“Every few years a game will come out that is so simple, yet so addictive that it becomes a phenomenon unto itself,” says Bill Dugan, Torpex Games’ President. “We truly believe that if you and a friend spend two minutes playing Schizoid, you are going to ignore food, drink, your job and your family and play until they load you up on a gurney and head to the hospital. Schizoid is that rare game that comes along once every few years and we are very proud to make it our first release for Xbox LIVE Arcade.”

Featuring addictively simple gameplay, in Schizoid one person plays ‘red’ and the other plays ‘blue’. Each player moves his ship around the level as a seemingly endless stream of enemies attack. Each player can burst enemies of their own color merely through contact, but each player can be bursted by enemies of the other color. Both players have to “step up” on every level to handle the enemies of their own color, so their partner is not destroyed.

“There are literally thousands of games released every year and yet very few of them have the originality of Schizoid. It’s amazing to me that this game hasn’t been invented before now,” says Dave Mitchell, Microsoft’s Director of Marketing for XNA. “Schizoid demonstrates that developers can really unleash an ingenious game with XNA Game Studio Express.”

Bryan Trussel, Microsoft’s Director of Platform Game Services, added, “Schizoid combines a very fun and innovative game mechanic with really creative level design. Thanks to its cooperative game-play experience and variety of scenarios, Schizoid is a great game to play with friends, either on the couch or over Xbox Live. We’re delighted to exclusively add this creative and unique game to our incredible Xbox LIVE Arcade library.”