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Underperforming XBLA titles to be removed
- Thread starter jvm
- Start date
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.
ipukespiders said:
One man's turd is another man's treasure. For example, I enjoyed something like Soltrio Solitaire even though it got shit reviews and probably shit sales.
Also - The excuse that delisting will make games easier to browse for just reinforces my opinion that their browsing setup is poor in the first place.
Crisis 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.
1) No spring update is really disappointing, but not surprising. Microsoft had a hard time keeping up the semi-annual pace, with the last update hitting in December. Still, I was hoping for something to address gaps in the last update.
2) DRM fix is good. It takes forever for my XBLA games to get validated and load up.
3) STUPID to de-list XBLA games. There's not many of them. Just park'em in an older listing and discount them, as Jim said. Bad, bad idea, especially setting Metacritic as part of the decision making.
One step forward, two steps back, MS.
2) DRM fix is good. It takes forever for my XBLA games to get validated and load up.
3) STUPID to de-list XBLA games. There's not many of them. Just park'em in an older listing and discount them, as Jim said. Bad, bad idea, especially setting Metacritic as part of the decision making.
One step forward, two steps back, MS.
dreammastah
Banned
He doesn't say there won't be a spring update.
WickedLaharl
Member
this is fucking stupid. hopefully the backlash to deleting xbla titles changes their minds.
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:
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.
HallucinatingElvis
Banned
so......were mad that they are removing shitty games from the service?
I just counted over 45 games scored less than 65 on meta critic...
Now lets speculate which ones will be dropped
Hardwood Hearts
Texas Hold em
Fatal Fury
Contra
Marathon
Triggerheart
Missle Command
Time pilot
Trackn field
Backgammon
Spades
Pacman
Frogger
Madtracks
Rootbeer
Super Contra
Geon
Sotrio Solitare
Arkadian Warriors
TiQal
Aegis Wing
Defender
Rocketmen
Double Dragon
Gyruss
Asteroids
Battlestar Galatica
Centerpied
Boogie binnies
Spyglass boardgames
Brain Challenge
tetris Splash
Battlezone
Yie Ar Kungfu
Novadrome
Wing Commando
Mr driller
Scramble
Tempest
Totemball
Word puzzled
New Rally
Tron
Bliss Island
Cyber Ball
Screw Jumper
Rocky Bullywinky
Yaris
*sigh* that took longer than expected lol
Now lets speculate which ones will be dropped
Hardwood Hearts
Texas Hold em
Fatal Fury
Contra
Marathon
Triggerheart
Missle Command
Time pilot
Trackn field
Backgammon
Spades
Pacman
Frogger
Madtracks
Rootbeer
Super Contra
Geon
Sotrio Solitare
Arkadian Warriors
TiQal
Aegis Wing
Defender
Rocketmen
Double Dragon
Gyruss
Asteroids
Battlestar Galatica
Centerpied
Boogie binnies
Spyglass boardgames
Brain Challenge
tetris Splash
Battlezone
Yie Ar Kungfu
Novadrome
Wing Commando
Mr driller
Scramble
Tempest
Totemball
Word puzzled
New Rally
Tron
Bliss Island
Cyber Ball
Screw Jumper
Rocky Bullywinky
Yaris
*sigh* that took longer than expected lol
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
so how about the 1st party xbla studio?
Beer Monkey
Member
At one point the (free) Space theme for Worms was deleted from the Marketplace. Some of us complained and it has been restored.
During the period that it was gone, I was unable to re-download it. If this is what happens with the games that are removed from XBLA, this is bullshit and Microsoft needs to be called on it. Once you have a valid license for a title you should always be able to delete and redownload it in case of space problems, hard drive crashes, etc.
I can understand desires to keep the store de-cluttered, even if I don't agree with it. But it is absolutely essential that buyers can always review their download history and re-download any content that they once bought. We already give up many rights when we buy DLC on any of these new systems, but we should never have to give up the ability to have our games last longer than our hard drive platters.
Secondly, using Metacritic as a basis for anything is bullshit. Critical reception is not a reliable indicator of any kind of real quality, it is too biased towards current trends.
During the period that it was gone, I was unable to re-download it. If this is what happens with the games that are removed from XBLA, this is bullshit and Microsoft needs to be called on it. Once you have a valid license for a title you should always be able to delete and redownload it in case of space problems, hard drive crashes, etc.
