Clearly, this wasn’t Binary Tweed’s four-leaf Clover
Xbox Community Games is taking another tongue lashing, this time by Braid Clover developer Binary Tweed.
“It’s a shame to say that Clover has not sold as many copies as we’d hope for. As it stands, through Community Games alone, we definitely won’t recoup costs,” managing director Daniel Jones told DigitalSpy. “Frustratingly enough, the critical reception to the game has been good… The size of the XBLCG market is prohibitively small to be financially viable, so I can only see it being of use to Binary Tweed as an arena for proving concepts.”
Given all the criticism Microsoft is taking over their poor implementation of the Community Games section, Jones’ comments don’t seem all that out of line. Knowing the market and understanding that you’re taking a huge risk banking on a Community game, you might see small developers questioning if it’s really worth it or not.
At the very least, Microsoft is trying to address the situation by renaming it the Indie Games section. They’ll also be introducing a star rating system, which I really hope does wonders for highlighting the best of the best and moving some units.
Comments
Not surprised at all. It’s a shame but until Microsoft does a complete overhaul of the Indie Games section, I wouldn’t dare develop anything more than a simple app. for the service.
If they plan on making Indie Games anything more than remote masturbation games, I suggest they immediately
- get the rating system up
- separate apps from games
- promote the Indie Games section A LOT more
- consider letting SOME games offer a small amount of achievements
I’ve almost pulled the trigger on Clover a couple of times, but honestly, I couldn’t tell whether I would like it from the short trial.
Games like Clover can’t be confined to a 7 minute timed demo; it’s a freaking adventure game. I might just pick Clover up after hearing this news.
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