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Forums - Gaming Discussion - "Are [indie] Developers Leaving XBLA?" - An Article Analyzing Current XBLA Development Trends

Seece said:
Yet it still seems XBLA seems to be getting the most quality games.

Quality > Quantity.

No offence but I laughed out loud at this comment because it reminds me so much of PS Fans' rhetoric in the bad bad days of 2007-8.

Then again, quality and quantity were BOTH lacking back then.

Good times, good times :D




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I'm a little confused. I check the PSN and XBLA (and indie games) every week. XBLA always has more games or the same games as the PSN. Also, there's always somewhere in the neighborhood of five ultra cheap games released in the Indie Games section of the Marketplace.

I can see that the competition is cut throat on XBLA and it's probably better to go to the PSN and release a title there but I just don't see reality supporting this.



Excellent read, thanks for that.



d21lewis said:
I'm a little confused. I check the PSN and XBLA (and indie games) every week. XBLA always has more games or the same games as the PSN. Also, there's always somewhere in the neighborhood of five ultra cheap games released in the Indie Games section of the Marketplace.

I can see that the competition is cut throat on XBLA and it's probably better to go to the PSN and release a title there but I just don't see reality supporting this.

Remember his numbers are based on his sub-set, so while they may be correct for the sub-set they may not reflect a larger trend - i.e. he may just, by coincidence, got replies for 200 developers who were slowly moving more towards PSN vs XBLA while missing 400 developers going the other way.

All survey's are a sub-set and you need to be careful how you apply them to the ful set.

But, at least for the 200 interviewed, there clearly was a skew taking place from PSN to XBLA although I'd note it wasn't wholesale.

Indie developers always move around a bit depending on platform, and TBH my reading was their main focus actually remains outside consoles and with mobile/tablets, etc. and that probably due to competition a number are focusing a bit more on PSN where there is less competition vs XBLA.

And if PSN get's too competitive and XBLA less they'll swing back.  Pretty normal back and forth sea-swell you expect from small organizations in most any industry not just indie developers for games.



Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...

Reasonable said:
d21lewis said:
I'm a little confused. I check the PSN and XBLA (and indie games) every week. XBLA always has more games or the same games as the PSN. Also, there's always somewhere in the neighborhood of five ultra cheap games released in the Indie Games section of the Marketplace.

I can see that the competition is cut throat on XBLA and it's probably better to go to the PSN and release a title there but I just don't see reality supporting this.

Remember his numbers are based on his sub-set, so while they may be correct for the sub-set they may not reflect a larger trend - i.e. he may just, by coincidence, got replies for 200 developers who were slowly moving more towards PSN vs XBLA while missing 400 developers going the other way.

All survey's are a sub-set and you need to be careful how you apply them to the ful set.

But, at least for the 200 interviewed, there clearly was a skew taking place from PSN to XBLA although I'd note it wasn't wholesale.

Indie developers always move around a bit depending on platform, and TBH my reading was their main focus actually remains outside consoles and with mobile/tablets, etc. and that probably due to competition a number are focusing a bit more on PSN where there is less competition vs XBLA.

And if PSN get's too competitive and XBLA less they'll swing back.  Pretty normal back and forth sea-swell you expect from small organizations in most any industry not just indie developers for games.


It is also possible that, while there are still more games released on XBLA on a weekly basis, it's still a relatively lower amount compared to PSN than it was before.  The trend may be roughly accurate, while the totals (ie, PSN being more supported than XBLA) are not.



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makingmusic476 said:
Reasonable said:
d21lewis said:
I'm a little confused. I check the PSN and XBLA (and indie games) every week. XBLA always has more games or the same games as the PSN. Also, there's always somewhere in the neighborhood of five ultra cheap games released in the Indie Games section of the Marketplace.

I can see that the competition is cut throat on XBLA and it's probably better to go to the PSN and release a title there but I just don't see reality supporting this.

Remember his numbers are based on his sub-set, so while they may be correct for the sub-set they may not reflect a larger trend - i.e. he may just, by coincidence, got replies for 200 developers who were slowly moving more towards PSN vs XBLA while missing 400 developers going the other way.

All survey's are a sub-set and you need to be careful how you apply them to the ful set.

But, at least for the 200 interviewed, there clearly was a skew taking place from PSN to XBLA although I'd note it wasn't wholesale.

Indie developers always move around a bit depending on platform, and TBH my reading was their main focus actually remains outside consoles and with mobile/tablets, etc. and that probably due to competition a number are focusing a bit more on PSN where there is less competition vs XBLA.

And if PSN get's too competitive and XBLA less they'll swing back.  Pretty normal back and forth sea-swell you expect from small organizations in most any industry not just indie developers for games.


It is also possible that, while there are still more games released on XBLA on a weekly basis, it's still a relatively lower amount compared to PSN than it was before.  The trend may be roughly accurate, while the totals (ie, PSN being more supported than XBLA) are not.

Yup, also good point.  Looking at it again what I see is that really, as I noted, PSN and XBLA are not the priority for indie developers right now.  I wonder whether the short term switch of some to PSN is simply an easy option vs highly competitive in terms of absolute numbers XBLA on their way to somewhere else completely - mobile and other devices.



Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...

Runa216 said:
something seems fishy about this...I dunno, but I get the distinct impression that a lot of this data was fabricated.


Just out of curiousity, what makes you think this?  



cAPSLOCK said:
Runa216 said:
something seems fishy about this...I dunno, but I get the distinct impression that a lot of this data was fabricated.


Just out of curiousity, what makes you think this?  


I dunno, it's just that my bullshit sense is tingling...I've taken enough data management class to have a hard time believing some relative nobody had the proper test group size.  I dunno, it just seems like there's a lot of extrapolation or data hiding to accentuate the desired points. 



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Runa216 said:
cAPSLOCK said:
Runa216 said:
something seems fishy about this...I dunno, but I get the distinct impression that a lot of this data was fabricated.


Just out of curiousity, what makes you think this?  


I dunno, it's just that my bullshit sense is tingling...I've taken enough data management class to have a hard time believing some relative nobody had the proper test group size.  I dunno, it just seems like there's a lot of extrapolation or data hiding to accentuate the desired points. 

Write 2dboy an email, ask em about their methodology.  If their methods seem unsound you have a good article, if their methods seem good you have an extention piece worth writing. It's a win-win.