Gaming for those who care to think.
Xbox Live Arcade and the incredible shrinking royalties
For up and coming developers, Xbox Live Arcade has become one of the best places to get recognition for their games. However, man cannot survive by internet hype alone. Surely the indie developers are getting some kick back from Microsoft for all those game downloads.
Indie developers in the past have typically received 70 percent of the royalty share and it was rumored recently that Microsoft has cut that in half to 35 percent. The reason for the decrease is believed to be Microsoft’s future reliance on the recently announced XNA initiative. XNA is Microsoft’s new software package designed to make it easier for game developers to design games by freeing them from writing repetitive code.
Microsoft responded to the rumors by stating “Xbox LIVE Arcade has long been known as the premier destination for digitally distributed original and classic games – making it a very appealing platform for game developers. We don’t disclose details on our business contracts, but what we can tell you is that we work closely with all of our partners to provide the Xbox 360 community with the best entertainment possible while making publishing a title on XBLA an attractive prospect.”
Neither Microsoft or the developers have confirmed the cut in royalties, but if it turns out to be true it would be a great opportunity for Sony to coax developers over to their side and tighten their grip on the online marketplace.
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| Print article | This entry was posted by Dennis on February 26, 2008 at 11:12 am, and is filed under News, Xbox 360. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. |
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about 4 months ago
Hello just thought i would tell you something.. This is twice now i’ve landed on your blog in the last 3 weeks looking for completely unrelated things. Spooky or what?