GDC08 \ Rumorama: Indie Game Developers to See Royalties Cut on XBLA?
I'm always silently, ok not so silently rooting for the underdog. Independent developers are normally the fresh faces in a world that is rapidly becoming stale and redundant. I'm not one to be disillusioned, but it is becoming increasingly less common to see games that use mechanics we've never seen before. As such, it always makes me sad when the Indie world is under blows.
Nothing is confirmed yet, but according to some "well informed sources", developers are likely to see their payout for Xbox Live Arcade titles reduced significantly in the near future. The once impressive 70% pay out is said to be cut down to 35% in recent months. It is speculated that this may be tied to the upcoming XNA community, and is an attempt to encourage use of that system.
This is of course all very much speculation and there is no real way to confirm it, but it does seem likely. It could also be suicide for XBLA. One of the main reasons developers like it is because of the high pay rate, the ease of deployment and the immediate availability. Making the platform less attractive could potentially lead to a loss in revenue for Microsoft, and give further reason for gamers and developers to adopt the PS3. Let's hope that Microsoft doesn't drive away their developers, the Arcade is my favorite part of my 360.
Microsoft Cuts Indie Royalties in Half [Kotaku]
Asterick
Posted to GDC, Video Games on 22 February 2008
· Comments (1)
Other stuff like this: game developers, independent, microsoft, royalties, teh shaft, xna
it might also mean that they're pushing their non-indie games on the XBLA platform every week, and just relegating the cinderella stories to "the youtube of games." sigh.