Developer Agrees with XBLA Changes
By Chris on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 2:35 PM PST In Game Companies, Game Consoles, Game Platforms, Gamer Life, Games, Microsoft, Microsoft
Not everyone is unhappy with the changes coming to Xbox Live Arcade — and surprisingly, one of those people is the developer of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Yes, that same Rocky and Bullwinkle that currently sits with a Metascore of 36, well below the threshold of 65, thereby making it a potential candidate for delisting in the future.
“I believe XBLA needs to change,” Zsolt Kigyossy, Zen Studios managing director, told MTV Multiplayer.
“There are simply too many (great and less great) titles on the service,” he continued. “The present price point limits the content and the quality of the games made for the service (how much a publisher / developer is willing to spend on a title). As a result MS need to increase the price and limit the selection available.”
Frankly, I don’t understand this argument, and it’s the sort of blind comment you’d expect from nowhere other than Microsoft PR. Okay, the price points (and the file size limit, I might add) do limit content on XBLA, but how does an abundance of games hurt quality? If people aren’t buying the games that may be delisted (which people must not be, for the game to fulfill the lower than 6% conversion rate)
“Frankly, Microsoft is a professional partner to work with,” he said. “They have a vision for the Live service, and I am positive they will address any issues. Microsoft owns the XBLA space, ultimately it is their decision what they want to keep, and what not.”
He’s right; it is Microsoft’s decision. But when that decision goes against what gamers want, is it really the right decision?
I really don’t understand why this continues to be a big deal. If you already own the game you can always download it again in the future. If, after six months of it being released, you still haven’t bought the game then you probably weren’t all that interested in it in the first place.
sooo if someone has bought one of these possible delisted games, is that purchased game still usable after being delisted?
One reason why this is a big deal? What about someone who goes out and picks up a 360 and games have already been delisted; he then doesn’t have access to those games.
And it’s simply a matter of logic. WHY are they being removed when there is no shelf space in the virtual world? It simply makes no sense.
This is sort of good. I mean, there IS a bunch of crap arcade games. It does discourage from looking through the whole list.