Well, it's just "crappy" games, but XBLA titles have always had such bizarre scores due to sites not taking price into account that the notion of using Metacritic is ridiculous (moreso than normal). For example, Tiqal's review blurb from giantbomb:androvsky said:Removing underperforming XBLA games? Despite my enjoyment of the PS3, I still plan on getting a 360 eventually, mainly for jrpgs (wtf sony) and XBLA games. Given that I sometimes have odd taste in games, chances are decent I'd actually want one of those "underperforming" games. If scrolling through a bunch of titles that aren't doing well is such a problem, either redesign the store or put them in an alphabetically sorted "View All"; it's where Sony hides their crappy games.
Yeah, it doesn't sound like it's for me, but it also doesn't sound like a 40% game which is what metacritic translated what I assume to be 2/5 stars to.Its thoroughly unexciting and visually uninspired, but thats more the fault of TiQals place in history. If it had been one of the first puzzle games on the service, it might stand out a bit more. But now, despite its passable gameplay, its hard to not just say wow, they made another one of these? and move on.
ipukespiders said:Are you admitting to buying crappy xbla titles?
andydumi said:Wasn't there a rumoured Live spring update list of changes? So much for all that.
They're totally depriving themselves of the variety and depth of catalog needed to see long tail effects.Otheradam said:It's not a matter of if the game is good or bad, but I thought one of the points of digital distribution was that you can can find anything anytime and buy it. Unlike with how retail is now for games, where the shelf-life for the average game is like 6 months before it gets hard to find unless its a huge game. Good luck trying to find something that came out 2 years ago new and a niche title.
With digital distribution, in theory, this problem would be solved as you can access old or niche titles that you wouldn't be able to find otherwise. This delisting thing just sets a bad precedence.
Crisis said:No but that's not the issue. There is no "shelf" for digital titles. There is no reason to do this. They are making any small developer think twice about making an XBLA title and purposefully limiting what can be purchased on their system. After all their talk about digital distribution and how developer friendly they were, this is kind of a slap in the face. What about XNA titles? What about titles I've downloaded that didn't sell well?
Last year Xbox 360 owners got a spring dashboard update in early May. It's now late May and you still haven't announced anything regarding this year's update. Should 360 owners be holding their breaths for it?
We have taken a different approach this spring and spent a lot of our time and resources of building the proper infrastructure and scale for the service not just today but also into the future. So while most users will not notice any significant changes to the dashboard this spring, I can tell you that the team will be releasing a new digital rights management (DRM) tool next month that will allow you to better consolidate your licenses for downloaded content to a single Xbox and allow you the freedom to be able to play your content both online and offline.
Crisis said:No but that's not the issue. There is no "shelf" for digital titles. There is no reason to do this. They are making any small developer think twice about making an XBLA title and purposefully limiting what can be purchased on their system. After all their talk about digital distribution and how developer friendly they were, this is kind of a slap in the face. What about XNA titles? What about titles I've downloaded that didn't sell well?
If it sucks then just don't allow it to be released. But really, if it sucks who cares? I agree with the PSN comment: just extract it from the category listings and just let it get buried.chubigans said:I see this more as a plan going forward for devs to shape up than to discipline content already on the Marketplace. Sony hand picks their titles, and MS has a larger door for devs to go through...the catch being if it sucks, prepare for delisting.
Not that bad an idea honestly.
guise said:What the fuck, lack of of a spring update is dispicable. Its not like there is a shortage of things that need to be fixed. What the hell are microsoft thinking.
Is it really so hard to go to metacritic and look yourself?Himuro said:What about Omega 5 and Triggerheart Exelica?
No6 said:If it sucks then just don't allow it to be released. But really, if it sucks who cares? I agree with the PSN comment: just extract it from the category listings and just let it get buried.
Or do a price dump. Really, this is the best option. Knock the prices down to $1-2 and I'd probably get stupid and buy everything.
who cares about that now.Stumpokapow said:so how about the 1st party xbla studio?
pswii60 said:I think they should start a new section called "Shit Live Arcade Games" and shove them all in there with free downloads.
I like Tetris Spash.HallucinatingElvis said:so......were mad that they are removing shitty games from the service?
chubigans said:Wellllll, MS is doing the right thing here and it might have some good quality control down the line. It's not Metacritic OR sales, its both.
Basically, if your game sucks and doesn't sell well, you have six months to improve upon it, be it patches for more gameplay types, fixes, etc.
I see this more as a plan going forward for devs to shape up than to discipline content already on the Marketplace. Sony hand picks their titles, and MS has a larger door for devs to go through...the catch being if it sucks, prepare for delisting.
Not that bad an idea honestly.
We are also giving publishers more flexibility in how they price their games and opening up a new 1600 Microsoft Points price point for some of these now bigger and better games
diffusionx said:Wait, so is MS gonna pay those developers to "improve" their games, give them prime spots in the interface again, etc? Doubtful.
Nobody is gonna randomly wake up one day and say, "hey I bet they put some work on Contra, I'll download it again and try it out" and sure enough Awesome Patch 1.1 is out.
The time in the sun for these games is long past. They had their time, they sucked, they didn't sell, whatever. But the thing is, MS approved them. They let them go on the surface and sure as shit collected their fee every time a poor sucker downloaded it. But now I guess they're worried about XBLA's reputation as a garbage bin and are trying to erase history with this policy. Well, they shouldn't and these games should remain on the service forever, if only as a mark of eternal shame for MS.
:lolKandrick said:No spring update ?
Good thing Live is free , or i would be pissed. Oh wait...
besiktas1 said:I just counted over 45 games scored less than 65 on meta critic...
Now lets speculate which ones will be dropped
*sigh* that took longer than expected lol
Are they allowed to? Can they go sub-$5?chubigans said:That's the thing though...four months into the lifespan and your game might be in danger of delisting, then do a price cut.
Timan said:MS is just looking for an excuse to not fix their retarded mess of a market place. It is impossible for new users to actually find what they want in there.
jestro said:You enjoy poo?
chubigans said:Wellllll, MS is doing the right thing here and it might have some good quality control down the line. It's not Metacritic OR sales, its both.
Basically, if your game sucks and doesn't sell well, you have six months to improve upon it, be it patches for more gameplay types, fixes, etc.
I see this more as a plan going forward for devs to shape up than to discipline content already on the Marketplace. Sony hand picks their titles, and MS has a larger door for devs to go through...the catch being if it sucks, prepare for delisting.
Not that bad an idea honestly.
According to Whitten, XBLA titles that have been out for more than six months, have a Metacritic score of less than 65%, and have a conversion rate of less than 6% will be eligible for desliting. Microsoft will give three months of notice before these titles are removed.
Just go to your DLC History.radjago said:If I paid for a game and deleted it to make room for more DLC, I'd better be able to download it again.
HallucinatingElvis said:so......were mad that they are removing shitty games from the service?