Making money from your XNA game: The good and not-so-good
Tuesday, July 22 2008
People are buzzing about today's announcement that developers can start making money soon off their Xbox LIVE Community Games built using XNA Game Studio. Being an ex-XNA member, I can still say, without a shadow of doubt, that Microsoft is offering a groundbreaking game channel, and that some people stand a chance to make great money from the system. It's an exciting opportunity, but the danger for consumers lies in Microsoft's deliberate steps to avoid discussions regarding game quality, even during peer review. I firmly believe that avoiding commentary/ratings on game quality will result in frustrated consumers, who will have no way to discern the quality of a game among (ultimately) thousands. Of course, the game creator has the option of offering a trial game, but it will be interesting to see how many developers take advantage of that path, as it is not required [Edit: Peter Hatch points to a Wired article where Chris Satnchell states that a timed trial will be enabled by default, but my concern about te lck of quality indicators still stands]. I doubt consumers will get a refund for buying a sucky game either.
Before anybody thinks I'm bashing the XNA team, please keep in mind that this is the same approach taken for Xbox LIVE Arcade games -- you're on your own to find genuine game reviews and ratings. The difference is that XBLA games have a higher standard for quality and consistency regarding the gaming experience. XBLA games have a large number of technical conformances to adhere to, which are tested by the XBLA team prior to its approval for release -- the Community Games has no such thing during the peer review (remembe, peer review is a check on the content, not on technical quality or gameplay quality). I think the upcoming plethora of games on the Commuity Games pipeline will only create more consumer confusion without them having a reliable guide [Hint: Great opportunity here to create a consumer-oriented website that helps people find the kind of community games they like!]
Well, that's enough rambling for me -- I'm still unpacking boxes here in toasty San Antonio!
P.S. - Dear XNA Community Team: I know the lead community guy left, but it's STILL no reason to have broken links or stale articles.
6 comment(s)
Well it feels good to know that I am not alone with the mixed feelings, gregorywurm.com/.../xna-community-g
Aw look at what you've done, now I have http://www.gamesindustry.biz/ using a picture of my game to illustrate bad quality games :)
I'd agree that there needs to be some way to propagate the better games to the front of the list.
I was saying this about XBLA as well, that there needs to be some sort of 'top downloads' list, or a system similar to the reputation in the gamertag where people will rate it on a 5 star (or a simple thumb up, thumb down) that will then be displayed beside the game, and act as a sorting option for people to search with.
This would fall in line with what they were saying about 'the community will police itself.' and answer the concerns of quality.
Being someone who wants to write a game one day, I agree with you, but without a doubt there are a few hobbists out there who can achieve a high quality stable game.
Well, the concern of course is, that there will be lots of bad and instable games shaking the trust of customers in the whole platform...
Since all the games are required to have trials, consumers will be able to determine if the game is worth their money or not. Plus they have talked about letting the consumers rate the games. The cream will rise to the top and most people will only download the top rated games. They certainly can't have creators reviewing each others games.
Creators are allowed to reject a game if it's not stable and they are reviewed by more than one creator.
According to blog.wired.com/.../xbox-community. every game will have a time-limited trial automatically.