Greg Canessa. the man who created Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade game service for the original Xbox and Xbox 360 would like to see his former company bring it back for the Xbox One console. Canessa believes such a move would allow the Xbox One to have a "huge point of distinction" compared to Sony's rival PlayStation 4.
XBLA was first created as a way to separate small digital-only games for the original Xbox and Xbox 360 that came from both big and small developers and publishers. Microsoft eventually published over 700 XBLA games for the Xbox 360. However, the company decided to ditch the XBLA brand for the Xbox One in favor of grouping all of the console's titles under one "Games" banner, no matter how big or small they were.
Speaking with IGN, Canessa stated:
"First of all, bring back the brand," he said. "I think that is probably the most financially, commercially successful brand—at least in the last ten years of consoles—that has been decommissioned," he added, calling it "a multi-hundred-million-dollar brand with tons of equity amongst 50 million gamers."
Canessa went on to express his bewilderment in why there isn't a dedicated XBLA destination in the Xbox One dashboard, saying it would be "easily fixable." He also spoke to the value of curation, offering a demo with every game, and having a specific destination where it would be easy to discover and spotlight new games, urging Microsoft to bring back Summer of Arcade and XBLA Wednesdays.
Canessa, who currently is the Senior Vice President and General Manager of GSN Games, added that overall, the Xbox One team, lead by Phil Spencer, are "doing a phenomenal job" running the division.
Source: IGN