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Press Play: Microsoft wants "unique", "weird" indie games for Xbox Live

S

shinobi602

Member
Thought this was interesting. Hopefully we see a lot of this effort by MS come to fruition next gen.

The manufacturer acquired Press Play in June 2012, not long after snapping up Twisted Pixel, developer of The Gunstringer. Speaking to OXM in our latest issue, on sale now, Thorsted explained how the acquisition came about. "Microsoft was after people who could do unique content and make weird games, but it also needed a team that wasn't huge, that hadn't made breakout hits," he said. "Because they would be [expensive]! It was looking for a team with the potential to make weird stuff. We were one of the very few. A perfect match."
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"For us, it's very important that what Microsoft offered was what they call a microstudio approach," Thorsted continued. "They didn't want to touch who we are, what we do or how we do things. But they wanted to support what we were doing, and for us that wiped away everything that was negative about being indie - it gave us the chance to do greater games and not be worried about economics while we do it."
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OXM
 
V

Visualante2

Member
That ship has sailed, Microsoft...

jEs8zbqnTEiGZ.jpg
 
D

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
Seems Microsoft is getting pretty WACKY~

Wacky_Arm_Flailing_Tube_Man_by_rehabilitative.jpg


They're hip with the indie scene, yo. They want to get their indie devs all-up into some mental asylum, bro.
 
Z

Zen_Arcade

Banned
Good. They should be looking into everything. The more variety there is on the system the higher the chance I'll be interested in buying it.
 
D

Dictator93

Member
Peter Monyleux and 22 Cans present...

Miracle:
A wacky first-person action adventure RPG through the fallopian tube and birth canal.

"life changing" - IGN
 
B

Baconsammy

Banned
Zen_Arcade said:
Good. They should be looking into everything. The more variety there is on the system the higher the chance I'll be interested in buying it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they've got a handle on the multi-million selling XBLA thing. Now do the quirky Zooey Deschanel thingy.

Although Try Not To Fart was pretty weird.
 
D

Dark Octave

Banned
But they wanted to support what we were doing, and for us that wiped away everything that was negative about being indie - it gave us the chance to do greater games and not be worried about economics while we do it."
Click to expand...
Some could argue that it wiped away everything that was indie.
 
M

MightyHedgehog

Member
Baconsammy said:
Tons of great indies. Not sure how many I would classify as weird. A lot of them are Minecraft variants.
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A very small percentage are, anyway, but the decent to really good ones do pull in hundreds of thousands of sales. Even a couple million-sellers there, I believe. Anyway, there are definitely a lot of non-standard and weird ones there on XBLIG.
 
M

McLovin

Member
Too bad that a simple process like updating your game could put you in the red. Good luck getting indie talent next gen.
 
M

MightyHedgehog

Member
McLovin said:
Too bad that a simple process like updating your game could put you in the red. Good luck getting indie talent next gen.
Click to expand...

Eh, they will have no problem doing that. Most indies will put themselves everywhere they can, and especially any platform that has wide reach and is easy-to-access. I fully expect Win8-WP8-Nextbox alignment and not too many developers could easily dismiss, at least, Win-XBOX cross-platform support. Current gen may be ridiculously limited for some or many, but next-gen is a new start.
 
D

danwarb

Member
McLovin said:
Too bad that a simple process like updating your game could put you in the red. Good luck getting indie talent next gen.
Click to expand...
Is that not different for indie games? They're pretty cheap to begin with.

I assume indie games don't go though as rigorous a certification process as XBLA titles?
 
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