Because I follow Indie stuff, I thought I'd bring some news here.

Here is an excerpt from the article by Raigan Burns, co-creator of N+:

"I think the thing with Live Arcade, though, is that I remember the last year and the year before. Two years ago was when we were first talking with Microsoft about doing it, it was really exciting, because Live Arcade had just came out, and they were like, "Oh, it's new. It's not going to be like retail. There's not going to be all this crap. There's going to be all these small, great, fun things."

But now it's exactly the same. There's all these big-budget ones with big publishers making them, and the real problem, I think, is that the same people who are deciding what retail games get greenlit are deciding what Live Arcade games get greenlit.

I guess it's because they have a lot of power that no one has pointed out that that's the primary reason. Those decisions that are ruining Live Arcade... it's like, who greenlit Word Puzzle? Who green-lit that hoverboard game that's just shit?

Nick [Waanders] has this racing... do you know Iron Man Off-Road Racing, like the old arcade game? It's four-player, and a little isometric. Nick made a racing game like that, and Microsoft was like, "Well, racing is too saturated on Live Arcade." But that's because they've greenlit like ten really shitty racing games. There's no good racing games."

And you can read the full interview here, http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17960 .

This stuff interests me because I believe in the future of Independent game developers. I believe that digial delivery systems are the future for them (and the industry). The failures of digital delivery systems are important so that we know what works and what not to do (alienate good independent developers).

i dont think the problem is as bad as this guy is making out. Maybe he is afraid of digital shovelware. I am.

I think he's right on. There's a ton of shovelware on XBLA that's drowning out some of the better games.

I think the PSN has a little bit better quality control on titles that it releases. I haven't been disappointed by any of the titles I bought, except Super Stardust HD, which everyone else liked.

Wow, hopefully M$ takes the hint or else more devs go to the PSN

whatever that guy is full of shit. Also Live has user made stuff coming out.

 you know danail is in eygpt.  

I honestly forsaw this one.  I figured as long as M$ doesn't protect developers and help devs publish their games it would fall to publishers to help making it no better then retail.  This is why Steam will forever be the best online service made.

Hm, bring on WiiWare.

Thankfully, despite the loads of crap on XBLA, the minority of good games seem to be doing really well - even if they don't have the sort of branding that bigger-name titles do. Recently, Rez HD, N+, and Assault Heroes have all done deservedly well, while even sleeper hits like Cloning Clyde, Wik: Fable of Souls, Catan, and Alien Hominid HD have all passed the 150k mark.

Meanwhile, most of the stinkers languish at the bottom of the sales charts, while the awful Bliss Island, Rocketmen, and Discs of Tron, all released in the past month, have bombed.

So, while there may be a quality control program on XBLA, I'd say that the console's fanbase - made up mostly of seasoned gamers - has done a pretty good job of sifting the wheat from the chaff themselves.

I FYP, no need to thank me. 

@OT,

When I was looking into XNA for the thread I started recently about Nintendo trying to lure PSN and XBLA devs I heard a lot of stuff like this.  I'm not sure if it is a couple of devs making a lot of noise or if it really is a big deal but regardless of where its coming from MS should probably address the issue before it can become something more problematic.  Even if addressing it is just a PR responce it would help for them to at least have their viewpoint heard.