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[Gowans]

Microsoft Cuts Indie Royalties in Half

News of Microsoft's democratization of Indie game development was overshadowed this week by an increasing discontent among established Indie developers that the company was halving the royalties paid to them for future projects, several well-informed sources told Kotaku.

Several developers directly effected by the cut told Kotaku that the once generous royalty share of 70 percent given to them by the company was within the past few months cut down to 35 percent.

The move, some believe, may be tied to Microsoft's future reliance on the recently announced initiative to deliver games created using the company's XNA software package to Xbox Live users for a still undisclosed price.

At least one developer I spoke with said they were considering moving over to Sony and its Playstation Network in light of the cuts.

Microsoft has been contacted for comment, but has not yet replied. We'll make sure to update as soon as we hear word.

Source: http://kotaku.com/359668/microsoft-cuts-indie-royalties-in-half

if true and after all this XBLA and XNA grandstanding what are they thinking!?!?

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

Microsoft Cuts Indie Royalties in Half



Source: http://kotaku.com/359668/microsoft-cuts-indie-royalties-in-half

if true what are they thinking!

I don't think "thinking" had anything to do with it.

What a dumb move.

 

[CrunchinJelly]

LOL Kotaku.

 

[donkey show]

Holy shit that's retarded. I'd jump ship if I were those devs too.

 

[kylej]

35 percent? Stingy motherfuckers.

 

[Gowans]

LOL Kotaku.

I normally trust Kotaku but no sources are the reason for the question mark.

 

[Zombie James]

Woah, surprising.

 

[Psychotext]

There's enough devs here that we should be able to confirm this pretty quickly. If this is true then MS have thrown away anything they were trying to achieve with XNA from bad feeling alone.

 

[tak]

so, 70 percent royalty share was a trap all along

 

[Kabouter]

:lol oh never change Microsoft.

 

[needlesmcgirk]

Whats the cut for PSN?

 

[Evander]

If true, that's some bullshit.

Before I get too pissed off, I want to know if this is the entire story, though, or if it's more like the GoW DLC debacle (where MSoft forced Epic to charge for it because MSoft WERE the publishers, and had invested a lot of money into the game to begin with.)

 

[Jim]

At least one developer I spoke with said they were considering moving over to Sony and its Playstation Network in light of the cuts.

Make that 2.

 

[Cheeto]

I'm shocked by this news...

 

[Spirit of Jazz]

So they were keeping the size limit tight to make fucking them so much more worth it?

 

[Evander]

so, 70 percent royalty share was a trap all along

everyone had lots of cheap teaser rates left over from when the housing bubble burst, so MSoft bought them up cheap.

 

[boutrosinit]

Steam for the win

 

[Randy Lanzarote]

Sometimes I think MS are in it to lose it... I really do.

 

[brain_stew]

One of the great things about XBLA was knowing I was directly supporting indie devs with the bulk of my money. Giving them such a minority share of the cash is an insult, there'd be no service in the first place without these guys.

 

[KingGraham]

I realize this is a business, and money is the #1 motivation for everything...but damn, think in the long term for a change.

 

[Psychotext]

Make that 2.

Confirmed then? Wow, you really are stupid MS.

 

[ascii42]

That's unfortunate, but not surprising.

 

[Evander]

Just a thought...

What would you guys say if it turned out the reason for this is because they're making live free?

 

[The Faceless Master]

indie devs should be so lucky as to get their dinky little indie games onto the glorious xbox live, amirite?

Just a thought...

What would you guys say if it turned out the reason for this is because they're making live free?

i would say this speculation is ridiculous.

 

[Ghost]

Wonder how they justify that, someone go get a quote from someone at GDC.


Maybe they hope to push all the indie games into XNA, save on the certification costs and move a big chunk of the development community into a MS only language.

 

[dogmaan]

Just a thought...

What would you guys say if it turned out the reason for this is because they're making live free?

that still wouldn't benefit indy devs, as silver accounts can still buy XBLA games

 

[CrushDance]

Just a thought...

What would you guys say if it turned out the reason for this is because they're making live free?

4,000,000 new LIVE users in the past 4-6 months. And a good chunk of that probably bought Gold. Very doubtful that MS would make it free when they rake in so much money from it monthly.

 

[The Faceless Master]

Wonder how they justify that, someone go get a quote from someone at GDC.


Maybe they hope to push all the indie games into XNA, save on the certification costs and move a big chunk of the development community into a MS only language.

