Summer of Arcade to drive XBLA card sales

Retailers: Make sure you stock up on Microsoft Xbox Live points cards. The annual summer games lull may be approaching retail, but Microsoft is expecting nothing of the sort on Xbox Live Arcade.

The platform holder is kicking off its 2011 Summer of Arcade promotion on July 20th with the release of Warner Bros RPG Bastion. Gamers can purchase points cards to download a string of other new Xbox 360 games including God sim From Dust on July 27th and Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet on August 3rd. Toy Soldiers: Cold War follows on August 17th.

These will be priced at 1,200 Microsoft Points each (around 12).

Hit iPhone game Fruit Ninja will be available on August 10th for 800 Points. It’s one of the first Kinect games to hit the XBLA store.

We’re really pleased to be bringing back Xbox Live’s Summer of Arcade promotion for its fourth consecutive year, and to continue building on the success of the program,” Microsoft’s director of Xbox and Entertainment Stephen McGill told MCV.

Just look at the success of Limbo last year – it won several awards and has a Metacritic rating of 90. Summer of Arcade helped drive awareness and provided an excellent platform for Limbo’s release, contributing to its commercial success.”