Microsoft has confirmed that August was the most successful month it’s ever had for its Xbox Live Arcade service – and has also announced that a brand new instalment to the famous R-Type series is on the way.

August saw a string of critically acclaimed titles arrive on Microsoft’s gaming download service Xbox Live Arcade, including Bizarre’s Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 and celebrated indie platformer Braid, along with other hits such as Galaga Legions and Bionic Commando: Rearmed. In total, the month saw revenues leap by 67 per cent, according to CVG.

“At E3, we committed to re-focusing the Xbox Live Arcade business, vowing to release bigger and better games while focusing on quality and not quantity,” Xbox Live boss Marc Whitten stated.

“The debut of the new strategy proved to be a huge success, with the Summer of Arcade making August the highest grossing month to date. But the focus on quality games doesn't stop with the Summer of Arcade. We have plenty more great titles coming out in the next few months and beyond that we think will continue to fuel this incredible momentum.”

As part of the news, it was also confirmed that a brand new R-Type will be arriving on XBLA at a later date. It is believed that developer Tozai Inc, the firm that recently released PSP outing R-Type Tactics, is working on the new game.

Though no other details have yet been announced, it was recently revealed that a new game called R-Type Dimensions had been classified for release.