Xbox Live Arcade hits like Bejeweled 2 and Zuma are injecting their addictive juices into retail shelves this November 15. PopCap Games just announced PopCap Arcade Volume 1 for the Xbox 360. This bundle will retail for US$ 29.95 and will include the following: Bejeweled 2, Astropop, Feeding Frenzy, and Zuma.

The casual game developer has also announced the same bundle (minus Feeding Frenzy and Zuma) for the PS2 and will be releasing it simultaneously with the 360 version under the name of PopCap Hits Volume 1 for US$ 19.95. Glenn Drover from Popcap had this to say about the release of the retail bundles:

We're very excited to be bringing some of our top million-selling casual games to consoles via retail shelves, and eager to see how consumers respond. We've had tremendous success at retail with the PC versions of many of our games, and these new collections for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 are priced even more aggressively, so they should be a hit with holiday shoppers.

Considering that the game pack is being released as a "Volume 1", you can probably expect future volumes to appear - Volume 2, Volume 3, and onwards. PopCap sure has enough games in its library to come out with a couple of more volumes. Meanwhile, those who haven't gotten the games on XBLA better get ready for some sleepless night once these bundles hit shelves next month.

Microsoft has recently announced some new stuff coming to Xbox Live, starting with a discount binge and two new games. The first matter deals with a weekend Labor Day special, which will slash prices in half for select games. Here's a shortlist of some games falling under the promo, including their prices:

• Small Arms (Gastronaut; 400 MS Points)
• Zuma Deluxe (PopCap; 400 MS Points)
• Gauntlet (Atari; 200 MS Points)
• Dig Dug (Namco; 200 MS Points)
  

The Labor Day special is expected this Saturday (September 1), 5:00 p.m., and will last until Monday (September 3), 4:59 p.m. Come next Wednesday (September 5), Xbox Live will be updated with two classic titles: Fatal Fury Special, and Cyberball 2072.

SNK's Fatal Fury Special updates on Fatal Fury 2's character roster, adding three characters from the original Fatal Fury game. The game also enables bosses as playable characters. The second game, Cyberball 2072, is an update to the Atari's original Cyberball title. Aside from the now-familiar exploding robots and footballs, this version introduces a new game modes, bug fixes, and additional plays. Fatal Fury Special will come in at 400 MS Points, Cyberball 2072's price tag still to be announced

A study, commissioned by PopCap Games, showed that women love a good game of Cake Mania, and they aren't shy about it. After media content providers were determined to deliver advertisements catering to the young male bracket on consoles, the study by Information Solutions Group (ISG) reveals that casual gamers are "predominantly female."

Looking for numbers? Try 76% casual gamers that are female against 24% male casual gamers. And even over at Yahoo! Games and Electronic Arts casual gaming bet Pogo, more casual gamers are female.

The non-gamer bracket that included your girlfriend and your grandmother is now blessed with a gamers' edge on Zuma, thanks to the simplistic, yet entertaining casual game. With Miyamoto's previous speech on catering the Nintendo Wii to women, it's now clear that introducing games to the female bracket shows just how big of a market the game industry can tap into.

The games women play may not be "hardcore," but it's a start for toning hand-eye coordination technique and basic game mechanics. Females are entering the mainstream gaming scene, and not as promo girls on the side (mind you).

Even if the hardcore gamers are predominantly male, it's no indication that it should stay that way. There are already girl gamers around in the professional gaming scene, and it won't be a surprise if that increased this year, too.

One such study back in 2006 highlighted that 42% of adult console gamers were female, and the rest were male. In a broader scale, PC and console games were played by more males than females: 62% against 38%. So in essence, the gaming demographics is becoming more evenly distributed as time rolls on.

And with the success of the Nintendo Wii and MMO games, this year could spell the game industry's renewed focus on delivering games to gamers, and not games to males only.

If you happen to be among the millions of people who have been drawn into the addiction which is Zuma (or Bejeweled, or Feeding Frenzy, or Bookworm...), then brush up on those aiming skills. You may be seeing more of those on your Xbox 360.

