Vigilante 8 Arcade - Development and Marketing

Development and Marketing

Vigilante 8 Arcade was announced on February 14, 2008. The game's developer, Isopod Labs, consists of three key individuals responsible for much of the production of the original Vigilante 8. The studio consisted of just six individuals and a small number of art contractors, and the title's development was self-funded. Isopod Labs originally looked to a June 2008 release, however the game was not originally submitted for Xbox Live certification until August 12, 2008. Testers found issues on Microsoft's end in relation to the QNet code library. The issue was resolved by both parties and the game was sent back to Microsoft for resubmission. "We certainly wish it was a quicker process," said Isopod Labs, "but this is how the cookie crumbles — not much else to do, but wait." In a post-release interview with Joystiq Isopod Labs' Adrian Stephens added "The certification issue is a tricky one and more could be done to smooth the path towards certification." Vigilante 8 Arcade passed Microsoft's Xbox Live certification on September 24, 2008, and was released November 5, 2008.

Although the cars are mostly based on the original Vigilante 8, the soundtrack is a remixed version of the music from Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense. V8 Arcade supports the Xbox Live Vision camera, allowing players to see their opponents face to face. Developers Isopod Labs also converted the original cars from Vigilante 8 as unlockable bonus content. J3Concepts also created a custom theme for the original blades Xbox 360 dashboard. A downloadable content addon known as the High Octane pack was released on Xbox Live marketplace on December 3, 2008. It features three new characters and two new levels.