Understandably, there's still tension between Xbox Live Indie Game developers and Microsoft. New policy updates are being issued that improve conditions somewhat, and while they probably won't lead to a dramatic change, they are a step in the right direction.
As detailed by the XNA Game Studio team, Xbox Live Indies can now be as large as 500 MB, up from the prior limit of 150 MB. Under the old rules, any game 50 MB or above had to cost either 240 or 400 Microsoft Points. Thankfully, titles under 150 MB can now go for 80 Microsoft Points, an ideal price for most.
Lastly, the restriction on the number of games per developer has been doubled to twenty. I'm a little surprised Microsoft hasn't abandoned this service entirely. I wonder if it'll make the jump to the next console.
Happy New Year, Xbox LIVE Indie Games! [XNA Game Studio Team Blog via NeoGAF]
Jordan Devore is Destructoid's PC gaming manager and founding ginger editor. He is said to be easy to love but difficult to know. When Samit inquired about his curious bio photo Jordan simply replied:
"bitches love sandcastles" ... yet, there is no sandcastle in that photo. We may never truly understand his ways.
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Contest:
3:30 PM on 01.04.2012 | 
1000 Chuck Norris WoW adds does not equal an add for Cthulhu Saves the World...
My only gripe with the new Dash is that I can't seem to find a way to sort indie games by genre. The rest of the new Dash I like, and the Kinect voice integration works exceptionally well.
that's true, irrelevant ads are annoying.
Now if microsoft let us somewhat customise what we see in the ad section e.g an ad for indie games etc, it wouldn't be such a problem.
Grim are you surprised they haven't canned indie games because you think the indie games are rubbish or because MS is rubbish?
Also is your name still grim???
TL;DR - it's a clusterfuck.
God knows why there was a size cap to begin with.
Also, monopoly money is still a stupid idea. Its not like there is some sort of internet exchange rate and as a result you're real dollars don't exactly equal Microsoft points. I hope that too gets fixed with the next console.
Also, I find Indie Games through Kinect voice search now. Nuff sayd': the interface sucks.
They want to have a closed, regulated environment in which all content has a minimum threshold of quality, yet they need to open up to independent development in order to compete with more open platforms like Android.
On a side note, I'm slowly starting to dislike the new dashboard.
I really liked it at first, but then I started noticing a few things that clash with the Metro philosophy of design that annoy me.
First, you can't customize tiles, not even the home tile. That's supposed to be one of their big selling points.
Second, too many God-damn ads. Not only is there always one on the bottom right corner (that one's not so bad), but the big tile in every section is actually for ads, too? I somehow didn't notice this at first, probably because all the ads at the beginning were about the new dashboard.
I've never been a big consumer of Indie Games on Xbox, and it's mainly because it's very hard to 1) find them, and 2) sort out the good ones and the bad ones. And the new dash doesn't help.
It's sleek and responsive, but it's way harder than it should be to jump into (or even just view) parties, the new Netflix sucks (though that's not MS' fault), you can't sort your games by Games on Demand anymore (they're lumped in with Arcade), etc. The only positive feature is the new Bing search, which is quick and easy. But again, you have to already know what you're looking for in order for it to be useful...
The Deep Cave
Pixel
Breath of Death VII
Cthulhu Saves The World
Escape Goat
Groove
Fluid
Whakman
And, Microsoft pulled some really, really, incredibly smart marketing moves with the Dash: 1) Indie Games may stop you from buying something from Games on Demand. Solution? Hide them. 2) Making Kinect somewhat worth the $150.
Plus, the Metro look is used on Windows Phone 7's, Windows 8 Tablets, and Xbox. It's unified, smart, and modern. Love it or hate it, it's here to stay.
The quality has nothing to do with MS support. The quality is low because the barrier for entry is low. It's a double edged sword. There are curated services like Steam where your proposal will be rejected outright if it's not good enough. That can be too much for someone that simply wants to test the waters of game development. However, with a service like XBLIG, you'll see tons of games that amount to little more than someone trying out sample code.
The quality has nothing to do with MS support. The quality is low because the barrier for entry is low. It's a double edged sword. There are curated services like Steam where your proposal will be rejected outright if it's not good enough. That can be too much for someone that simply wants to test the waters of game development. However, with a service like XBLIG, you'll see tons of games that amount to little more than someone trying out sample code.
It's a mix of both. Otherwise, we would have more exceptional games to show for it, and you can't get those without sales (that come from visibility, of which more needs to come from Microsoft).
Quite correct, good sir. Consider my use of hyperbole retracted. :P
That said, I do agree that the new dashboard is terrible and it makes finding games in general quite a chore.
Well, there goes any chance of me ever buying a single one.