After having just released Heavy Weapon: Atomic Tank over XBLA, the casual games developer PopCap games have expressed that they will be making more releases in the same manner. According to their communications director, Garth Chouteau:

There are of course other titles in the works for XBLA, and based on the success of the four titles we have released to date, in addition to the new one yesterday with Heavy Weapon, I think that it's safe to say that other PopCap titles will make their way to the service.

He also adds that he "expect to see additional XBLA titles from us to show up this year."

So yes, for 2007, you can expect to either have even MORE sleepless nights because you're finishing the last level of Bejeweled, or too much sleep since the other members of your family won't let go of the controller becaus of Zuma...

According to a new study released earlier this week by Nielsen Entertainment in their third annual Active Gamer Benchmark Study, women make up 64% of North America's 117 million online gamers - and we aren't lying. The study did not reveal any particular genre or game type that were being played by women, but it is expected that online browser games such as Zuma on various flash websites made up a large proportion of the female online gamers. Although many traditional online games such as Halo or CounterStrike were primarily aimed towards males, the rise of RPGs and large-scale online titles such as World of Warcraft appear to have attracted more female gamers to the online scene.

Another surprising result from the latest study is the amount of older gamers that are also interested in online gaming. As you'd expect, the teenage market dominates any other age group in numbers, but the study does say that more than 15 million gamers (about 8%) are actually at least 45 years old. The study involved 2,200 gamers described as "active" who were 13 years or older and owned a gaming device and played games at least once a week.

Well, the weekly update about the top games played over Xbox Live for the week from Major Nelson are in and as a little treat to all the gamers wondering why the arcade titles were never on the list except for a few occasions, the good Major has made a list of the top 10 Xbox Live Arcade titles as well. The Arcade list is only for the full versions of the games and does not include the arcade demos played over live, which explains why Bankshot Billiards is even on the list (just kidding!).

Call of Duty 2 remains the top dog of all 360 games played over Live and Dead Rising rises up from not even being on last week's list to coming in second place. The number one played Xbox Live Arcade title is Pac-Man so it looks like gobbling up power pellets can beat E-Honda's slapping move enough to put Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting in second place. The full list of the top ten 360 games and XBLA titles is as follows:

Xbox 360 Top Live Games

1. Call of Duty 2
2. DEAD RISING
3. Ghost Recon 3
4. Chromehounds
5. Oblivion
6. NCAA 07
7. BFMC
8. Final Fantasy XI
9. Dead Rising Demo
10. Lord of the Rings: BFME2

Top Xbox Live Arcade Titles (Full Versions)

1. PAC-MAN
2. Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting
3. UNO
4. Geometry Wars Evolved
5. GALAGA
6. Frogger
7. Cloning Clyde
8. Marble Blast Ultra
9. Bankshot Billiards 2
10. Zuma
    

If you want to pitch a game for the Xbox 360 Live Arcade, you better get in line.

Next-gen.biz reports that Microsoft says it's being overwhelmed by new game pitches for Xbox Live Arcade. When Microsoft requested applications for Xbox Live Arcade game proposals, they had no idea of the tidal wave of interest they'd receive.

At the Develop Conference today in Brighton, England, Microsoft's Jeff Sullivan said, "We're saturated."

According to stats from the conference, 65 percent of Xbox Live users have downloaded an Xbox Live Arcade game, with downloads now at 5 million. The conversion rate is around 20 percent (from trying a demo to actually making a purchase). And that's impressive, compared with less than 2 percent conversion in the PC market.
   
The top games are now Geometry Wars, Uno, Marble Blast Ultra, Gauntlet and Zuma.

Sullivan offered some hints for those folks hoping to get their games onto Xbox Live Arcade. He said to try for: 

• Gameplay that is immediately obvious to the player.
• Multiplayer options that include co-op play.
  
• A worldwide appeal - not just North America.
• Appealing graphics.
• Downloadable content options.
• Tie-ins with orther products or games.