If you're a lover of Sega's still-excellent Dreamcast console, boy have we got some news for you.
There is a lot to cover here, so pay attention. We have gathered intel from across the darker corners of the Internet, and our information tells us that several titles from the Dreamcast's heyday are on their way to XBOX LIVE Arcade. Maybe.
The first bombshell is the screenshot below, taken from a French XBOX 360 debug NXE, that shows a familiar title in the Recent Games menu - namely a demo of Jet Set Radio (Jet Grind Radio in the US). It was uploaded to an espirit-pixel.com forum by a poster who uses the name xbox360leaker.
Flaunting his NDA-breaking prowess to the max, xbox360leaker has since uploaded to his ImageShack account numerous images that reveal even more epic bombshells. The next screenshot shows a demo of Project Berkley II. Project Berkley was, once upon a time, the code name for Yu Suzuki's hard-work-athon, Shenmue. Presumably Project Berkley II is either Shenmue HD, or Shenmue II.
But wait, there's more! The Dreamcast love-fest continues over at Digiex.net, where a forum poster by the name of wasabifights posted screenshots of, among other things, Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi. Are you ready for some crazy drivin'?
This is certainly a lot of seemingly connected information about similarly themed games, all coming to one platform, and all hitting the Internet at approximately the same time. Coincidence? I doubt it, although it should go without saying that the above images are not to be taken as actual announcements. After all, images can be manipulated very easily. Even if they are legitimate, the fact remains that these images appear amongst others that are quite clearly from XNA developer boxes. It could be that the games on these lists are merely the results of proof-of-concept uploads within the developer community, and will never see the business end of your Microsoft Points.
Let's hope that isn't the case. What makes the case for the reality of these games stronger is the fact that Sega is currently restructuring all its Sega West business units, most recently limiting Sega San Francisco to download-only titles. Could this be where the above XBLA titles are coming from?
It seems Sega has been losing it's once-impenetrable world dominance one step at a time - a fact that blows something into both my eyes whenever I think about it. That being said, as I wipe away the tears, I can't think of a better way to bolster the recently stagnant batch of releases on XBLA than with a sweet Dreamcast injection. Can you?