For indies, working with Microsoft is a horrifying mess…right?
Dead Space’s Isaac Clarke once had to drill into his own eyeball in order to survive a ship infested with mutated freaks. Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad of Assassin’s Creed fame was made to part with a portion of one of his fingers in order to join the Levantine Brotherhood of Assassins. Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft once had the misfortune of falling onto a piece of sharpened rebar that pierced her midsection — and all she was trying to do was go for a nice little exploratory boat ride. And that’s not even mentioning the myriad scores of locust soldiers that have found themselves on the wrong end of Marcus Fenix’s trusty chainsaw or colossal boots over the years.
You don’t hear any of them complaining about having to endure those, shall we way, slightly disagreeable circumstances, though, do you? That’s because those mere flesh wounds were nothing when compared to the great tragedy of our time: working with a certain platform holder to release your independent studio’s game on Xbox Live Arcade. I shudder at the very thought.
If you’ve followed Xbox Live Arcade over the past several years here and on other sites, then you already know of what I speak. There lives in Redmond, Washington a great beast, massive in size with glowing red-ringed eyes of fury. It is a devious creature hellbent on tricking those smaller than it into believing they’re partners, only to turn on them in their hour of need, stomping down on their hopes and dreams harder than Fenix has brought down his boots on so many locust heads. Such disdain does this gluttonous monstrosity have for the smaller creatures roaming the forest of the game industry, that it is more than happy to sacrifice its own interests if it means snuffing out the light of those cowering under its great shadow.
So evil is this…Wait. Isn’t this getting just a little out of hand? Is Microsoft really that terrible of a company? Does it truly care nothing for the needs of independent game developers? Is its thirst for video game console dominance so insatiable that it doesn’t mind torpedoing its, um, pursuit of video game console dominance so long as it means making life miserable for independent game studios that, by developing games for its platform, are actively working to help it succeed with its, uh, video game console dominance? It is if you’ve listened to the little guys with big megaphones.
“Working with Microsoft is great” says XBLA developer Ska Studios
Following on from some of the negative XBLA press that has recently hit the headlines, Ska Studios’ James Silva has decided to set the record straight on his experiences …
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Massive XBLA sale includes Dust: An Elysian Tale and Mark of the Ninja
If you scroll to the Games page on your dashboard, you can find a panel for “Microsoft Studios Sale” that includes a plethora of big XBLA Games. Some of our favorites like Dust: An Elysian Tale and Mark of the Ninja can both be picked up 600 MSP (50% off). You might also want to jump on the Trials bandwagon, because both the original Trials HD and Trials: Evolution can be picked up for 400 MSP and 800 MSP respectively.
The sale will be available until April 8th Here is the complete list of games, including a few extras that you won’t find in the dashboard (like Retro City Rampage). Here is the full list of what’s on sale: Read More
Gaming diseases that have yet to infect XBLA
Xbox LIVE Arcade is a sort of safe haven for gamers who just want to enjoy their games. It’s a place where microtransactional games are minimal, and rarely pay-and-pay-to-play. It’s a place where pre-order bonuses do not exist, and one that doesn’t artificially lengthen a game with pointless quests. Here we can play a game that’s free of the adult content that feels so forced in retail titles. Here we can play without having political and religious agendas pushed on us. Here we can simply be gamers.
I love digital titles. I love that I don’t have to clutter my cabinet with discs. I love that I can have access to them at any time, and that the stereotypical moocher friend can’t borrow my digital games. I love how pick-up-and-play they are. I never feel forced to devote an hour or more to one play session. If I only have 10 minutes, I’ve got time for XBLA. It’s freeing. Here’s a list of problems that plague retail titles that remain (relatively) free from Xbox LIVE Arcade games.
XBLA price drops, sales and releases include Rotastic, Walking Dead, and Terraria
Major Nelson has announced on his blog some new titles and valuable sales coming up in the next few weeks, some of which start now! The Walking Dead is among the deals, …
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Jon Blow and Team Meat done with Xbox
In recent interviews with Edge and Eurogamer, the makers of Braid and Super Meat Boy expressed their frustration with developing for Xbox Live Arcade. As independent developers, taking on the heated business of console development on top of development costs is more stress than its worth, say the developers.
