Some folks in the gaming community were surprised when Xbox chief Peter Moore recently announced plans to bring Live Arcade titles into an offline arena, but it comes as no surprise to those of us who've been paying attention. Chris Early, VP of M'softs casual gaming crew, mentioned at E3 that gamers would soon be able to play Arcade titles without the benefit of Arcade, and Arcade Unplugged currently has a release date of 10/2/06 on EB...I mean Gamestop's Coming Soon list.

The plan, it seems, is to offer games like Geometry Wars and Smash TV to the 'other 50%' of gamers that have not (or cannot) sign up for Xbox Live, while using the titles to showcase the platform as a welcoming destination.