Xbox Indie Games get new pricing structure, improved update system

by Ben Gilbert on Jul 24th 2009 10:30AM

Microsoft announced plans yesterday to change a variety of XNA Creators Club features in the coming weeks. First and foremost, the recently renamed Xbox Live Indie Games will get a new pricing structure: games will start at 80

($1) and cap off at 400

($5). Second, the renaming of the service will take affect on Xbox Live and at the XNA Creators Club website.

Additionally, games on the Indie Games Channel can now receive automatic updates (a la Xbox Live Arcade and Xbox 360 games). Perhaps the most interesting piece of this update is the inclusion of 50 "tokens" for each creator per game; meaning that developers can now send out review codes of games to press (wink, wink), as well as giveaway copies of the game to fans. Interestingly, this is the same number of free codes that Apple grants its App Store developers. Well played, Microsoft.

[Via Xbox Indies]

Source

Tags: community-games, indie-games, indie-games-channel, microsoft, xbla, Xbox-360, xbox-live, xna, xna-creators-club

Reader Comments (34)

I only own a handful of "Indie" games but I'm really glad to see the auto-update feature finally enabled. Having to browse the New Releases hoping to see an updated version of your game is ridiculous.

[I'm a troll! I've been banned!]

Elaborate!

What exactly are you talking about? The indie service is something we really don't have anywhere else, and while it hasn't been particularly succesful so far, that's mainly been due to the bad system, coupled with developers over charging for their games.

This new system should clean things up a lot, offer us cheaper games AND a rating system, so we know which ones are actually worth looking in to.

be more constructive with your feedback!

No, MS didn't innovate, they evolved their business model.

I for one like having the Indie games channel. I've bought a handful of games and haven't been disappointed with them.

Ain't no party like my Nana's tea party.

Heey!
Hooo!

As an indie game developer, its about time.

I've searched through this section a few times since it's been public, and I couldn't fathom spending any money for these games at all. They're pretty terrible, and I'm not surprised to see this service struggling.

yea i feel the same way. most don't look interesting at all but that's going to happen anytime you open up a system like that and let people put what they want up there. hopefully this rating system will help with that alot. the main turn off for me was having to sift through all the crap to find the few good games on there. hopefully i can sort by rating now though and it won't be a problem. i wouldn't mind paying a couple bucks for a fun little game i play a couple times.

especially considering i always have couple extra points lying around anyway from various other purchases. i've had 300 points sitting on my account for months now and nothing worthwhile to spend it on. i guess i could buy some Zune tracks but i'd rather buy a couple OK games at 80 points a pop.

Great, now give me achievements and we will be all square.

I think thats the only reason why these titles aint selling.

that's the single reason why i stay away. sure a fun cheapy feeling game is a good time killer every once in a while, but i can play games like that FOR FREE on my laptop. why spend money and get nothing in return?

They would sell thousands and thousands of games if they inclue at least 100 Achievement Points.

I'm not a Gamerscore whore, but tons of people likes those litte points. A lot of gamers would buy small $1 games just to get extra achievements.

The answer is that simple.

Yeah, I'm not sure why they haven't done this.. Other than the fact games would begin to sell by having descriptions like "Buy this game for an easy 100 points!"

It would definitely work though.

One hundred would be too many points, especially with prices starting at $1. You would have some indie devs try to create a series of $1 games with easily obtained 100 GS points. If you're a gamer score whore why buy a $60 retail game worth 1000 GS points when the same $60 could get you 60 $1 indie games worth a total of 6000 GS points? The difference is too much. Something like 20 or 25 points may work though. Just having a few points available I think would help greatly with garnering attention and sales for indie games.

or have the games with achievements cost the 400points, but still limit the amount of gs they can award. maybe 50 or something, ten five point achievements doesnt sound bad.

@Rhamsey

Good idea. That would work too.

Between these changes and the user review system being put into place I think the Indie Games section has a much better chance of being successful now.

Right now there are a lot of terrible games on the channel, but there are also a lot of really fun ones. The problem is that it's hard to tell the difference. I think by lowering the price point and providing a rating system Microsoft has really done good work here.

Yep the user ratings coming next patch are going to address one of those problems. Now all we need is the price drop. Maybe achievements if they are feeling generous.

Cheaper "Indie" games now? at least that's what it kind of implies with the new pricing structure - especially the addition of the $1 pricepoint. This is great news.

It's ashame developers weren't allowed to add Achievements - maybe not a full 200 points like XBLA games, but maybe 100 points. Just an added incentive for gamers to play these games on the service. Plus, it might serve as added "advertising"; when you look through your friends gamerscore you would then see gamer points for an Indie game which could spark interest and a sale...

Anyways, props to Microsoft for looking at ways to make Indie Games work, instead of just dumping it or keeping it the way it was.

How about 20 achievements points but at very small increments. like 20 points with 20 achievements. 1 point each.

I agree, 20 gamerscore spread over maybe 4 achievements would mean it shows up on your gamercard, gives it a little more visibility and friends can see what you're playing. Would help sales a lot I think.

so.... are the yellow squid-creature-things from their pictures and ads supposed to represent us customers? should i be insulted?

$1 games is a good idea, while there are some real gems on there (Miner Dig Deep is an awesome game, everyone should play it) some games leave something to be desired.

I'm cool with cheap games. I usually pick up about 1 indie game a month when I have a few points left over, never spent over 200 points on one.

I imagine that these 50 tokens the developers give away to awesome sites like joystiq and ign will cut into some of these games' profit margins. How could some of these community games possibly sell more than 50.

Many, or likely most, of these review sites were unwilling to buy the games to review them, so giving a token to them doesn't really represent a lost sale in most cases. Plus the potential upside is that if your game gets a decent review you'll generate more sales than without the review. Also, who says they have to give out all 50? They could just give out a few of them to a handful of sites willing to write a review and sit on the rest.

I don't really like the pricing change myself, more particularly the elimination of the 800 point pricepoint, which is what I was going to be using. then again the game I'm developing (an RPG) is probably overkill for the purpose of the service in the first place.

Know what else could help sales?
Letting Australia and New Zealand buy them!

I've downloaded a few demos via a US account (a plane one, an adventure or two, a tower defence game and an action rpg), I'd love to buy the full versions, but they aren't in the Kiwi store.

Come on Microsoft. It's silly that we can create and upload games, but not buy them!

that ideas are nice!
href="http://www.tocgames.com/">Jenny@FreeGames

This is cool...
Jenny@FreeGames

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Xbox Indie Games get new pricing structure, improved update system

Reader Comments (34)

Posted: Jul 24th 2009 10:35AM HazyCloud said

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