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The Xbox Live Arcade - One Year Later
Via Joystiq, an article at GamePro asking is Live Arcade worth it? One year after its launch, the service has been transformed by lots of retro classics, some brand new games, and the addition of the (now working) movie and television download service. What parts are good, what parts are bad, and ultimately, is it worth it? From the article: "Many of XBLA's original games draw their inspirations from classic video games, and the poster child for XBLA originals is Bizarre Creations' Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. Released with the launch of Xbox 360, Geometry Wars showed a skeptical world just how cool original yet classically styled downloadable games could be. It plays like a crazed combination of all-time classics Asteroids and Robotron: 2084, with your lone, triangular spaceship pitted against literally endless hordes of nasty geometric shapes. The level of onscreen carnage is legendary; never has a game had more spectacular or over-the-top particle effects, showing that even simple games can be flashy."
Yes... and no. They all have free trials. So if you just want a little fix of Froger, Pac Man, Street Fighter, etc without needing to play all the way through (just the first couple levels), then you can play for free. I tend to do that with lots of the games. They are fun and nice to have on hand, but don't really care to buy the whole thing (how long until MS puts a time limit on the demo versions I wonder?).
Anyway, yes you have to pay to download the full games but then the question would be "Is game xxxx worth it?" not "Is Live Arcade worth it?" as Live Arcade (just the distribution system and interface) is free (with a 360 and internet connection). So I'm with the OP. Just not sure what the heck they are asking.
"reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert
I do love the Live Arcade and I love many games on it, but for my taste the release of arcade games is too slow, MS struggle to hit their target of one a week, whilst Nintendo is throwing out 5 - 10 a week. Some may argue that Nintendo has a bigger library but I don't think that's the case - MS has a massive library of PC games as has been demonstrated by the release of Doom and the upcoming release of Worms and such, there's plenty more PC classics they could throw out there, I can't beleive getting the IP holders to allow and follow through with this is the bottleneck here.
The other issue regarding content is the fact they've tried to shove a patch for Texas hold 'em and a set of Kameo Uno card decks on us as the supposed weekly game, that really does sound like they're clutching at straws some weeks to get any content at all out (some weeks have missed any kind of release entirely). From what I've read and what I've gathered the bottleneck seems to be MS' certification process if anything, god only knows what it involves but the speed it takes almost makes me wonder if they do a full source code audit of every submission couple with rigorous beta testing - that's no bad thing if you have the resources on the task to get it done rapidly.
I'm hoping with XNA people will start churning out stuff that MS will see and say "Hey, we need to get this onto the arcade ASAP", but even XNA is bottlenecked right now in that the only distribution method is to zip up your XNA project source and assets and e-mail them or whatever to whoever you're distributing to so that they can compile them using their copy of VC# and deploy it to their 360 themselves but if I've got a game I want to sell on the arcade, I don't want to be handing out source so I'm not entirely sure how MS expects anyone to get a game to be popular enough whilst at the same time not handing out your source when that's the only distribution method. You could use XNA and deploy a commercial version of your project for Windows but that's hardly an option if you're designing around the 360 controller, the 360 controller does work on Windows but I doubt many people would buy one to play games on their Windows machine.
MS is getting there and they're well ahead of Sony, but only just up with Nintendo on the whole downloadable games thing - XNA has potential though so let's hope they can convince the MS execs that XNA is good so that the XNA team is given permission to make a proper process for game distribution as well as permission to add networking support to XNA - something that it sorely needs!
You talking about Grid Wars 2?
They sort of have that with XNA Creators Club, but the barrier to entry is high ($49 for 4 months, $99 for a year) and there's no easy download solution just yet (you have to download from a 3rd party and run it yourself). Still, it gives you native access to develop on the console and use the full power of the hardware. Not the top priority for casual games, but the option is still there.
Yeah, though the problem is that you have to learn yet another technology/software package to participate, and most likely anything you produce can't be distributed to other users outside of the club.
With Flash or Java, you'd simply have to code once and export straight onto the web for any user that wishes to play the game within a browser that's formatted specifically for their TV. Niintendo hopefuls would only have to export to NTSC, while 360 or PS3 hopefuls could support a wide range of displays as needed.
Also, Microsoft/Nintendo/Sony could add a meta tag code parser to assign certain characteristics/buttons on their controller to computer keys/mouse movements as properties the flash/java player understands, so the developers can focus on design and testing on their computer using the keyboard and mouse that would carry over accurately to their console playable versions.
8==8 Bones 8==8
First off, no. Microsoft offers three price plans for games developers they are 400, 800, 1200, no game will go out of that range with out permission from Microsoft. Add ons are a different story. This is the only prices full games will cost currently. Microsoft and developers both confirmed this.
Now re-read the opening paragraph , Microsoft has full control of the market, if they think a price is unfair they don't allow that seller. This is an extreme move but if Microsoft feels strongly they can do it. Nintendo has very strict policies on this as well, I'm sure Sony does too.
And finally no, the size limitation is in place again it's a known quantity. Again no game is above the size of a standard memory card, it's a rule because Microsoft makes developers support people with out Hard drives (a mistake). So there's a limit, it's around 50 megs, but some games are slightly bigger as memory cards are 52 megs. However remember save data and a gamertag probably needs to be saved on a single memory card as well as the game.