Indie Devs Unhappy With Xbox Live Dashboard Update

[koroem]

Doesn't Microsoft have incredibly strict rules for indie devs that wish to put their titles on XBL? I thought I remembered seeing a few articles about how Microsoft was actually scaring off developers with how much of their souls they had to give up to be on the XBL platform. Then Microsoft screws them anyways by burying their sales pages? That doesn't make sense to me at all.

That said, the new dashboard is better than the last one, but still absolutely terrible. Ugly, small, too much BS everywhere.

 

[CBanana]

I would think Microsoft should at least try to be as indie friendly as Steam is.

Steam store process for indie games:
1) Right click the Steam tray icon
2) Click "Store"
3) Hover mouse over "Genre"
4) Click "Indie"

With Steam, the games are also brought up in other genre searches and they're often advertised right next to AAA games.

Considering this difference, it's not surprising that Microsoft has lost a few indie developers that used to develop for the XBOX such as Jonathan Blow (Braid) with his upcoming game: The Witness, and Edmund McMillen (Super Meat Boy) with his recently released game: The Binding of Isaac.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

Microsoft just wanted to turn their console into an advertising machine.

This sounds much more like what they're trying to achieve, yes.

it takes 8 presses to get to the XBLA menu. It's a game console it should take 3 at the most. All the other media shit should take more,

Could not agree more.

 

[Eve Charm]

I'd love to See a reply by someone from mircosoft saying " xbox indie games" followed by a big troll face if the kinect can do it.

 

[RagnarokHybrid]

Oh come on Indie developers, they all that extra room for add space.

The update feels more like a way to force us to see adds, and shovel the kinect down our throat.

Dam it!

Hold on, let me call the boys... Yes. We can do that.

You, sir, have won three googalplex years worth of the internets.

Enjoy.

OT: This is preposterous. (Is that good enough discussion value?)

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

The update feels more like a way to force us to see adds, and shovel the kinect down our throat.

Nothing was wrong with the previous Dashboard, why they felt to change it rather than add to it is way beyond me. And yes the indie games tab is a complete mess.

Oh come on Indie developers, they all that extra room for add space.

The update feels more like a way to force us to see adds, and shovel the kinect down our throat.

Dam it!

They're "ADS", as-in short for "ADvertisement". "Add" is when you combine one thing with another. So unless there's a ton of math on the new dashboard, then those are "ads". That's one "D".

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Have indie devs ever been happy?

Yes. With Steam.

Edit: And I think just PC in general? Ironic that the area where the big-name developers dread to traverse without the "protection" of DRM is where the small-name developers are making the most cash, and without the use of DRM. Kinda tells ya something. Maybe multiple somethings.

Edit 2: Okay okay okay, I know, technically Steam is DRM. Though it's worth noting that I have to specifically remind myself of this fact on a frequent basis because I always forget about the DRM aspects of Steam.

 

[4RM3D]

Microsoft is going ape shit over the new Windows Phone 7 design. The Xbox360 got the update. Next on the list: Windows 8 for the (tablet) PC. Then every Microsoft product (PC, Tablet, Console, Mobile) uses the same interface.

 

[4RM3D]

Have indie devs ever been happy?

Yes. With Steam.

Edit: And I think just PC in general? Ironic that the area where the big-name developers dread to traverse without the "protection" of DRM is where the small-name developers are making the most cash, and without the use of DRM. Kinda tells ya something. Maybe multiple somethings.

Edit 2: Okay okay okay, I know, technically Steam is DRM. Though it's worth noting that I have to specifically remind myself of this fact on a frequent basis because I always forget about the DRM aspects of Steam.

Edit 3: Steam is more a platform than it is a DRM. There are games on Steam that have their on DRM on top of the Steam one.

 

[mizushinzui]

This new update is killing me, didn't think it'd be this bad, especially since it seemed to include youtube in it (which is something I think the xbox has been missing for a while now)

I turned on my xbox to update and I can't even find the goddamn youtube app or whatever it is. I don't know if it's not included in the UK's package or something all I know is I ain't got it and I'm not happy about it.

This update coupled with the fact that I left all my decent xbox games at my flat when I came home for christmas means that I won't be playing my xbox for a while

 

[d43dr34m3r]

In all fairness the new update makes practically everything unnecessarily difficult to access. I wouldn't hate on microsoft for it though, it seems to be more of a product of incompetence than outright malice or greed. They were so concerned with unifying the UI for Windows 8 and the 360 that they kind of forgot to make the UI a decent way to navigate the console's features. The way in which Kinect is integrated into the experience is much better compared to the last version, to their credit.

 

[Vigormortis]

As much as I think some of these indie devs are whining a bit too much (especially given the usual quality of their "games"), I do agree the new dashbo...oops, sorry....Home UI is God awful. It's unsightly, unintuitive, and somewhat useless. Though, no more or less that the last one. The only difference now is this new UI has few options up front (more tucked away in far flung corners) and has FAR more ad space. Not to mention the whole thing was clearly not made for controllers.

What bugs me most, though, is seeing Microsoft spending so much time and money on developing this completely useless, unnecessary UI update but STILL failing to fix the prevailing systemic issues that have plagued Live since it's inception.

Party system bugs and crashes, anyone? >:|

So Sony's works fine, but has giant security holes

Microsoft's is designed to hate anything that isn't made of money

and the Wii's barely works.

Not sure which one wins... but it's like winning Miss Akron.

Pretty sure this (these) win in that regard:

Spoiler: UI winners

'Course, that's personal preference on my part. But still...

 

[Mrsoupcup]

They're "ADS", as-in short for "ADvertisement". "Add" is when you combine one thing with another. So unless there's a ton of math on the new dashboard, then those are "ads". That's one "D".

Good for you.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Edit 3: Steam is more a platform than it is a DRM. There are games on Steam that have their on DRM on top of the Steam one.

Exactly. I mean yeah, Steam has DRM features, but I'm too busy watching a game conveniently update on its own to really care about that.

 

[JMan]

Unlike everyone else I'm seeing here I like the new update.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

'Course, that's personal preference on my part. But still...

Hey, is that screen of Steam yours? Because when I pulled the pic up to fullsize I could read the email that'd been scrubbed over... you might want to fix that if it's yours.

 

[Vigormortis]

'Course, that's personal preference on my part. But still...

Hey, is that screen of Steam yours? Because when I pulled the pic up to fullsize I could read the email that'd been scrubbed over... you might want to fix that if it's yours.

It is not, actually. Just some random screen grab via a quick search on Google.

Though, if it is revealing someone's personal info, I'll have to change it. Don't want to put someone in a bad situation. (though they sort of are asking for it, putting it out in the open online and all that.)