At the end of last week, Microsoft made the announcement that they were going to be tinkering with the pricing structure of their Community Indie Games on Xbox Live. These changes mean that developers can now only charge a maximum of 400 Microsoft Points (£3.40/€4.60), with 200 MSP (£2.04/€2.40) and 80 MSP (£0.68/€0.96) pricing points also available if they choose.
It’s a pricing structure which seem like an attempt to start addressing the price issues which some Indie developers have seen as a hurdle, as well as an attempt at taking on the iPhone philosophy, with cheaper titles that customers seem more willing to take a risk on.
These changes come into force in October and a couple of developers have voiced their surprise at these changes. Speaking to Eurogamer, Nathan Fouts (the developer behind Weapon of Choice and the upcoming Grapple Buggy) said “It seems a little out of left field as they’ve never mentioned it before…”, although neither him nor Matt Davis (behind Easy Golf: Course Architect) were adverse to these changes. However Fouts says that Microsoft are still failing to tackle the biggest problem facing Indie Games developers – exposure.
“Indie Games are buried within the Xbox 360 Game Marketplace and I’ve spoken with plenty of gamers that have tried to buy Weapon of Choice but struggled for a while or eventually even gave up and had to search for help. How can you sell a product that no one can find?”
It seems that even with the pending dashboard update (due 11th August) Indie Games will still be tucked away within menus. This problem may be made even worse when Microsoft’s Games on Demand venture is launced later that month, allowing gamers to download traditional retail games straight to their 360. Given the big push on downloadable titles and the promise of streaming titles coming with David Perry’s Gaikai and the OnLive service, it’s doubtless that Microsoft will be keen to cement their particular method in the minds of 360 users at an early stage.
Sadly this means there’s an even greater risk that Indie Games will be overlooked further as Microsoft throws its weight behind the new service.
Source: Eurogamer.
