According to an article on
Boardgamenews.com, Microsoft has been snapping up the rights to popular online board games such as "
Puerto Rico" and "
The Princes of Florence". Users of
BrettSpielWelt were the first to get clued in when the games mysteriously disappeared from the system at the beginning of March. Apparently, these games could become future Xbox Live Arcade titles for the Xbox 360 or Games for Windows on Vista.
A
link to (what appears to be a German site) Spielbox (as translated by Patrick Korner) has some more info: “Now Ravensburger (alea’s parent company) has given word that the new rights-holder is none other than Microsoft, which means that
Puerto Rico is in line to be released as an online game, likely via Microsoft’s X-Box Live.... Ravensburger went on to say that similar agreements were inked for other game titles, including
The Princes of Florence.”
Whether these games make it to XBLA or even to the U.S. market remains to be seen.
