Quarrel was rejected by 'almost every games publisher,' mostly for being a word game

Bringing Quarrel to XBLA seems like a no-brainer. The game's done very well on iOS, and it was intended for Microsoft's platform in the first place. But in a post on Denki's official blog, managing director Colin Anderson says that the game (which began as the prototype above) was rejected by "almost every games publisher in the world. Sometimes twice; occasionally three times."

The acquisition teams at game publishers liked it, apparently, but the finance and marketing departments ... not so much. They suggested, says Anderson, that the game was too difficult, that it was broken because you sometimes had to beat opposing players with fewer letters to make words, or because gamers in general "just don't buy word games."

Obviously, the iOS version proved that untrue, and Anderson hails the release of the game on XBLA as a chance for gamers to show "the game industry" that it was wrong. The only question left is if XBLA gamers will find themselves under Quarrel's spell just as much as their iOS counterparts.