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XBLIG policy changes (increased size cap to 500 MB, $1 games, 20 games per dev)

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/xna/archive/2012/01/04/happy-new-year-xbox-live-indie-games.aspx



Welcome to 2012! We’re eager to see what our developers have in store for Xbox LIVE Indie Games in the coming year and to kick things off we have an exciting announcement regarding some changes to App Hub that make it a good time to be an Xbox LIVE Indie Games developer.

Higher maximum CCGAME size

Since the start of Xbox LIVE Indie Games, CCGAME bundles submitted for Xbox LIVE Indie Games were limited to a maximum size of 150MB. We’ve heard all the great feedback on this subject and today we are pleased to inform you that developers are now able to submit CCGAME bundles up to 500MB through App Hub for publishing on Xbox LIVE Indie Games.

New limit for 80 point games

Another area we’re adjusting today is the requirement that titles larger than 50MB be priced at either 240 or 400 points. After raising our maximum size we’ve decided to also raise this limit. Starting today you can apply the 80 point price to any game with a CCGAME size under 150MB, which is three times the current limit of 50MB.

More titles per developer

The last change affects a fewer number of developers, but we still believe it’s an important update. Originally developers were limited to just eight titles on Xbox LIVE Indie Games. When Creators Club became App Hub, we raised the limit up to ten. We’re happy today to let you know that we’re again raising this limit up to twenty titles per developer.

We’re continuing to watch our developer base and adapt the system to the needs of our creators. We hope you’re all as excited as we are to kick off 2012 with these great updates to the App Hub to enable our developers to make even better content for Xbox LIVE Indie Games. If you have any questions or want to discuss these changes, feel free to post in our forum thread.
 
Sounds good but I had no idea 1 dollar games were so limited in size. I guess it's good they tripled it but still don't like the idea.
 
Honestly, I am mostly interested in this as a Xbox Live Silver member now. I used to play multiplayer games like once every 2 months, and I would take advantage of the arcade price reductions like once a year, so I just felt getting 33%-50% off of a game was not big enough of a factor to get me to pay them 40-60 a year for what is basically multiplayer gaming which is free on the pc and ps3.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
They really need to let indie games have achievements. That's probably one of the big things that's keeping them from hitting mainstream in the same way that indie games pretty much dominate iOS.
 

cyberheater

PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 Xbone PS4 PS4
I wish they'd ditch the points system and just go with straight cash. It's so stupid.

I'm glad they raised the larger games to 500MB. That's quite a lot.
 

erpg

GAF parliamentarian
...and will they market, advertise, or in any way acknowledge them?
The Indie games section has been showcased in the "Games" menu carousel for two months, they show up as Bing Xbox results, they show up in the "Recommended For You" section of Xbox/Games. They're the second list on the Best of 2011 dashboard menu (before arcade and dlc).

They're doing enough on that front. They just need to open it to all markets.
 

Bear

Member
Bandwidth aint free.

If I'm not mistaken, any indie game should still cost, at most, about two cents in bandwidth so the difference is really not significant. Considering that Steam routinely sells much larger games for less than $3, that limit is probably there because they want substantial profit from indie games. Unless you're pushing large quantities, you really don't make much money selling 99 cent games.
 

clashfan

Member
The Indie games section has been showcased in the "Games" menu carousel for two months, they show up as Bing Xbox results, they show up in the "Recommended For You" section of Xbox/Games. They're the second list of the Best of 2011 dashboard menu (before arcade).

They're doing enough on that front. They just need to open it to all markets.

While those are good starts, MS still seems to not respect/promote Indie Games as much as it should. For example there was a Community Manager for Indie Games. She has left her position about 2-3 years ago and MS has not replace her. XNA is an great tool but the Indie Games needs more promotion.
 

wwm0nkey

Member
I kind of want to see some devs update their existing games, I know Avatar Adventures Online would GREATLY benefit from this but I don't know if the creator of that game is still developing or what but I know the 150MB limit was a big factor on the lack of enemies and environments.
 

KageMaru

Member
Cool updates, good to see MS acknowledging XBLIG. Just yesterday I was wondering if it would still be around when the next console launches, hopefully this is an indication that it would.
 
