Darwinia creators and Multiwinia developers Introversion have announced that they are pairing up with software giant Microsoft to port indie hit Darwinia and upcoming Multiwinia to the Xbox. The games will be packaged into one download, called Darwinia+, which is expected to be available on the game console in the Autumn of 2008.

Darwinia is one of the most intriguing games ever created for the PC. You really can't assign a category to the game. It's part action, part base management and God simulator and part real time strategy, depending on what action the player chooses to perform at certain points in the game. It also creates a very weird yet deep world, that of the Darwinians, which are pixel based life forms that exist inside a huge network of old discarded computers. Their world evolves and they adapt to it like biological lifeforms, until the day that virus programs begin to assault Darwinia. It's, of course, up to the player to lead the Darwinians in the their fight for survival.

The game was initially designed and published by Introversion on a shoe string budget. But the gaming community was quick to adopt the game, especially praising the un-orthodox gameplay and the retro graphics developed by Introversion. The game is continuing to receive updates, some of which add a lot of extra content. A Steam version of the game is available for download.

Introversion have announced that Multiwinia, a multiplayer game based on the Darwinia world is in development and a beta test started in early March. The game developers stated that "Multiwinia is the natural conclusion of what we started with Darwinia way back in 2002".

Commenting on the Xbox Live Arcade announcement Chris Delay, who is Creative Director at Introversion, declared: "When we first started Introversion back in 2001, the idea of developing our games for a console seemed an impossible challenge, and whilst we have built a fantastic community around our PC games, and will continue to support that, it has always been our dream to take the next step and produce a console title".

Multiwinia is expected to hit PCs at the same time the Darwinia+ package appears on the Xbox Live Arcade in Autumn.