Arkedo on the changing landscape of XBL Indie Games

Arkedo, the studio behind some of the more memorable titles on Xbox Live Indie Games -- Jump! and Pixel to name a couple -- recently shared some thoughts with Edge on Microsoft's service. Thus far, according to Arkedo's Camille Guermonprez, Indie Games has served as a place for independent developers to learn and share ideas, not necessarily to make money. However, thanks to the advent of user ratings and more sorting options, Guermonprez sees new potential in the Indie Games service. Says, Guermonprez, "the [iPhone / iPod] App Store changed everything with instant access to thousands of games, and lots of great ones for less than three dollars."

Guermonprez notes that Microsoft is "at a crossroads" with the service, with the potential to turn it into a real money maker or leave it as it is. He adds that he doesn't know what choice Microsoft will make -- perhaps letting more XNA developers release titles on Xbox Live Arcade, a la The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai -- but concludes that "the potential is huge."

Of course, the problem with the App Store success analogy is evident: For every Rocket Fart there is at least one I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1N IT!!!1.