Thankx for your response. Sounds like you had a hard time when Autumn ran out of money. I'm glad you were able to reform the team!
Were the sales on Steam lower/as good/higher than on XBLA? (let's ignore ps3 here because the game was free with ps+)
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C. Charla on promoting ID@XB titles - Why the infamous parity clause isn't a big deal
- Thread starter John Bender
- Start date
Thankx for your response. Sounds like you had a hard time when Autumn ran out of money. I'm glad you were able to reform the team!
Were the sales on Steam lower/as good/higher than on XBLA? (let's ignore ps3 here because the game was free with ps+)
Family Fry
Member
Also there is a dedicated ID@Xbox blog, no one seems to know or talk about it, including MS.
Www.Idatxbox.com
Steam is currently sitting around five times the XBLA sales.
PSN sales were double XBLA sales before the PS+ giveaway, and are roughly on par with Steam if you count the PS+ downloads.
Just about everything did better on XBLA last gen, but we seem to be a rare exception.
Konami? AGAIN?!
I keep laughing, but it seriously does blow my mind how 80's cartoon villainous they've become. It has to be deliberate.
On the topic at hand, I still think Xbone needs better incentives (rather than de-incentives) to encourage more indie games to head to the platform. All their talk of the parity clause not really mattering only makes me wonder that, if it doesn't matter, why still have it at all?
Shin-Ra
Junior Member
Really? That suprises me. I've read several articles about indie-games selling multiple times more on Steam than on XBLA (Monaco, Super Meat Boy, Fez, Xotic etc..)
I also remember this article:
http://www.destructoid.com/super-meat-boy-dev-xbla-is-no-longer-a-way-to-success-246963.phtml
PoweredByHentai
Member
There's also this blog post (and informal survey) from the World of Goo developer:
http://2dboy.com/2011/10/03/xbla/
Banjo-Kazooie
Member
An interesting figure since you brought up sales
Volgarr was downloaded over 1.2million times while being a games with gold title, from November 1-December 31 on Xbox One
Curious how other PS+ games or Games with Gold games compare, if you are able to share your figure Rav? (Totally understand if you can't, no pressure
)Sorry, I meant just for PSN / XBLA sales.
An interesting figure since you brought up sales
Volgarr was downloaded over 1.2million times while being a games with gold title, from November 1-December 31 on Xbox One
Curious how other PS+ games or Games with Gold games compare, if you are able to share your figure Rav? (Totally understand if you can't, no pressure
Eh, probably can't really get into the numbers. Definitely nowhere near that number, though.
I'd love to get on Games for Gold, but suspect our update method would make MS not want to.
PoweredByHentai
Member
I'm puzzled as to what update method would make MS squeamish.
Neuromancer
Member
My guess is the part where Skullgirls DLC is largely free.
SG does not fit neatly into the MS update scheme, since we need both a compatibility pack and a title update.
If we did this after Robo-Fortune is out, maybe it'd be OK because we could bundle the game and compatibility pack to make it as easy as possible.
But every time we release a new character we get a bunch of confused people that forget they need to download up the updated compatibility pack. And the title update reverts their game back to vanilla Konami-published SG without online play if the compatibility pack isn't there.
PoweredByHentai
Member
Ah, thanks for the clarification!
I honestly forgot about compatibility updates for fighting games. I can see how the process could get wonky for Microsoft. But even then, there should be some version check that goes on for matchmaking purposes right?
Yeah, you can't play online if you don't have the compatibility pack.
But we're a weird sitch where we had to ship two executables in the patch because of MS's rules, and our particular situation.
When SG launched, it had huge load time problems that never showed up in the testing environment. It was related to the variety of different models of 360s and HDDs, etc. - Skullgirls was making thousands of file open calls which really bogged down certain hardware configurations. Load times for a single match could vary from a few seconds to 6 minutes. And this never showed up because the testing environment is pretty static, uses all the same hardware, etc.
So we had to completely redo the file system for the game to reduce the number of file open calls on 360, and that meant changing the code that reads the data. And that's why the game reverts to the old version if the compatibility update isn't there - it's falling back on the original executable, which isn't compatible with the new data format.
John Bender
Banned
BlackBuzzard
Banned
Zombie James
Banned
They should talk with MS, though.
SEGAvangelist
Member
That's nice. And here is someone who doesn't agree.
https://twitter.com/michaelheald/status/600797087509434368
It must be nice to be an outlier.
John Bender
Banned
I loved the reply lol
George Broussard ‏@georgeb3dr 16h16 hours ago
@michaelheald congrats on being a sexy looking exclusive that they want
What is this person making?
You fuckin up the narrative son.
Triggerhappytel
Member
That's a really interesting analysis he's done there. Most interesting of all are the ten points he suggests to improve XBLA and make it more appealing for indie games:
To survive:
1. Create a fair contract that doesnt require negotiation
- Obviously not happened, hence the whole 'talk to us' narrative
2. Solve the content discovery problem.
- I don't have an Xbone so can't talk about that. Although I have read that finding indie games has not got easier since MS disbanded the XBLA label.
