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Marble Blast Ultra Delisted From Xbox Live Arcade
With its January 2006 release date, Marble Blast Ultra was one of the earliest Xbox Live Arcade games and also one of the first critical and sales success stories for the new downloadable game service. Now due to some confusion related to the game's rights, it's not available at all.
XBLA Fans reports that Marble Blast Ultra has been delisted from Xbox Live Arcade. Unlike previous threats of games being delisted due to low sales or review scores, though, this one has been removed because of rights issues.
Marble Blast Ultra creator GarageGames was rebranded as Instant Action in 2009 and shut down late last year. Though GarageGames exists once more, much of its intellectual property, including Marble Blast, was sold off. With the rights in limbo somewhere, Marble Blast Ultra has been removed from XBLA, and it's anyone's guess as to if or when it could return.
Personally speaking, Marble Blast UItra was the second game I ever downloaded on XBLA (Geometry Wars was the first), and it was one of the first titles that made me really enjoy my new console. It's a bummer that new 360 owners don't have the chance to check it out. Here's hoping whoever owns the rights to the game now works to get it put back up.
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