I can understand desires to keep the store de-cluttered, even if I don't agree with it. But it is absolutely essential that buyers can always review their download history and re-download any content that they once bought. We already give up many rights when we buy DLC on any of these new systems, but we should never have to give up the ability to have our games last longer than our hard drive platters.
Secondly, using Metacritic as a basis for anything is bullshit. Critical reception is not a reliable indicator of any kind of real quality, it is too biased towards current trends.
titiklabingapat
Member
I am convineced that this fridge cleaning is MS forcing the shovelware developers to WiiWare :lol
diffusionx
Gold Member
chubigans 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 v1.1 with more Awesome 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.
Completely retarded on the lack of a Spring Dashboard update.
Even more retarded that they're removing XBLA titles. This is just another hit against XBLA. You don't fucking announce this two weeks after a rival service launches (Wii Ware) where former developers are already bitching about the service of XBLA.
Didn't Shane just have an interview the other day where they're getting feedback? Here's some: stop being fucking retarded.
Even more retarded that they're removing XBLA titles. This is just another hit against XBLA. You don't fucking announce this two weeks after a rival service launches (Wii Ware) where former developers are already bitching about the service of XBLA.
Didn't Shane just have an interview the other day where they're getting feedback? Here's some: stop being fucking retarded.
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
These are the ones I have:
Texas Hold em - Like, was free.
Soltrio Solitare - Bought and liked.
Aegis Wing - Meh, was free.
EDIT: Oh snap, I guess I have Yaris too since it was free. Worst game on XBLA/PSN/VC.
MMaRsu
Banned
Timan said:
Really? What's impossible ?
You look for the name in an alphabetic list, how big of a fucking retard do you have to be to not be able to find something on the list ?????
I hate the fact that they are deleting old underperforming XBLA titles.
I hate the fact that there isn't going to be a spring dashboard update.
It's retarded that only now will there be a DRM fix implemented, this should have been in place from the start.
You'll likely never get much in the way of discounting XBLA stuff. That's one of the things the business guys like best about digital distribution vs. retail, games don't go from full price to almost worthless inside of a month or two due to limited shelf space. You'll see stuff becoming free on occasion, but I think MS will always hold the line on discounting
chubigans said:
It's really silly though. They've already got the games. They're finished and they're made. It makes no sense to DELIST games you already have. If they want to improve quality standards for games going forward that would make a lot of sense and I'd be all for it. But Microsoft is the one who wanted a ton of games for XBLA. They're the ones who approved these titles for release onto XBLA and now they're saying "Well your game is shitty so we're going to take it off." It wasn't so shitty that Microsoft didn't think it would be a good idea to put it on there in the first place. I think a lot of people have too high of expectations. There's no doubt that there are some extra super-shitty games on Xbox Live but these are download titles and there's no need to just delist games. You could put lower prices on them (because god knows that you can't exactly get the exact amount of points you need to buy a fucking game anyway).
Microsoft has had a moving target in terms of what you can and can't do with games on XBLA. It used to be that they had to fit on a 64MB memory card. Then it moved upwards. For most XBLA games we're not talking Square Enix production values here. If the games suck a large deal of that can be attributed to Microsoft's strict TRC policies. A large deal of it can be attributed to the fact that a lot of these are from small developers. Microsoft has now adopted a "make it good or we'll delist you" policy and the fact of the matter is that by leaving it up to something like MetaCritic is a very bad idea. Really I think Microsoft deserves most of the blame for the bad titles on XBLA. From their requirements to how badly promoted some good games are to shit like this. If you think that with this announcement that there are going to be as many XBLA games in the future, you are mistaken. This is just not a good idea at any point.
If this is true... IF... who the fuck do Microsoft think they are? That's none of their god-damn concern. If a song has only sold like five copies on the iTunes Store, is Apple going to threaten to pull it? Hell no. IT'S A DIGITAL STORE YOU STUPID MORONS! The entire point of a digital store is that (a) it costs less to bring a product to market, and (b) you have endless room for products past, present, and future.
Microsoft (and you other console companies out there), get it through your skull... you know jack shit when it comes to what games I want, and I don't give a shit what games you think I want. If a company wants to sell me a game, let them sell it to me, and get out of the freakin' way. Your job is to create a console, the service to sell games, and then shut the fuck up. If you're going to make the argument that quality games aren't selling because there are too many lesser-quality games on your service, then your service sucks ass and it's all your fault, not the games.
I swear, I just want one console manufacturer who doesn't act like a god-damn moron all of the time.
Looking at besiktas1's list, I own five games that would be considered "underperforming."
