As promised (or was that threatened), here is XBLArcade.com's XBLA Board Game Roundup!

While the thought of board games on Xbox Live Arcade was initially meet with a fair amount of skepticism, the first titles have calmed the fears of even the most skeptical observer. Catan was the first to be released and was meet bypraise for those willing to give it a try.Carcassonne followed almost two months later and was meet almost the sameenthusiasm.  Finally,Spyglass Board games was released to a rathercold shoulder.  What these releases solidified for Microsoft and its partners, was to show that if you focused on one game, and got the game play just right, board games on XBLA could be big hits.

After these titles were released, Microsoft and its partners were quick to start boasting about other titles that would be coming to the service.  It seemed that almost every board game imaginable was rumored to be coming at one time or another.  Even more than rumors, Microsoft had announced that they would be bringingAlhambra, while Capcom announced they were working onTalisman.  Since then, things have gone mysteriously quiet.  While other rumors, and announcements, have been made, these two titans have gone dark.  Lucky for us, there have not only been whispers regarding these titles, but also some solid proof of life for a few other titles.

Chessmaster Live

The next board game title that will be hitting the service (it should be out January 30th), will be Ubisoft'sChessmaster Live.  While theSpyglass title did include chess, it is not really an apples-to-apples comparison.  Ubisoft has spent considerable amount of work making sure that the AI opponent will be able to keep up with both the beginner, as well as the experienced player.  Addition of a puzzle mode should allow players to hone their skills in a variety of preset situations.

Alhambra

Back in August 2006, at the Leipzig Games Convention, Microsoft announced three board games that were expected to show up on XBLA that year.  WhileCatan andCarcassonne made their way (albeit a little late) to the service, Microsoft has left fans waiting with baited breath for new information about the third title, Alhambra. 

Unfortunately no new information ever came out on the title.  After a ton of digging around, we finally were able to find out that due to "unforeseen difficulties", the version of the game that was announced, has been canceled.  Whether or not this leaves the title open for a different publisher to pick up is still in question.

Talisman

To say that something odd has happened withTalisman would be a bit of an understatement.  Here is a game that has had concept art and and the following trailer:

This game was originally announced back in April and slated for a Q4 2007 release. That morphed into a "Winter" release, which then turned into an April '08 release.  If that wasn't enough uncertainty for you, it seems that the game is now in limbo.  Rumors started coming out that the game was quietly canceled.  The great folks over at 360Sync.com went so far as to getan answer from Capcom that seemed to confirm this rumor.  However, it seems that while the title is definitely on life support, it hasn't quite kicked the bucket just yet.  According to Christian Svensson, Vice-President of Strategic Planning & Business Development at Capcom:

We are redirecting the project at the moment and there are a number of courses of action we are evaluating. The game is not canceled, nor is it on hold. We want the best possible execution so it is probably fair to say that it will not make the original date of "Winter". As we complete our evaluation of our options, we will eventually formulate a new release date.

After pressing him a bit further he went on to inform us that at a minimum, they will be changing developers.  What happened between Capcom and Big Rooster, is unknown at this time, but one would imagine that this sort of switch, could mean a very hefty delay.

So there you go, clear as mud right?

Merscom

For those of you who don't know, Reiner Knizia is one of the world's greatest board game designers.  If you can find a list of the top board games of all time, you'll see it littered with some of his titles.  With over 200 games to his credit, the man is truly a legend.  With that, it should come as no surprise that board game players around the world were extremely happy to read Merscom's PR announcement that they had signed a deal with Mr. Knizia to develop multiple titles for XBLA, DS and PC.  

After months of badgering them, it seems we've finally received some information about the first stages of this agreement.  Merscom is at the very least expecting to have one Knizia title available for download within Q4 of this year.  A second title is also slated for Q4, but they were honest in saying that it's possible that may slip to Q1 2009.  Another very interesting tidbit is that while one of these titles is an existing board game, the other is a brand new design specifically for Merscom.

One thing to note about the Merscom/Reiner Knizia announcement: while the wording makes it seem that Merscom has Knizia titles locked up, this is certainly not the case.

Lost Cities

One of Knizia's best rated titles is the two-player card gameLost Cities.  Originally the story of this game’s existence was leaked through the always porous, ESRB (although it seems to have been taken down since).  The Sierra Online published title has had very little news associated with it other than one insider saying that it's coming along quite nicely.  The only other bit of information I've been able to dig up on it is that a beta (possibly alpha) version showed up on Partnernet.  Here's to hoping this one comes out soon.

Ticket To Ride

One of the Features in the December 06 edition of Games Magazine was a feature of the Top 100 traditional and video games of the year.  The reason this is relevant is that next to theTicket to Ride section, they listed the platforms of PC and XBLA.  Not much notice was paid to it at the time, most people either missing it entirely, or just assuming that it was a typo.  Very recently, we've heard a pretty juicy rumor from one of our moles that not only is this game a possible future XBLA title, but that it's well into production.  When and if we'll see this title, remains to be seen, but things are certainly looking up.

Puerto Rico

In February of last year, the German online board gaming site BrettSpielWelt, announced that it was removing Puerto Rico from their site because someone had bought the online rights to the title.  Rumors followed that this meant that someone had purchased it with the intention of bringing it to XBLA.  Unfortunately, we've been hearing whispers that this isn't the case.  This isn't to say that it won’t ever be brought to the service, rather that nobody is actively doing so right now.

Conclusion

After receiving a couple of top notch board game titles on the XBLA service, Microsoft and their partners have certainly created a strong demand for more of the same.  While some of the strategic titles that they were hoping would keep the ball rolling seemed to have fallen in battle, with a little luck, and even more patience from us the paying public, it looks like board games on XBLA could be back on track soon. 

It should also be noted that while we tried to dig up as much information as possible, the one place we couldn't find any news in terms of new games, was Microsoft itself.  This means one of two things, either they really aren't working on anything in the board game space, or that we just couldn't find it.  If I were a betting man, I'd lean towards Microsoft finally learning how to keep a secret. :)

Oh, and to finally speak about the thousand pound elephant in the room...

While noting has been publicly stated, or even hinted at yet, and our repeated attempts to get them to spill the beans went unfulfilled, I wonder if it's only a matter of time before EA starts to use it's exclusive agreement with Hasbro to bring some American classic board games to XBLA.