4 ms·

> How many times last year did we see the article, "Another 100 Greenlight games OK'ed for publishing!"? Why are console games still being "OK'ed for publishin

by pkamb 12y ago

> How many times last year did we see the article, "Another 100 Greenlight games OK'ed for publishing!"? Why are console games still being "OK'ed for publishing"? Why haven't any of the big names (Steam/Xbox/PlayStation/Nintendo/Apple) released a true "app store" where anyone can get a game into the store for maybe $100 and after going through a light content review process?

smacktoward 12y ago
Microsoft did: the XBox Live Indie marketplace. A quick browse through its catalog (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Games/XboxIndieGames http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Games/XboxIndieGames) will reveal the problem with this approach, namely that it quickly turns into a giant swamp of Minecraft ripoffs and other such disposable crap.
- pkamb 12y ago
  Disposable crap is fine, so long as it's hidden by the good games that rise to the top. See: the iOS App Store. This XBLIG thing seems like a real second-class citizen on the Xbox. I've never even heard of it, after years of owning the system and Xbox Live. If all "good" indie games are released through a completely different platform/marketplace it's no surprise that Microsoft ignored XBLIG.
  - kevingadd 12y ago
    If you think that's how the iOS app store works you don't seem to know much about the iOS app store. For reference, XBLIG did work that way, and just like iOS, the top sellers were the ones that rose to the top and remained top sellers. IIRC, the #1 all time selling XBLIG game is some sort of 'minecraft with zombies' deal that hit the top of the chart by being a) cheap and b) checking the boxes. Some of the most successful XBLIG devs literally churn out a game every week or two, all with low production values, and make their money off the $1 impulse buys from people who are browsing the lists. 'Good stuff will rise to the top' is broken reasoning for storefronts like this. Purchasers have terribly flawed information and don't have the ability to actually evaluate quality; the only things that 'rise to the top' are things that have an upward force applied to them, like marketing, word-of-mouth, or pure luck (for the last one, see Flappy Bird, that ended up catching all its traction as a fluke when it rose enough on the charts to get noticed.)
    - pkamb 12y ago
      XBLIG seems to be filled mostly with low budget games, student projects, and abandonware. That's very different than the high-quality, supported, money-making games that top the iOS charts; Candy Crush and the like. You may not consider those games to be "good", but they are completely missing from XBLIG.
BrandonM 12y ago
> Why haven't any of the big names released a true "app store" where anyone can get a game into the store for maybe $100...? This seems like an interesting model. Charge developers a flat fee (FEE) up front. Take a cut of each sale (PER) as well, but only after (FEE/(COST*PER)) sales have been made. For example, using a fee of $100 and a percentage of 20%, the first 500 sales of a $1 game would see all of the money going to the developer. Thereafter, the store would take 20 cents for each sale. This model seems like it would encourage developers to only submit games that they deem to be high quality. Players would have less shit to wade through, giving them more incentive to try out new games. Perhaps $100 is not high enough to achieve this goal, but I bet there's an ideal number that discourages low quality submissions while leaving the door open for small-time developers.
- rossjudson 12y ago
  I'll go with $1000. If you want to waste the time of millions of steam users, putting something in front of them and taking up precious space in the "new" queue, then you should have some minimal level of confidence in what you've built. Same thing goes for the App Store. I don't bother browsing Steam or the App Store any more. It's all just crap. The first ten, the first hundred, the first thousand retro games might have been interesting, but no longer. If Valve wants to turn Steam into the Dollar Store, I guess that's their business. Apple's App Store is already there.

by pkamb 12y ago

smacktoward 12y ago

Microsoft did: the XBox Live Indie marketplace. A quick browse through its catalog (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Games/XboxIndieGames http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Games/XboxIndieGames) will reveal the problem with this approach, namely that it quickly turns into a giant swamp of Minecraft ripoffs and other such disposable crap.

pkamb 12y ago
Disposable crap is fine, so long as it's hidden by the good games that rise to the top. See: the iOS App Store. This XBLIG thing seems like a real second-class citizen on the Xbox. I've never even heard of it, after years of owning the system and Xbox Live. If all "good" indie games are released through a completely different platform/marketplace it's no surprise that Microsoft ignored XBLIG.
- kevingadd 12y ago
  If you think that's how the iOS app store works you don't seem to know much about the iOS app store. For reference, XBLIG did work that way, and just like iOS, the top sellers were the ones that rose to the top and remained top sellers. IIRC, the #1 all time selling XBLIG game is some sort of 'minecraft with zombies' deal that hit the top of the chart by being a) cheap and b) checking the boxes. Some of the most successful XBLIG devs literally churn out a game every week or two, all with low production values, and make their money off the $1 impulse buys from people who are browsing the lists. 'Good stuff will rise to the top' is broken reasoning for storefronts like this. Purchasers have terribly flawed information and don't have the ability to actually evaluate quality; the only things that 'rise to the top' are things that have an upward force applied to them, like marketing, word-of-mouth, or pure luck (for the last one, see Flappy Bird, that ended up catching all its traction as a fluke when it rose enough on the charts to get noticed.)
  - pkamb 12y ago
    XBLIG seems to be filled mostly with low budget games, student projects, and abandonware. That's very different than the high-quality, supported, money-making games that top the iOS charts; Candy Crush and the like. You may not consider those games to be "good", but they are completely missing from XBLIG.

BrandonM 12y ago

> Why haven't any of the big names released a true "app store" where anyone can get a game into the store for maybe $100...? This seems like an interesting model. Charge developers a flat fee (FEE) up front. Take a cut of each sale (PER) as well, but only after (FEE/(COST*PER)) sales have been made. For example, using a fee of $100 and a percentage of 20%, the first 500 sales of a $1 game would see all of the money going to the developer. Thereafter, the store would take 20 cents for each sale. This model seems like it would encourage developers to only submit games that they deem to be high quality. Players would have less shit to wade through, giving them more incentive to try out new games. Perhaps $100 is not high enough to achieve this goal, but I bet there's an ideal number that discourages low quality submissions while leaving the door open for small-time developers.

rossjudson 12y ago
I'll go with $1000. If you want to waste the time of millions of steam users, putting something in front of them and taking up precious space in the "new" queue, then you should have some minimal level of confidence in what you've built. Same thing goes for the App Store. I don't bother browsing Steam or the App Store any more. It's all just crap. The first ten, the first hundred, the first thousand retro games might have been interesting, but no longer. If Valve wants to turn Steam into the Dollar Store, I guess that's their business. Apple's App Store is already there.