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Xbox Indie Games get new pricing structure, improved update system
Microsoft announced plans yesterday to change a variety of XNA Creators Club features in the coming weeks. First and foremost, the recently renamed Xbox Live Indie Games will get a new pricing structure: games will start at 80 ($1) and cap off at 400 ($5). Second, the renaming of the service will take affect on Xbox Live and at the XNA Creators Club website. Additionally, games on the Indie Games Channel can now receive automatic updates (a la Xbox Live Arcade and Xbox 360 games). Perhaps the most interesting piece of this update is the inclusion of 50 "tokens" for each creator per game; meaning that developers can now send out review codes of games to press (wink, wink), as well as giveaway copies of the game to fans. Interestingly, this is the same number of free codes that Apple grants its App Store developers. Well played, Microsoft.[Via Xbox Indies]
Ocean Scenes developer gives inside look into XNA platform
We've heard from a number of XNA Community Games developers since the publication of GamerBytes' in-depth look at XNA sales statistics. While these indie devs have all provided some interesting insight into the infantile platform, we were curious to hear what a more casual member of the Creators Club thought about the service.Adam Holmes, developer of the ultra soothing pseudo-game Ocean Scenes, provided us with just such a viewpoint. A self-proclaimed "hobbyist," Holmes' take on the XNA Community Games service is more optimistic than most. You can check out our entire interview (along with some tranquilizing images of lovely oceanic vistas) after the jump!
GamerBytes study shows disappointing sales for XNA Community Games
Considering certain independent iPhone App developers have been making towering mountains of cash, you'd think that the financial status of the XNA Community Games market would be just as favorable. However, according to a recent report from GamerBytes, who dug up the sales figures of a number of XNA titles, this couldn't be further from the truth -- the combined sales total of the 24 titles they tracked was a mere 23,907 purchases, with an underwhelming conversion rate (ratio of people who purchase a game to total demo downloads) of just 7.1 percent.Of course, with no impetus on the developers to reveal their financial data, the report is far from conclusive. When queried about their sales statistics, many of the developers gave rough estimates (or no answer at all), and a few of the service's "high-profile" titles, such as Colosseum and CarneyVale: Showtime, are completely unaccounted for. Take GamerBytes' conclusions with a few grains of salt, but based on their research, it certainly seems XNA Community Games have gotten off to a molasses-slow start.
Some creators disappointed with XNA Community Games sales
If indie devs thought that XNA Community Games would be the ticket to untold riches ... well, let's just say they may not want to toss their name tags and hairnets just yet. Mobeen Fikree, the force behind caffeine monster software, revealed his XNA sales numbers, which he deemed disappointing. Of the 7595 downloads his game DUOtrix had received, only 157 were converted into full purchases, a conversion rate of around two percent. Unsurprisingly, Fikree doesn't think its an issue with his game's quality, rather blaming the lack of a user-rating system that allows the best games to rise to the top. Though it didn't disclose all the numbers, Mommy's Best Games agreed, saying that the sales of fairly well-publicized Weapon of Choice fell well below expectations. Are you an XNA dev with numbers to share? Let us know!
Microsoft awards $75,000 to Dream-Build-Play 2008 winners
The winners of the annual indie developer-friendly contest Dream-Build-Play were recently announced. After scouring the 350 titles that were submitted (including, we imagine, a great deal of groundbreaking Pong clones), Microsoft awarded the $40,000 grand prize to Singapore's Team Gambit, for their XNA Game Studio-borne entry, CarnyVale: Showtime (pictured above), an "acrobatic puzzle game" which includes a built-in level editor. In addition to the cash prize, Team Gambit will apparently have the opportunity to publish their title on Xbox Live Arcade.Other submissions garnered cash prizes and XBLA invitations for their creators, including a side-scrolling action game titled Weapon of Choice, a martial arts sim named HurricaneX, and the self-explanatory, infinitely intriguing Battle Tennis. These finalists, as well as many other submissions for the contest, will be available on the Xbox Live Community Games Channel when the NXE is released on November 19.
Counting Rupees: Royalty Screwed
Each week Jeff Engel and Geoff Brooks alternate in contributing Counting Rupees, a column on the business behind gaming: Gamers were outraged in recent weeks by a rumor that Xbox Live Arcade royalties were being cut in half for developers; in fact, some developers were reportedly considering moving development from XBLA to the PlayStation Network because of the cuts. It was less clear why Microsoft would do something like this: At first glance, it appears to stifle independent game development and reduce the overall quality of XBLA as a platform. Clearly, Microsoft is just being greedy, right?Perhaps, but it's certainly not as clearcut as it seems at first glance. Although any changes to the royalty structure will mean changes -- and potentially significant ones -- for XBLA, they may still be beneficial in the long run for some people, possibly even increasing indie development.As is often the case with rumors, there's more to the story than a simple royalty cut. Let's think first about what the costs and benefits of the changes are to both developers and Microsoft, after which we can decide why the action might have been taken in the first place and what it all means to us as gamers. From a developer's perspective, the cost is pretty clear: Up to 35% of the total revenues of a game. Does the developer receive any benefits? Yes, some: As reported, developers will no longer have to pay for features like worldwide ratings or localization, which both reduces costs and potentially provides access to a larger international market. And from Microsoft's standpoint, the costs and benefits are essentially reversed: It no longer has to pay the royalties, but it does need to provide some additional services.
Microsoft releases XNA Game Studio Express
Microsoft's been talking this one up for some time now, but XNA Game Studio Express, the so-called "YouTube for games," has finally hit the big 1.0 and is now available for would-be game designers everywhere to get their hands dirty with. The software is a trimmed down version of the company's full-fledged XNA game devleopment platform, based on Visual C# Express and able to run on a standard Windows PC (XP for now, Vista later). The YouTube analogy is, of course, a bit of an overstatement as you'll need some honest-to-goodness programming skills to actually create something resembling a game. While the core software is available as a free download, to get the most out of it you'll have to sign up for the XNA Creators Club, which will run you $49 for a four month subscription or $99 for an annual sub through Xbox Live Marketplace. In addition to letting you play user-created games on an Xbox 360, it'll also give you access to a library of game assests, as well as sample products, white papers, and technical support. If you need an added incentive, Microsoft's also announced the "Dream-Build-Play" game design competition, though the only details they're providing at the moment are that you can win "fantastic prizes" and "global envy." Funny, we thought you needed a PS3 for that.
