makingmusic476 on 22 May 2008
| thekitchensink said: ^A safe assumption, given that the article is focussed on XBL, but all they say is that it's focussed on 'digital content creation', which to me just sounds like 'games'. |
From the article:
Could you describe the changes we can expect to see in the Marketplace in the near future?
Well probably the biggest change I can share with you today is a series of new policies along with a new internal approach and investment in the Xbox LIVE Arcade business going forward. While the service has had a lot of success and now boasts over 130 titles, we think it is time to continue our focus on quality over quantity. This means that we need to allow developers more time and more space to make even bigger and better games. So we are officially increasing our XBLA game size limits dramatically from 150mb to 350mb. We are also giving publishers more flexibility in how they price their games and opening up a new 1600 Microsoft Points price point for some of these now bigger and better games. This week we already have seen a title that is taking advantage of this and getting great response, Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One. In addition to allowing these bigger and better games we will be delisting older underperforming titles in order to keep the service focused on a section of high quality games. Finally, we are also going to be putting our money where our mouth is here and are launching a new fully funded 1st party studio which will be focused on high quality digital content creation.
Well probably the biggest change I can share with you today is a series of new policies along with a new internal approach and investment in the Xbox LIVE Arcade business going forward. While the service has had a lot of success and now boasts over 130 titles, we think it is time to continue our focus on quality over quantity. This means that we need to allow developers more time and more space to make even bigger and better games. So we are officially increasing our XBLA game size limits dramatically from 150mb to 350mb. We are also giving publishers more flexibility in how they price their games and opening up a new 1600 Microsoft Points price point for some of these now bigger and better games. This week we already have seen a title that is taking advantage of this and getting great response, Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One. In addition to allowing these bigger and better games we will be delisting older underperforming titles in order to keep the service focused on a section of high quality games. Finally, we are also going to be putting our money where our mouth is here and are launching a new fully funded 1st party studio which will be focused on high quality digital content creation.
[...]
Can you explain a little bit more the background on the new 1st party studio?
Well the main idea behind the concept is to invest deeply in developing original content that will be compelling and exclusive to Xbox LIVE. This is a place where we’ve redoubled our commitment and I’m putting both dollars and people behind new games that push the quality and the bounds of the system. Wish I could share more today, but definitely stay tuned on this, as we have some very exciting things in the works including some big original XBLA games we will be announcing soon.
It's definitely for XBLA. :P
