Empire Interactive, today announced that the eagerly awaited, classic combat sports game Speedball II: Brutal Deluxe, will be available via Xbox 360 LIVE Arcade from 17th October 2007.

Regarded as a break-though title that took the sports genre to a new level, the Bitmap Brothers classic, Speedball, was first released for the Amiga in 1990 and quickly became a huge success. However it wasn’t until the release of its sequel, Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe that the title reached new gaming heights and sold over 2 million units. It is still considered by many to be one of the best games of all time. The Xbox LIVE Arcade version is a perfect conversion of Speedball II: Brutal Deluxe but with the addition of an all-new High Definition version, more teams and downloadable content, whilst still retaining all the classic elements that have made it a firm favourite amongst gamers.

Empire Interactive has recently enjoyed great success with the release of arcade classic Double Dragon, where it has become one of the most popular full games downloads on Xbox LIVE Arcade (400MP). The highly anticipated release of this legendary game should further cement Empire’s position as a leading provider of casual games in the online marketplace.

Ian Higgins, CEO Empire Interactive said, “Xbox LIVE Arcade is the ideal environment for this exciting new high definition version of Speedball. With the addition of extra content packs and downloadable content, gamers will at last have the ultimate version of the game.”

Clive Kabatznik, CEO of Silverstar Holdings commented, “Speedball 2 will undoubtedly add to our earlier successes on Xbox LIVE Arcade and further demonstrates our ability to cost effectively redeploy classic titles on all major formats and a multitude of distribution channels.”

Mike Montgomery, of developers Bitmap Brothers said, “The team are all as passionate about Speedball today as they were back in the day. The evolution of the game to Xbox LIVE Arcade will provide renewed interest and excitement for Speedball fans old and new”.

The title was recently voted one of the most wanted games for Xbox LIVE Arcade in an article by the Computer and Video Games website. At a cost of 800MP its arrival will please both hard-core fans and new generations of gamers who have yet to experience what some believe is the finest combat sports game ever made.

Xbox LIVE Arcade is the central destination for Xbox 360 gamers to find, download, try, and buy smaller games on the Xbox 360 console. Xbox LIVE Arcade offers a large catalogue of fun, broad-appeal games that can be downloaded via Xbox LIVE.