Xbox Live Arcade Games Could Potentially be Delisted — Why?
Posted by Chris on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 5:33 pm under Game Companies, Game Consoles, Game Platforms, Gamer Life, Games, Microsoft, Microsoft
Okay, we’ve already received the bad news that there won’t be any spring dashboard update this year. To make matters worse, Xbox Live GM Marc Whitten also revealed a new policy to Next-Gen that would allow Xbox Live Arcade games to be delisted from the service if they fail to meet certain criteria.
Whitten confirmed that the XBLA size limit has been increased to 350 MB and that the 1600 Microsoft Points price point has been opened (which we saw this week with the Penny Arcade game’s release), but also explained that Xbox Live Arcade games that have an average Metacritic score of 65 and a conversion rate (which indicates users decided to purchase the game) below 6% after six months on the service would be removed.
Yes, that’s two pieces of criteria that need to be met, but several things immediately come to mind, regardless. Number one: including Metacritic is a horrible, horrible idea. Not all reviewers conform to the “7 is average” scale, which means that reviews that give a score saying it’s an above-average “6″ could potentially be dragging the game below the 65 average threshold. (Yes, I know I recently pointed you to Metacritic in regards to Haze, but that was so you could be linked to a number of reviews, not see what the aggregate score was.)
Next, why is this even necessary? Whitten said, “While the service has had a lot of success and now boasts over 130 titles, we think it is time to continue our focus on quality over quantity.” But why do these games even need to be removed from the Xbox Live Marketplace? I can understand their motivation for wanting to focus the spotlight on better selling games, but why can’t these games somehow be archived? What happens if I’m the owner of one of these games and I have to delete it for some reason?
“Overall I think you will find this will focus the catalogue more on larger, more immersive games and make it much easier to find the games you are looking for,” Whitten explained. But why should some developers and gamers essentially be punished because others might not find a game entertaining or worth purchasing?
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May 22nd, 2008 at 10:26 pm
[...] and I'm quite pissed about this news, which makes absolutely no fucking sense to me. If anyone believes they can explain it, please, be [...]
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:42 am
Haha, I didn't think posting a link to this on my personal blog would create a trackback to here.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:00 pm
idiots. i hope the next xbox isn't so much of a FAILURE.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Please address this.
In the past I have purchased games by download through XBOX Live. My question now that Microsoft is starting to remove games from their library, will I still be able to download all of my games I previously purchased and downloaded? If I have a harddrive failure and lose everything, I am assuming that it is possible the games that I might have purchased may no longer be there. As such, I believe this is against the terms I originally agreed to and will force me to only purcase physical copies of the games. Could you address this with Microsoft. Thanks.