N+ Developers are Disappointed by the Crap on XBLA Too

This is probably the most hilarious interview I’ve read all week. Gamasutra sat down with the developers of the XBLA title, N+, to just talk shop really. It started out as a typical interview (how they got the game on Xbox Live, how they think other developers should handle downloadable games, etc.). Then the conversation turned more toward the XBLA’s library of titles, or, more specifically, how the majority of them really suck. From there, it pretty much just turns into a hilarious-because-it’s-true rant at the Xbox’s online game service. I think co-creator Raigan Burns sums up the XBLA’s library of games best best:

I think the thing with Live Arcade, though, is that I remember the last year and the year before. Two years ago was when we were first talking with Microsoft about doing it, it was really exciting, because Live Arcade had just came out, and they were like, “Oh, it’s new. It’s not going to be like retail. There’s not going to be all this crap. There’s going to be all these small, great, fun things.”

But now it’s exactly the same. There’s all these big-budget ones with big publishers making them, and the real problem, I think, is that the same people who are deciding what retail games get greenlit are deciding what Live Arcade games get greenlit.

I guess it’s because they have a lot of power that no one has pointed out that that’s the primary reason. Those decisions that are ruining Live Arcade… it’s like, who greenlit Word Puzzle? Who green-lit that hoverboard game that’s just s***?

They also discussed more annoying hurdles they encountered with XBLA, like how they weren’t allowed to just make Gamer pics and themes available for free. They’re not alone though, since many other small developers have voiced their frustrations with both the XBLA and PSN, as Chris mentioned in an article about the upcoming WiiWare. Personally I keep saying — and the N+ devs would disagree with me on this – that the bigger companies should just stop trying to make rip offs of old games and just re-release the same games with a handful of new features. That might actually free up some room for the independent developers’ work to stand out a bit more.

Via Gamasutra