"ya know, economies break"

 

[Barkley's Justice]

70%??

who the fuck honestly thought that would last? lol

sorry, but 35% sounds like business as usual.

plus, consider Live's userbase is ever-growing. So while royalties were slashed in half, you potentially sell to many more people.

 

[Psychotext]

What would you guys say if it turned out the reason for this is because they're making live free?

I'd say I would rather pay than see developers screwed.

 

[Gowans]

Wonder how they justify that, someone go get a quote from someone at GDC.

yeah MS cant let good news last long without dropping some pure bullshit.
If this is happening or the plan then whichever wizkid dreamt it up needs dropping now.

 

[harSon]

I'm guessing it's around the same for PSN and Wiiware.

 

[sneaky77]

so what's Sony's offering? this is all probably just posturing to negociate, cause it seems 70% is kinda high

 

[monkspider]

I realize this is a business, and money is the #1 motivation for everything...but damn, think in the long term for a change.

Exactly, this is a horrible decision and XBLA arcade and the XBOX platform in general will suffer because of it.

 

[Mojovonio]

ha ha ha

right after an awesome GDC too.

Oh MS.

 

[monchi-kun]

plus, consider Live's userbase is ever-growing. So while royalties were slashed in half, you potentially sell to many more people.

i'll pay you tuesday for a hamburger today???

sorry, indies already have it tough...itsatrap.gif is appropriate

 

[WoWcraft]

70%??

who the fuck honestly thought that would last? lol

sorry, but 35% sounds like business as usual.

plus, consider Live's userbase is ever-growing. So while royalties were slashed in half, you potentially sell to many more people.

That's like saying you'd rather win half of a lottery than the whole thing.

 

[Link Man]

-Forcing size limits on XLA games, effectively limiting HD textures.

-Slashing the cut that Indie developers get from sales.

-Rampant Live outages.

Can Microsoft do anything right this year?

 

[Crab Milk Mickey]

Kotaku. Rumor. No source.

Yup, it must be true.

I normally trust Kotaku but no sources are the reason for the question mark.

Stop trusting them, they're trash and all they care about is sensationalism.

 

[InterMoniker]

4,000,000 new LIVE users in the past 4-6 months. And a good chunk of that probably bought Gold. Very doubtful that MS would make it free when they rake in so much money from it monthly.

50x4,000,000= 200,000,000

:0

Jesus. I'm glad Sony didn't get greedy with their online service.

Whats the cut for PSN?

I wonder what it is too.

 

[jetpacks was yes]

What? Has this been confirmed? I can't imagine why they would do such a stupid thing.

 

[Cheeto]

So they were keeping the size limit tight to make fucking them so much more worth it?

I love it, "you get even less to use barely any of our bandwith/storage...it's a WIN-WIN"

 

[Mojovonio]

-Forcing size limits on XLA games, effectively limiting HD textures.

-Slashing the cut that Indie developers get from sales.

-Rampant Live outages.

Can Microsoft do anything right this year?

- Matrick : "GDC WAS A JOKE! NONE OF THOSE GAMES EXIST! LOL!!!"

 

[titiklabingapat]

All this in the face of the rising WiiWare threat????


What were they thinking? WiiWare is proving to be quite the indie darling right now and they were betting on their arcade titles to attract the casual audience of the Wii.

Dumb move, MS, dumb move.

 

[Zombie James]

so what's Sony's offering? this is all probably just posturing to negociate, cause it seems 70% is kinda high

Yea, you know, 35% seems fair, they're only providing all the fucking content. Seems independent developers are being teated like the musicians of the video game industry.

 

[MobiusPigeon]

i'd think this would have everything to do with live games selling more and more as the userbase gets bigger. chances are in the end over time they'd still make as much money.

Yea, you know, 35% seems fair, they're only providing all the fucking content. Seems independent developers are being teated like the musicians of the video game industry.

yeah you know they could always release the games on PC and risk being unnoticed ans lost in the shuffle. I dont think you guys are thinking about the power of LIVE or een PSN. something like flOw that was free on PC and something someone would have probably never purchased actually made some dough on a console.

 

[soco]

sounds like a mattrick(sp?) change...

 

[C4Lukins]

Microsoft is on a roll!!!

 

[BSTF]

35% still seems very good. And of course if developers have an issue with it, they can go somewhere else.

 

[BenjaminBirdie]

All this in the face of the rising WiiWare threat????


What were they thinking? WiiWare is proving to be quite the indie darling right now and they were betting on their arcade titles to attract the casual audience of the Wii.

Dumb move, MS, dumb move.

They obviously feel like they have strongest ecosystem for games and are lording it over motherfuckers.