away a game. Easier to distribute.

... but don't you need XBL in order to play the XBLA game?? As a former 360 owner I had countless fun playing Poker, and Street Fighter 2... and I would much rather have a month free or something dealing with XBL service, versus a game.

A great way to please your angry 360 players Micro$oft is to upgrade all your Silver members to Gold for free... for atleast 2months, and cut the people who paid some slack on the bill.

something is better than nothing. I'd rather have a month or 2 of service added to my account, but heres hoping they let us pick a game instead of giving forced choices (FAT chance)

not bad at all

it is good that they are actually giving us something back for the bad service some people (like me) got over the Christmas week :) this will be my first ever Arcade game :) although if you check my profile i did download a couple Arcade games, but then i didnt like that they stay on your "played games" list when i didnt purchase them.

I hope it's Bomber man Live! I want that game.

xbox live had problems for 14 days. As of two days ago it was still having problems. While it is true not everybody had problems, alot of people did. I was plagued with not being able to find an online match or even sign in at times for the majority of those 14 days.

Its good that MS is offering up some kind of compensation, but we dont even know what it is. It will probably some crappy title that nobody wants in the first place.

We, as paying customers, need to be compensated for our lost gaming time. For many people, the holidays offer a unique chance to play alot more than normal due to being off from school, work etc.

MS has terrible customer support and service. Ever call 1-800-4MY-XBOX. if you have, then you know what I mean. At the very least we deserve to be able to choose to pick the arcade game, at the very LEAST.

I was hoping for a week more of live mine is going to run out soon. I dont want a free arcade game because it is going to be something everyone plays for a day and goes that stinks but at least it was free than move on.

or inaccessable wasn't as absolutely maddening as having your Gamertag put into CyberLimbo cuz you tried recovering on someone else's console... I was locked outta my gamesaves and everything until Live allowed me to get my tag back. "Gamertag recovery" needs to be a top priority to fix if this happens again.

$50/yr is cheap for people who work and don't have to ask their parents to buy it. For a few days of spotty service (when a month costs only $4.16ish) I think a 400-800pt arcade game is pretty generous.

I just hope it's one that A) doesn't suck major ass and B)I don't already have. Hope they give us points to spend but that's more expensive than buying the rights to a port and giving it to us. Or giving us one of the ones that doesn't sell well. Ah well .. good news for me any way you look at it.

i could not go on matchmaking so i did not play my 360 for 4days now

this just made me even happier

microsoft is smart they dont wanna lose their customers

I jus hope its a good game lol

hope it's pac-man championship edition

So I can change my gamertag for free. Oh well, good enough for the few times I had minor problems.

i would Bomberman Live to be free

u gotta be kiddin me we need more then this MS are tied assses MS we expect something bigger not arcade games we expect mocrosoft points maybe 6000MP or atleast a patch to fix the live problem or a patch for call of duty 4