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Publishers Embrace Xbox Live Arcade
With many of the high profile 'launch window' titles still coming, the Xbox Live Arcade is one of the most entertaining elements to the Xbox 360. Joystiq posts about a recent Major Nelson podcast in which he interviews the general manager of the Xbox Live Arcade. Big-name publishers are jumping on board, and they plan numerous additions to the service in the coming months. From the post: "Just one important caveat: the Xbox Live Arcade party lasts only so long as Microsoft plays the gatekeeper role well. If the company softens its standards and starts to include mediocre titles for download, gamer trust and interest in the service will decline rapidly. So far, they're on the right path. Geometry Wars--that little $5.00 Xbox Live Arcade title that has surprised and delighted the majority of those who have given it a shot--still reigns as the top Xbox 360 title in our book."
So what you guys are saying is that I don't have an Xbox 360 yet because jerks are out there getting it just to play $5 throwaway titles they can just emulate on their PC?
Hey guys, they're $5 for a reason - because if they were any higher priced they wouldn't be worth it.
There are great titles for the 360 done by real developers (that is, people who actually make games for a living, not hacks in their parents' basement making "independant" titles) yet all I hear about is the crap low-budget titles from developers who suck so bad they can't get publishing contracts to be in real stores so they resort to being on this arcade crap, or they rerelease games that I played in 1982 and have no wish to play again. Why play Gauntlet again for the millionth time when I can play Morrowind? I mean, really.
Xbox Live Arcade will be the 360's downfall, quite possibly one of the worst ideas I've ever seen.