Microsoft Announces Prices, Release Dates for Trials Evolution, Minecraft and More

The first quarter of 2012 is coming to an end next week and so far this year I've gotta say that it hasn't been half bad.  After all, we did get great games like Mass Effect 3, The Darkness II and a slew of other major releases both retail and digital in nature.  This quarter is also when the fiscal year ends for most publishers in the industry which means that April and May is usually a time when publishers try to put their best foot forward and start the new year off strong.

To that end, Microsoft announced their next block of Live Arcade titles coming over the next month and a half.  Entitled 'Arcade Next,' this new wave of titles brings some impressive and long awaited ones to the table.

The block starts off on April 18th with a game pretty much everyone here at 4Player has been waiting for: Trials Evolution.  The game will feature a new track editing suite, entirely new environments and multiplayer racing.  It will retail for 1200 Microsoft Points (MSP) or about $15.

Next up is a game that, up until now, I really hadn't heard of at all.  From Climax Group, an old dev team whose most recent accomplishment was Silent Hill Shattered Memories, will be releasing Bloodforge, a rather bloody fantasy hack 'n slash title, on April 25th.  The game will retail for 1200 MSP or $15.

The third game is something that we've heard about but not really so much talked about: Fable Heroes.  The game is a cutesy take on the classic Fable franchise that plays a bit like Castle Crashers as you trounce around Albion visiting familiar locales while upgrading your character, collecting gold and the like with up to three additional players.  The game will retail for 800 MSP or $10 on May 2nd and features compatibility with Fable: The Journey that allows you to transfer your gold to the new game to give you a head start.

Rounding out the list is a game everyone's been looking forward to: Minecraft's Xbox 360 port.  Nothing really needs to be said about it since, well, it's Minecraft.  The game will feature a new crafting system, tutorials for players new to the game and splitscreen and online multiplayer.  This version will not feature the Kinect compatibility advertised at E3 last year but Microsoft says that it may still come in a future update.  It also does not say whether the 360 version will be up to spec with the most recent 1.2 update or even the upcoming 1.3 version.  Minecraft will retail for 1600 MSP or $20 when it arrives on May 9th.

Anyway, that's the word.  If you click the title of each game it links you to the game's Xbox 360 page in case you want to give them a closer look.