Mike, that's the issue. We don't know who made these quotes? Developers that made crap games that got killed on XBLA by better games? Devs that had rejected ideas because there were other comparibles on the network? Devs that had good games with strong sales?
Since they're anonymous, chances are:
1) They did not work on an XBLA title, and don't want called out on it
2) They are currently working on an XBLA title (which makes me think there must be enough reason to continue)
3) They aren't a project manager, or someone higher up, and only sees the negative on a given service, and don't understand the complexities.
1. As we know, some of the XBLA projects haven't stayed in the budget, meaning that the developement is more expensive than what M$ had estimated.
2. The dev also mentiones that M$ is inflexible with XBLA, whatever that means.
3. M$ cut the devs royalties in half what they used to be (unless the sales are good enough).
4. Devs apparently can't price their games as they want.
1. Do we know how they didn't stay in-budget? Last I checked, MS didn't estimate budgets, the developers making the games did. If a game fails certification (as they should), there's usually a reason titles cost more money.
Furthermore, chances are, most of the XBLA developers have never shipped a major title, and don't understand passing certifications and ratings boards, costing more time because they don't......Get it. No title has released on WiiWare, so there's no way to say if development budgets are indeed going to be as-stated. It's all speculative with no actual analysis involved, since again, there are no WiiWare games out, nor post-mortems, nor sales-charts for validity.
2. How is MS inflexible? It could just be that Microsoft doesn't want to certify for production, 5 Tower Defense games like WiiWare/Nintendo would....Most XBLA games have a strong bit of variety - for our benefit.
3. Microsoft DID
NOT cut the royalties in half. I can absolutely confirm this via the companies I've worked with due to my XBLA Charts productions - Microsoft reduced the rates for companies that require Microsoft to finish their game - and even then, they reduced the royalty rates from 50% to 35%, not 70% to 35% as you, and others assume....And again, MS now does the work for ratings boards (which equal more sales, as your game comes out in all regions, rather than excluding some), and certification (which as stated, can possibly cause some projects to go overbudget).
4. I'd like to see someone confirm this. Although we can see thar remakes are typically $5, that didn't cause Bliss Island to be priced at $10, or prevent Puzzle Quest to be $15, and Brain Challenge (another DS title) to be $10.
