Team 17 Swears Worms for XBLA is On the Way

The XBLA version of Worms is still on hold, and developer Team 17 is no happier about it than you are, but rest assured, it will come out...someday. It seems that the holdup is on the Microsoft side of things, as the certification process is taking somewhat longer than expected. As XBLA Director of programming Larry Hryb puts it, the Arcade has "a very high bar that each title must pass over in order to be released," and that nothing had quite made it in time. In other words, Worms just ain't good enough to cut it yet, so Microsoft keeps sending Team 17 back to the drawing board.

Team 17's Martyn Brown isn't entirely surprised, though.

Worms is one of the 'richer' XBLA experiences in that it'll provide hours and hours of repeat play through its on and offline multiplayer modes. Unfortunately that's meant a hell of a lot of testing and also re-submissions on what we felt were final builds.

We've been working very closely with Microsoft XBLA team on this who are as excited and just as keen to see the game out there and on XBLA but there are procedures to follow before that can be the case.

We're very close to being able to celebrate its release though, although it's almost happened twice before, so we better keep quiet and hope that we get the green light soon.

My fingers are crossed for you, Martyn, 'cause I can't wait to start chucking some Holy Hand Grenades.

Team 17 boss explains Worms XBLA delay [Eurogamer]