GamerBytes study shows disappointing sales for XNA Community Games

I think adding achievement points would throw a bunch of junk in there. "watch fireplace for 5 hours straight" and junk like that. Need to make them 0 points so they are viewable but do nothing to the actual point value.

All XNA releases should be free in my opinion. If the game itself is good enough, then additional levels or content for that release should be available then for purchase.

For example, I remember seeing the fireplace around Christmas and thinking to myself, that might be fun, however, I'm not going to pay for such an item, when I can find a similiar option on my computer for free or even on TV during the holiday, also for free.

I think the problem is in the games themselves. The are for the most part extremely basic games that you would find in chapters 3 & 4 of XNA for Newbies. No disrespect to the creators, but I am just saying that in comparison to other games available on XBLM they just can't compare. I'd rather spend 800 points on a game that I can enjoy for 3-4 hours than 200 points on a game that looks like a shoddy Atari remake.
I know part of it is the limitations and platform, but this is a blade on my Xbox I almost completely ignore these days.

I have a few suggestions, and as I've seen in the comments, some share the same sentiments.

1) add achievements for those of us (like me) who are achievement whores :)

2) make sure the games work! - I've had more then a few trials crap out on me with bizarre error messages. There's no way to report the errors from the 360. So, why would I risk purchasing a game that might crap out on me? Especially

3) With so many community games, how do I know what's even worth playing? They should offer a rating system that allows gamers to rate the games. Of course, only people with purchased titles could rate. Then the gamers who take the risk with the games can let the rest of us who are a little more "frugal" with our money know what's worth paying for.

4) Lower the prices - while they are generally cheap, they should be set a price that people would have no second thoughts about. 200 - 300 points max.

I hope Microsoft makes some changes/improvements to the Community Games program, i'd like to support more up and coming game developers, but it's just not gonna happen at this point with the way things are.

Looking for a good community game?

try Bricks4Ever, it costs only 200mp and worths every point.

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550195/

I totally bought Remote Masseuse

I developed XNA games for a little while. What really kills them, lack of achievements aside, is the dependencies. You need to install three packages, in a specific order, or the game will crash on startup with no helpful information as to why. It bloats the installer for the game hugely, and is just a pain in the ass for developers and potential buyers alike.

The fact that MS charges $99 (on top of a valid Xbox Live Gold account) to develop yearly for the Xbox puts the last nail in the coffin. I'm in college and going to be working an unpaid internship soon; I can't afford that.

This is really sad situation. Some of the XNA games are really amazing, but only few people will know that without MS's help.

Personally, i really enjoyed:
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802585501d0/

and

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025855014d/

These two could be a solid XBLA titles. Something like rating system would really help to find good games in the trash.

Most of them are utter garbarge. Others are valiant efforts, but still garbage. Very very few are worth demoing let alone purchasing.

The only game I have purcashed are:

Word Soup
Buscuit Romp
Carinvale
Lines

Doesn't surprise me, people are incredibly cheap. A development house can provide a pretty good product, for a cheap price and still they wont spring the money for the game. Its actually mind boggling how cheap people are.

I think developers can't just count on Microsoft to put the word out on their games; they should do the marketing work, too. I don't just mean sending it to a few people and writing a blog, but I REALLY mean advertise it. Even if it means buying some banner space or flyering parking lots. They gave you a platform to make a game, it should be up to you to sell it.

But I do think they should implement Achievements.

And the price for selling your game is decent compared to the royalty price you'd have to pay to sell a game on CD at EB-Games for any of the consoles.

Plus, now an XNA game can be played on a PC, so there's more ways you can market it.