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Cthulhu dev criticizes Microsoft's indie promotion
Cthulhu Saves The World developer Zeboyd has criticized Microsoft's half-hearted exposure of its Indie Games channel, saying it must do more to promote games. This remonstration comes after news that Cthulhu's PC version outsold the 360 version to a humiliating degree in just six days. "XBLIG is a great solution for new developers," said Robert Boyd. "It's cheap, easy to learn, and has a great community of people that are willing to help each other. However, from a perspective of actually making good money, I do not believe it is a viable platform. The greatest strength and greatest weakness of the service is that it's the most open platform we've ever seen on any home console. Just about anyone can release an XBLIG title, and just about anyone does. As a result, the service has got a reputation for being full of garbage. "XBLIG basically has the low price expectations and flood of product that the Apple App Store has, combined with the low visibility of Nintendo's digital stores -- it's no wonder most titles sell poorly. Greater visibility for the high-quality titles on the service would be a great help." Boyd said that MS' intentions seem to be in creating a stepping stone toward Xbox Live Arcade. However, he thinks this has backfired, as it actually provides a stepping stone to other platforms such as PC. Considering that's what happened with Cthulhu, we can't say he's wrong. Cthulhu dev: "It's no wonder Xbox Indie Games sell poorly" [Edge] Did you know? You can now get daily or weekly email notifications when humans reply to your comments.
Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)To be fair to MS, they'd be running red on indie games and provide it as a community service. Promotions cost money as in taking away exposure from big-paid promos, or staff time, and they also take a nice cut from their XBLA titles. Meh...they made an "okay" game. So it's Microsofts job to promote their game? Everyone knows where the Indie channel is. Most just do not care to play them. If they want their game promoted they need to do it themselves or sign with a publisher. Ohh..that's right, signing with a publisher would take away their indie dev badge. Fans like to pretend many of these titles are better than they actually are. They do so out of a pretentious I'm with the good guys mentality. They should be happy MS has an Indie program. The Indie devs now want to cry about lack of marketing? Seems to me they want the best of both worlds. Hype yourself. If the game is that great people will play it. Meh...they made an "okay" game. So it's Microsofts job to promote their game? Everyone knows where the Indie channel is. Most just do not care to play them. If they want their game promoted they need to do it themselves or sign with a publisher. Ohh..that's right, signing with a publisher would take away their indie dev badge. Fans like to pretend many of these titles are better than they actually are. They do so out of a pretentious I'm with the good guys mentality. They should be happy MS has an Indie program. The Indie devs now want to cry about lack of marketing? Seems to me they want the best of both worlds. Hype yourself. If the game is that great people will play it. I don't think Zeboyd wants microsoft to promote their games. They want Microsoft to promote its indie channel, instead of burying it in a place where people seldom go as everything in the section with it can be found much easier by just looking up your game itself and finding the add ons and what not there. As a few people have said, it almost seems like microsoft is ashamed of its indie channel, and that is a shame since there are some really awesome games there. 9:30 PM on 11.29.2011 Indie Royale debuts the 'Really Big Bundle'Fresh from the fine folks at Indie Royale, their newest indie gaming bundle has just gone live. The "Really Big Bundle" features five great indie games: Really Big Sky, Runespell: Overture, Eufloria, Cthulhu Saves the Wo...
1:45 PM on 07.19.2011 Cthulhu Saves The World PC beat Xbox sales in six days!The PC version of Cthulhu Saves The World made more money in six days than the Xbox Live Indie Games version has made to date. Did we mention that the Steam version is bundled with Breath of Death VII for $3.00, and stil...
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