Microsoft to make it harder for Niche developers?

Monsta Mack

Monsta Mack

CAGiversary!
This would seem kind of odd considering recent Guilty Gear creator said the 360 was the best platform to develop for. Why? Because Battle Fantasia has sold way under 50k units in the US, as VGChartz has a "estimate" of 2k+ units in the US. Anyways, rumor has it that Microsoft will no longer be allowing companies to put games on the 360 unless they produced 50k+ copies to retail and close to 6k in Japan.

Way to kill off the small developers if true, MS. Granted maybe they'll let them be XBLA titles, but Battle Fantasia and Guilty Gear Overture are contradicting this "rumor" at this point as most likely neither will sell 50k units this year.

http://kotaku.com/5064895/is-microsoft-making-it-harder-for-small-developers

Sony will outright deny some games to hit the PS2/PS3 without some sort of collection/incentive (Look at King of Fighters combo packs on the PS2, if they weren't Sony would deny them) and Nintendo supposedly has the highest royalties. What's next?

Discuss or Flame. The choice is yours!

Games that are most likely not going to hit 50k in the US, again according to VGChartz and this is as of recent years:
Battle Fantasia
Bomberman: Act Zero
Operation Darkness
Smash Court Tennis 3
Warriors Orochi 2
Warhammer: Battle Match
Jumper: Griffin's Story
Zoids

Even games like the first Warriors Orochi and Fatal Inerta barely cut it. I'm sure I can dig up more but there are quite a few games out there that won't hit 50k in the US. Some are crap but in general this is bad news for the small developers.
 
(Insert Company) hates indy/niche/low budget developers has always been a popular article topic since last gen yet there's still a gold mine of 3rd party developers that have risen though the ranks. It's mostly the studios not throwing the money behind these projects that hinders their fruition. Honestly if you're not going to produce 50K games you probably don't need to print it on a disc and sell it. Good games sell and bad games fail. You'll never worry about games like Gears 2 selling less than 50K but the indy/budget titles like Castle Crashers, developed well, will sell over 100K.

I think this is a good move to start filtering out the crap games from the market that have been giving a black eye to the gaming industry. Just because you can crap out a game for tree fitty doesnt mean it should be sold (elf bowling).
 
You have to remember that Microsoft doesn't want old arcade titles on XBLA anymore (Why, I don't know, because those, and games like those are the ones that really seem to sell well).

Also, Microsoft wants a lot of control, and since they see themselves in the lead, they're trying to gain as much control as they think they can.
 
"The 360 was the best platform to develop for."

The PS3's hardware is said to be difficult for developers, which is why companies like Valve don't even bother with it. The 360 is said to be the best present platform for developers, which is why Microsoft feels able to control such things.

While this may curb low-quality games, it may also keep unique, good games from ever seeing the light of day.
 
[quote name='KingBroly']You have to remember that Microsoft doesn't want old arcade titles on XBLA anymore (Why, I don't know, because those, and games like those are the ones that really seem to sell well).

Also, Microsoft wants a lot of control, and since they see themselves in the lead, they're trying to gain as much control as they think they can.[/quote]
All MS has to do is move games that are either under performing or old to a 'Classics' section on the marketplace. Give them a 20% off (or more) discount for a week and move on. It's business and MS seems to be forgetting that they are very minimal costs when it comes to digital downloads.
 
[quote name='Monsta Mack']This would seem kind of odd considering recent Guilty Gear creator said the 360 was the best platform to develop for. Why? Because Battle Fantasia has sold way under 50k units in the US, as VGChartz has a "estimate" of 2k+ units in the US. Anyways, rumor has it that Microsoft will no longer be allowing companies to put games on the 360 unless they produced 50k+ copies to retail and close to 6k in Japan.

Way to kill off the small developers if true, MS. Granted maybe they'll let them be XBLA titles, but Battle Fantasia and Guilty Gear Overture are contradicting this "rumor" at this point as most likely neither will sell 50k units this year.

http://kotaku.com/5064895/is-microsoft-making-it-harder-for-small-developers

Sony will outright deny some games to hit the PS2/PS3 without some sort of collection/incentive (Look at King of Fighters combo packs on the PS2, if they weren't Sony would deny them) and Nintendo supposedly has the highest royalties. What's next?

Discuss or Flame. The choice is yours!

Games that are most likely not going to hit 50k in the US, again according to VGChartz and this is as of recent years:
Battle Fantasia
Bomberman: Act Zero
Operation Darkness
Smash Court Tennis 3
Warriors Orochi 2
Warhammer: Battle Match
Jumper: Griffin's Story
Zoids

Even games like the first Warriors Orochi and Fatal Inerta barely cut it. I'm sure I can dig up more but there are quite a few games out there that won't hit 50k in the US. Some are crap but in general this is bad news for the small developers.[/quote]

Most of those games you listed are pretty bad to begin with.
 
[quote name='SynGamer']All MS has to do is move games that are either under performing or old to a 'Classics' section on the marketplace. Give them a 20% off (or more) discount for a week and move on. It's business and MS seems to be forgetting that they are very minimal costs when it comes to digital downloads.[/quote]

Yeah, but they don't want to do that. That is why you're seeing some classic scrolling shooter games in Japan coming to 360 in disc form because Microsoft doesn't want them. Meaning a large amount of people will miss out on those games.
 
[quote name='KingBroly']Yeah, but they don't want to do that. That is why you're seeing some classic scrolling shooter games in Japan coming to 360 in disc form because Microsoft doesn't want them. Meaning a large amount of people will miss out on those games.[/quote]

It's too bad those compilations won't be coming to North America. I would prefer new disc compilations. Only for the fact I don't want so many games tied to my account/console.
 
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