3. Stop requiring independent developers to publish through MGS.
- This has happened.
4. Drop the TCRs, make updating easy.
- I don't know what TCRs are, although I don't think there are any costs for patches/updates any more.
5. Get rid of the exclusivity requirement for independent developers.
- Again, not happened as this is the 'first class' thingy they push with ID@Xbox.
To thrive:
1. Drop the greenlight process and open up development to everyone.
- I guess this has happened?
2. Make every console a dev kit.
- Not happened and I don't think they're doing this any more, right?
3. Automate everything.
- No idea but I doubt it.
4. Drop the ESRB in favor of a self administered rating system.
- No idea about ESRB but on PSN UK all games have a PEGI rating, so I imagine it's the same deal for XBL
5. Make avatar related requirements optional.
- I guess this has happened? I mean, they still want exclusive content for games on their platform, but it doesn't appear to be mandatory.
Basically the summary of his findings was that XBLA was the hardest platform to develop for and MS sat on its laurels for too long when it was at the top of the pile and Steam/iOS stole its lunch.
SEGAvangelist
Member
Wulverblade. Could be that ID@Xbox is treating exclusive developers a lot better as I believe that game has some sort of timed exclusivity.
"Coming to Xbox One Winter 2014" LOL
Somebody overshot their release deadline by a smidge. Unless I'm wrong and it has already released which would be pretty damn sad that I've never heard of it before.
Neuromancer
Member
Yes it looks like a console exclusive, according to their website. So it's not surprising they're getting treated well.
boredandlazy
Member
At least you're consistent with yours.
one boredandlazy response deserves another I guess.At least you're consistent with yours.
No need for cheap shots like that.
Anyways, I'd be curious to know who else that developer has worked with. I'm sure Olive Garden is amazing if the only other place you eat at is McDonalds. Not that it's impossible that Microsoft could be treating an indie developer well. But I'd be more inclined to take the word of someone who has worked with the other platform holders over one who has had just one experience to call upon.
Chobel
Member
Winter 2014 includes December.
One game treated well doesn't necessarily refute what he said in that tweet.
Banjo-Kazooie
Member
The people I've talked to that launched games have said that it is a good experience, but heck, what do they know about the game they launched
I will add from what I hear they are a bit understaffed though, and with over 1000 devs making games, I'm sure that doesn't help
I will add from what I hear they are a bit understaffed though, and with over 1000 devs making games, I'm sure that doesn't help
boredandlazy
Member
I tend to try not to reply to myself. Seems a little silly.
boredandlazy
Member
You do realise what an outlier is? Small hint, it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with whether someone is telling the truth.
Neuromancer
Member
Meanwhile at ID@Xbox
Meanwhile at ID@Xbox
Maybe we should talk to them if we want to know what they can't tweet about while being too busy to tweet.
Games get delayed all the time, I really don't see your point.
That doesn't really change the fact that they could very well be outliers. I would also be more curious about people trying to get into ID@XBox over people who have already shipped a project. The whole controversy seems to stem from the talks needed to become a developer, with NDAs and a possible parity agreement.
It's 2015 though...
True but overshooting by an entire year seems a bit much.
Wasn't trying to be smarmy just saw their launch tag at the end and it caught me entirely off guard as I've never even heard of the game before. So either they overshot their release by an entire year or they released to absolutely no fanfare or name recognition in the market. Neither of those is a good thing.
Chobel
Member
Well shit, my mind read it as 2015
Steverulez
Member
Meanwhile at ID@Xbox
News at 10: ID@Xbox staff have meetings... and like to tease things a bit... with E3 round the corner?
An (unfunny) attempt to pile on after what George said?
Community guys have got to do something with their day. I have no idea what ID@Xbox is like to deal with, I can see a few people in recent times (Lifeless Planet developer, Team17 studio head, Pneuma guys) say good things, but people are less likely to be so open with complaints.
Banjo-Kazooie
Member
If they were the outliers then wouldn't I be hearing from more people that the experience has been poor?
Not like anything is keeping the dev from lying to me or anything mind you
SEGAvangelist
Member
Am I supposed to answer that? I have no clue who you are or who you know.
RedSparrows
Member
What on earth is going on here?
1) If the game is delayed, it's delayed. That happens. Winter 2014 release postponed, it's now May 2015. Could be out next month, could be 2 years. This happens.
2) This kind of speculation is nonsense. The game has not been released.
Google? http://wulverblade.com/blog/
OT but ugh can we please stop calling them holograms. They are not holograms. Holograms have an actual definition that does not apply to their AR rendering solution. Hologram is not a marketing buzz word it's a real term that already exists. Their hijacking of the term to sell their new nebulous tech gizmo really pisses me off. But this is neither time or the place
RedSparrows
Member
I thought this whole thread, and many others, rested upon devs making vocal complaints?