“The overhead cost of just developing for those consoles is insane,” explained Tommy Refenes from Team Meat. “It costs zero dollars to develop on Steam if you already have a computer. When you look at PlayStation and Xbox and Nintendo, you have to buy thousand dollar dev kits and pay for certification and pay for testing and pay for localisation – you have to do all these things and at the end of the day it’s like, ‘I could have developed for other platforms and it would’ve been easier.'”
On top of development costs, there are lawyers, fees and ambiguity to sort through that cause an equally overwhelming headache. Ed McMillen from Team Meat said that to bring his studio’s games to consoles, his team would need “some magical middleman who would just appear and do all of our business for us… We went in and found out what it was like to develop for a console and the reality is there’s no loyalty on either side and it’s a business. And when you step in to that business arena it goes from us making art and it turns into business.”
Weekly Roundup: November 17 – Minecraft, Molyneux and Marketplace mayhem
Weekly Roundup compiles all the biggest news stories, reviews and features from the week into one handy post on the weekends.
Another week of Xbox Live Arcade is in the books. This one’s been all over the map, celebrating the 10-year anniversary of a service that brings us all together. With so much happening on this platform of ours, it’s easy to lose sight of just how good we have it. If it weren’t for Xbox Live, none of us would be here, so XBLA Fans wants to know, what’s your favorite memory from the past ten years of Xbox Live gaming? Let us know in the comments and Happy Birthday, Xbox Live!
XBLA Fans Monthly Calendar Update – November 2012
XBLA Fans’ Calendar Update helps you keep track of all those XBLA release dates that often seem to spring upon you at the last minute and remind you of those promised games you were looking forward to that just seem to disappear without explanation. In this edition we’re taking a look at a particularly sparse November along with some hopefuls for December so you can start organizing your MSP and schedule in some serious controller time or sick days well in advance.
The XBLA release schedule seems to have gone a bit quiet for the last two months of the year. So far we only have 3 confirmed November game launches. In the first week of the month gamers can get their hands on the next release in the SEGA Vintage Collection, Toe Jam & Earl for 800 MSP on November 7. In keeping with the retro feel for this week, the remake of 1984’s Karateka will also release November 7 for 800 MSP. The only other confirmed release this month is for Warlords on November 14, also priced at 800 MSP. However Skulls of the Shogun developers 17-Bit, have stated they would like a November launch despite having previously announced it would release with Windows 8, and developers Chasing Carrots have also indicated they would like to release their top-down racer Pressure this month too.
Newsbits: October 4 – New TV apps edition
- There was no XBLA game this Wednesday. Major Nelson, director of Xbox LIVE tweeted that it was because NBA Live 13 did not get released (and was …
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XBLA Fans Monthly Calendar Update: October 2012
XBLA Fans’ new Calendar Update helps you keep track of all those XBLA release dates that often seem to spring upon you at the last minute and remind you of those promised games you were looking forward to that just seem to disappear without explanation. In this edition we’re taking a look at October and some rumors for November so you can start organizing your MSP and schedule in some serious controller time or sick days well in advance.
There’s quite a few confirmed XBLA releases for October already. First up is Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit on October 3 for 1200 MSP. If that sounds familiar it’s because North America got this one last month so we’d expect another Wednesday release to be announced otherwise it’ll be a quiet week for many. However there are two Friday releases this first week as Sega release their XBLA ports of NIGHTS into dreams and Sonic Adventure 2 both for 800 MSP on October 5. The following week looks a bit busier with two Wednesday releases so far as Worms Revolution hits XBLA on October 10 along with Naughty Bear: Panic in Paradise for 1200 MSP. Zombie Drive HD finally makes it onto XBLA on October 17 for 800 MSP and we also have another Friday release this week as Alien Spidy is released October 19 also for 800 MSP. Towards the end of the month Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus is released on October 24 at 1200 MSP and Blood Knights gets the coveted Halloween release date priced at 1200 MSP. Major Nelson just confirmed this morning that Pool Nation will drop October 12. Read More