Spong reports that MAME might be coming to the Xbox Live. The gossip comes from an inside source at Microsoft, according to the site.

"You've heard of MAME right? Right. We're just doing a legal version of MAME, meaning that all the game owners get paid and the users get quality product based around a community. Imagine the biggest arcade in the world, just 1,000 times bigger. It'll have as many machines as we can possibly get, all with score-rankings and other community stuff. It's not a secret that MAME was massive for hackers of the original Xbox and the pull and sales of retro game packs on current machines is still really high. If this is taken and put under the right noses, it should become the biggest thing in mainstream/hardcore gamer crossover in the industry."

Having recently chatted with Chris Early, studio manager for Microsoft Casual Games (he's also in charge of Live Arcade), I have a feeling this has been misconstrued. If there was one thing I took away from my meeting with Early was that they didn't want Arcade to become bloated, like the cell phone game biz has become. One of the keys to Arcade's success, Early said, is to ensure the quality of the titles and to make sure gamers don't get bogged down in the possible selections.

The last thing I can see happening is Microsoft opening the floodgates to thousands of titles. And we all know Msoft is not the biggest fan of hacking.

Xbox Live to Balloon in Coming Months [Spong]

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