Honestly, I am mostly interested in this as a Xbox Live Silver member now. I used to play multiplayer games like once every 2 months, and I would take advantage of the arcade price reductions like once a year, so I just felt getting 33%-50% off of a game was not big enough of a factor to get me to pay them 40-60 a year for what is basically multiplayer gaming which is free on the pc and ps3.
I might be missing something... but what does any of that have to do with this thread?
 

Gowans

Member
Heading in the right direction, nice to see they haven't giving up yet.

But what I want to see is the Kinect SDK open for them, especially after MS's recent Kinect is in your hands advertising.
 
But what I want to see is the Kinect SDK open for them, especially after MS's recent Kinect is in your hands advertising.
Is that still not available? I reckon it's pretty much only the indies who could come up with anything particularly novel for Kinect. Much like the hackers did on the PC.
 

Gowans

Member
Is that still not available? I reckon it's pretty much only the indies who could come up with anything particularly novel for Kinect. Much like the hackers did on the PC.

Nope, which is crazy as they are all for the PC mods and putting a lot of money into advertising it.

It's weird I think they were so ahead of the App Store curve with Indie games for xbox but then they have kept the old restrictions that they don't even have on Windows Phone 7.

They really should fold some of that back into them the first by just like the phone app stores making them available world wide.
 

BigMack

Member
Still no achievements? Not even Avatar Awards? At the very least, they could let them be added to your list of played games so that friends can see them.
 

Ranger X

Member
I think their price system still is shit. I should be able to sell my 500mb for 80p if i'd want to. Talk about updating a system where it doesn't need to be updated. (although the higher caps are welcomed, it doesn't solve most of the TRUE issues XBLIG is having)
 
Not a lot of XBLIG worth 400msp. Not a lot of Arcade titles worth 1200msp either.
Should have been in first reply after OP. So true. I hate the overpriced games, and I even hate it when they "slash" the prices 25-33% off making you feel like you are one special son of a gun to have gotten in on their "deal"... :|
 

Gamejunky

Member
They say twenty titles per dev, but there's a publisher that has like 40-50 games on it right now. (Silver dollar) Which is a lot of crap imo.
 

LQX

Member
500MB seems like a good size. Many of the Steam indie games I own is closer to half that so hopefully we will see some better stuff from them.
 

slash000

Zeboyd Games
While there's certainly still plenty of room for improvement regarding the indie service and its presentation on the dashboard, the fact that the filesize limits have been raised at the very least gives developers more options with how they want to handle their games.


That said, it is Cthulhu Saves the World's 1-year anniversary, and so we've taken the updates to the XBLIG service as a way to celebrate:


Cthulhu Saves the World celebrates 1-year anniversary with new platforms and price drop on Xbox Live Indie Games version.

In celebration of the game’s one year anniversary on Xbox Live Indie Games and in light of recent improvements made to the Xbox Live Indie Games service, Zeboyd Games is proud to announce a permanent price drop for Cthulhu Saves the World for the Xbox Live Indie Games service to 80 MS points ($1 USD) effective today, January 4th, 2011.

...


In celebration of the game’s one year anniversary on Xbox Live Indie Games and in light of recent improvements made to the Xbox Live Indie Games service, Zeboyd Games is proud to announce a permanent price drop for Cthulhu Saves the World for the Xbox Live Indie Games service to 80 MS points ($1 USD) effective today, January 4th, 2011.

...

Zeboyd Games is also pleased to announce a partnership with Tinkerhouse Games to bring Cthulhu Saves the World to a variety of new platforms in early 2012 including the iPhone, iPad, Android, and Mac. More details to follow in the coming weeks.


http://zeboyd.com/2012/01/04/cthulh...-price-drop-on-xbox-live-indie-games-version/
 
They say twenty titles per dev, but there's a publisher that has like 40-50 games on it right now. (Silver dollar) Which is a lot of crap imo.

Yeah, this confuses me. Maybe it just seems like more than there is. Or maybe it's some kind of Konami/Ultra situation.
 

slash000

Zeboyd Games
Silver Dollar creates additional accounts to release more games. Nothing in the rules against it, I don't think. Each new account has to pay the $100/yr fee just like any other.
 

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
This would be awesome news if the infrastructure in general actually gave the game any exposure at all.
 
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