TL:DR version:
Problems =
"Games simply drop with zero fanfare, hype, or, quite frankly, awareness."
"microsoft rarely allows games media sites like IGN or YouTube influencers a chance to preview ID@Xbox titles"
"Back in the Xbox 360 days, media outlets had consoles called debug kits that gave us access to Partner.net, a sort of “shadow” version of Xbox Live that developers could upload content to for testing and development purposes....... snipped...... Xbox One’s infrastructure is different, so this is no longer possible."
"XBLA titles on 360 all had free, playable trial versions – without exception. It was a Microsoft mandate. This, too, is gone on Xbox One"
"..there’s nowhere for ID@Xbox games to live on the Xbox One, because there is no Xbox Live Arcade. They just float aimlessly among everything else."
"there’s the much-maligned Parity Clause, which effectively means developers can only release their titles on Xbox One if they haven't already been released on other consoles."
Solution =
"The good news for Microsoft is that this situation is fixable. I’d like to see the Xbox braintrust reinstitute Xbox Live Arcade as a brand – heck, make a big splash of it at E3 and announce Inside and Cuphead as the first Summer of Arcade titles on Xbox One! Bring back Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays. Bring back mandatory trial versions for every digital/XBLA title so that fans can sample the lesser-known games. Start sending preview builds out to enthusiast media sites like IGN so that we can do Let’s Plays on the best ones prior to release. And ditch the Parity Clause, if that’s what it takes. It’s just not worth it."
I agree with alot of your points.
