"Confirmed" Xbox 360 Euro launch titles...

[[maven]]

The German USK tests all games to give appropriate age ratings... And now guess which titles it has tested in the past few weeks:

Kiosk Demo Disk (6+), 29.09.2005

Dead or Alive 4 (16+), 26.10.2005
Fifa 2006 Road to the Fifa World Cup (0+), 24.10.2005
Final Fantasy 11 (XI) (12+), 21.10.2005
GUN (16+), 14.10.2005
Call of Duty 2 (18+), 11.10.2005
Peter Jackson's King Kong - The Official Game of the Movie (12+), 06.10.2005
Project Gotham Racing 3 (0+), 04.10.2005
Ridge Racer 6 (0+), 27.09.2005
NBA 2K6 (0+), 16.09.2005
NHL 2K6 (0+), 16.09.2005
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (12+), 09.09.2005
Kameo (12+), 15.08.2005

Crystal Quest (0+), 20.10.2005
Feeding Frenzy (0+), 20.10.2005
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved (6+), 20.10.2005
Outpost Kaloki (0+), 20.10.2005
Robotron (6+), 20.10.2005
Wik: Fable of Souls (0+), 20.10.2005
Zuma (0+), 20.10.2005
Gauntlet (6+), 17.10.2005
Joust (0+), 17.10.2005
Backgammon (0+), 06.10.2005
Bankshot Billiards 2 (0+), 06.10.2005
Bejeweled 2 (0+), 06.10.2005
Hearts (0+), 06.10.2005
Marble Blast 2 (0+), 06.10.2005
Mutant Storm Reloaded (6+), 06.10.2005
Spades (0+), 06.10.2005
Hexic (0+), 28.06.2005

Interesting bits:
- No Perfect Dark Zero yet.
- The In-Store demo disk is older than 29.09.2005
- FF11!
- King Kong and Kameo were tested quite early

 

[London Geezer]

ALL of those available at launch?

I remember from all old launches, there are always something like 20 games theoreticall y "available at launch" but there never really are!! In the PS2 days, you could only find a very few games at launch, even though the "launch games list" had about 20 titles in it. Same for all other consoles with big launch games lists.

 

[[maven]]

Well, most of these are Xbox Live Arcade titles (the 2nd group), so they list isn't as extensive as it looks. For the others, I think them being an actual launch title (as opposed to launch window) is quite likely.
The USK also tests beta-versions but they have to be content-identical with the final version (i.e. complete but not final), otherwise they have to be resubmitted (which is why RE4 didn't contain the bonus games in Germany) and I suspect Microsoft will be quite adamant (as will the 3rd party publishers) that if a game is content-complete and playable that it will be pushed out (unless huge quality concerns become obvious - but then why submit them to certification?).