MarbleBlastUltra
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Marble Blast's update is dead, the world cries
XBL Arcade tracked down a status report on Marble Blast Ultra's long awaited update .... and it doesn't look good. In a post over at angry dev, dev man Pat Wilson who works on MBU, reported that the long time announced update will not be coming to XBL as an update. Mr. Wilson (we just had to) stated that they couldn't get on the same page as their publisher and since Microsoft controls the XBLA the update is pretty much dead. We're curious to what the issue is here. Was it the price of the new content, was there a disagreement on whether it should be free or not, or does Microsoft want some cash money? Who out there is a big fan of MBU and wants to hurt someone right now?[Thanks, smakus]
Not so special edition of Viva Pinata [update 1]
Not content with brainwashing our children with simple "standard" editions of the kid friendly Viva Piñata, Microsoft has made known their intentions to release a "special" edition of the title. What makes it special, you ask. You see beyond just the game, buyers of the special edition will receive playable demos of Lego Star Wars II, Frogger, Cloning Clyde, Time Pilot, and Marble Blast Ultra. That's right, they're bundling in demos that can be had for free on Xbox Live (with the exception of LSWII). Also included is a full length episode of the TV show (any drug dealer will tell you that the first taste is free). No doubt, MS is including these easily obtainable extras for the benefit of kids and parents who have yet to grasp the complexities of Xbox Live and its Marketplace. For gamers like us that understand our console, the extras hardly seem like a value add. Still, we're sure that this will force many parents to learn how to use Live properly. There may be no better educational incentive than the pleading scream of a child: "It says I need Xbox Live! Make it work!" Even though the value of the demos is questionable, you can't argue with the $49.99 price tag. Hell, that would be a deal if it came with nothing. Update: Fixed grammatical error -- two in one day. Jeez.
The economics of Live Arcade development
Proponents of digital distribution have long argued that cutting out the retail middleman would allow more money to go directly to a game's developer, letting lower-budget games thrive. Now that Xbox Live Arcade is approaching its first anniversary, how are developers of top-selling games like Marble Blast Ultra making out?Not horribly, but not amazingly either, according to GarageGames' Jeff Tunnel In a post on his Making It Big in Games blog, Tunnel breaks down the publicly available information on game budgets, Microsoft's distribution fees and game sales to come up with a rough estimate of a $780,000 net for a game like Marble Blast Ultra. As Tunnel puts it "if you are a starving Indie developer this sounds like an infinite amount of money. But, in the world of publishers, this is not considered a big hit."Tunnel also mentions that XBLA development budgets are expanding quickly, following a trend in traditionally distributed games. Soon, Tunnel predicts, a $300,000 budget will be considered cheap for a Live Arcade game -- food for thought for anyone hoping to jump into 360 development with nothing but a $99 XNA license and a dream.[Via Edge Online]
Marble Blast updated, free maps!
Mike from K1lla's Xbox Domain sends us news of his super spiffy interview with Pat Wilson, lead programmer of Marble Blast Ultra from Garage Games. The topic of the interview: the impending update. The update promises to fix lots of little bugs found in Marble Blast, including some kind of fix for people who drop out of games to keep their stats from going down. The really big news is that the update will include 11 (eleven!) new multiplayer maps. Garage Games is planning on releasing themes and gamer pics on Marketplace as well. Unfortunately, there is still no concrete release date for the update. Hit the read link to check out the whole interview.
