Joe Danger Devs: XBLA is a "Slaughterhouse" for Small Studios
- Thread starter John Funk
- Start date
That's an excellent point. Releasing any game on multiple systems will increase sales.GamesB2 said:
Indeedie. Also, how many commerical studios fail to ever sell big numbers and break even? Most of them, I'm willing to wager.oranger said:
Same is true of online browser based games - for every Desktop Defence, and Several Journeys of Reemus [http://www.kongregate.com/games/zeebarf/the-several-journeys-of-reemus] (and its sequels), there are thousands of games that never reach more than 10,000 plays, if that.
And the iPhone/Smartphone app market is just as bad, if not worse as you have to purchase a Mac before you can program for the iPhone at all.
Basically, I think he's saying this because he's afraid of XBLA - probably released something their before and it bombed, whereas on PSN, it did well. But thats just my guess.
As for the figures, I call Bullshit on that unless he reveals his sources.
It's probably because of the huge deluge of XBLA titles, no one wants to look through a couple thousand titles to find something good. In comparison The PSN has only got around less than two hundred downloadable games, so I can understand why he would think that.
RedLynx sold more than 800k copies of Trials HD (as of March 2010) without much of a marketing support. That's an example. With 4-man studio you don't need nearly as many sales to break even, so that shouldn't be a problem for a really good game, should it?
The competition is stiff indeed, but that's a good thing for a players - we've got a lot of games to choose from, and don't have to buy garbage (of which there's a lot in XBLA), as there's always something interesting in each genre. But the thing is, it's usually just several good games for the genre (and rarely one great one), so you don't have to compete with EVERYONE - your game just have to be good enough to consider it among tons of trash.
So the reason for XBLA bashing is either they don't really believe in the quality of their game (and its ability to compete with the best of XBLA), or Sony gives developers some benefits for PSN-exclusivity, and these benefits looked better for the team, than potential XBLA sales.
P.S. Oh, and remember the fantastic Trials HD - maybe these guys just saw it and thought they've got no chances?
P.P.S. I haven't played Joe Danger - all of the above is just extrapolation.
P.P.P.S. 1.5mils for Castle Crashers, 370k for N+, 360k for Braid and Undertow with 625k. Are these all high-budget games from huge developers? Compare that to Shadow Complex with just over 400k sales, so you'd have the idea of how marketing and developer's size correlates with the number of copies sold.
The competition is stiff indeed, but that's a good thing for a players - we've got a lot of games to choose from, and don't have to buy garbage (of which there's a lot in XBLA), as there's always something interesting in each genre. But the thing is, it's usually just several good games for the genre (and rarely one great one), so you don't have to compete with EVERYONE - your game just have to be good enough to consider it among tons of trash.
So the reason for XBLA bashing is either they don't really believe in the quality of their game (and its ability to compete with the best of XBLA), or Sony gives developers some benefits for PSN-exclusivity, and these benefits looked better for the team, than potential XBLA sales.
P.S. Oh, and remember the fantastic Trials HD - maybe these guys just saw it and thought they've got no chances?
P.P.S. I haven't played Joe Danger - all of the above is just extrapolation.
P.P.P.S. 1.5mils for Castle Crashers, 370k for N+, 360k for Braid and Undertow with 625k. Are these all high-budget games from huge developers? Compare that to Shadow Complex with just over 400k sales, so you'd have the idea of how marketing and developer's size correlates with the number of copies sold.
Well I don't own a ps3... yet... so I didn't want to declare something if I didn't know if it was true.AzrealMaximillion said:
How can you assume that all games deserve that 25000 sales mark. He's making assumptions by putting all games in a bubble of equal quality.
There's a reason why some arcade games do poorly while other go far. The games that are more appealing to a broader audience sell better. The end. If crappy games are made for PSN then chances are they won't sell there either.
Besides, Trials HD is already one of the hottest titles on XBLA and Joe Danger is just a cartoony version of it. Maybe it was Trials that had him scared all along.
There's a reason why some arcade games do poorly while other go far. The games that are more appealing to a broader audience sell better. The end. If crappy games are made for PSN then chances are they won't sell there either.
Besides, Trials HD is already one of the hottest titles on XBLA and Joe Danger is just a cartoony version of it. Maybe it was Trials that had him scared all along.
BooHoo.
If the game wouldn't be popular on XBL, I don't see why it'd be popular on PSN. I know of a few titles that have been vastly popular, even though they were indie on XBL.
I enjoyed a PSN indie title as well.
If a game's not good, it won't do well. I don't think XBL has anything to do with that.
*shrug*
That's like saying PSN is a place for indie games to die... I just doesn't make sense.
If the game wouldn't be popular on XBL, I don't see why it'd be popular on PSN. I know of a few titles that have been vastly popular, even though they were indie on XBL.
I enjoyed a PSN indie title as well.
If a game's not good, it won't do well. I don't think XBL has anything to do with that.
*shrug*
That's like saying PSN is a place for indie games to die... I just doesn't make sense.
According to Sturgeon's Revelation, 90% of everything is crud ... so if only 47% and not 90% of XBLA games failed to sell more than 25,000 copies, wouldn't that be a good thing? Or maybe I need to go back to school and study how percentages work.John Funk said:
Maybe they should think about a different strategy.
How about this: why not release the game on the European PS store earlier than anywhere else? Our store is anorexic compared to the NA store, and this way they should be able to better gauge the public's reaction to a game based on it's quality, and not just whether it sells or not. Plus, the European store might actually get a little more f**king attention from Sony for once. Totally win-win, right?
How about this: why not release the game on the European PS store earlier than anywhere else? Our store is anorexic compared to the NA store, and this way they should be able to better gauge the public's reaction to a game based on it's quality, and not just whether it sells or not. Plus, the European store might actually get a little more f**king attention from Sony for once. Totally win-win, right?
Indeed, most of the stuff sinks on XBLA because it's crap, the rest is diamonds in the rough and gold dust.tellmeimaninja said:
If he'd kept his reasons related to the limited update schedule, no free DLC and Microsoft having to certify every single thing, which can take weeks, then I would totally understand his decisions to stay away from XBLA.
The reasons he did cite? Not super convincing.
The reasons he did cite? Not super convincing.