Xbox Live Arcade was once thought to be a bastion of independent game development, destined to help independent studios get their projects to the game-playing masses. While that's still true to a certain extent -- Ska Studios and Polytron say hi -- there's no denying that an increasingly large number of XBLA games are being created by major publishers and development houses. And now it seems as if Xbox Live Indie Games -- quite literally a bastion of independent game development -- might suffer the same fate.
Unstoppable mobile game publisher Gameloft (a subsidiary of Ubisoft) is officially entering the Indie Games space with Tank Battles. As the title implies, the game features tanks doing battle from a third-person perspective. If the title sounds familiar, it's because the game was already released on PSN last year as Battle Tanks. The game offers up to 4-players (locally or online) to duke it out and, truth be told, it looks pretty fun. Check out a trailer after the break.
I have it on PSN...it's a pretty fun game, with single player and online multiplayer modes. Definitely reminds me of the Tank minigame on the Wii Play disc.
The reason why Wii Play got continual play for quite a while. Nintendo should release a sequel for WiiWare. It'd be the perfect size game and game style.
The best part of the Indie games are the prices. A buck or two on average, although most are garbage. I MADE A GAME WITH ZOMBIES IN IT!!!! is great, though, and it's only a buck.
So the term "Independent Game Developer" now goes up to and includes $100 million subsidiaries of major publishers? For god's sake don't tell Activision; nobody wants weekly installments of Guitar Hero.
they probably did this so they wouldn't have to pay licensing fees to the esrb (if they went the XBLA game they would have to pay the esrb to rate the game).
I like cheap good games, if gameloft's going XBLA we have a win-win situation.
I see nothing confirming any other pricing system. I'm perfectly willing to admit I'm wrong, assuming you can provide some manner of evidence to that effect.
Actually Dafrety, the $10 price point isn't an option any more. The price options were originally $2.50, $5, and $10, but were changed to $1, $3, and $5 when the service changed from "Community Games" to "indie games". Some games are still $10 because they were that price before the shift, but no new games can be made at $10.
Is it cheaper for them to publish it as an Indie game instead of an Arcade game? I would honestly prefer that they just made it an Arcade game instead. That way there would be achievements, proper patching and online, plus you wouldn't need to be connected to the internet to play it. That has to be one of the stupidest things about Indie games.
Well which is cheaper: a $100 Creator's Club membership that lets you publish games through XBLIG, or going through the several thousand dollar publishing process of XBLA?
Four player Tank mode in Conker's Bad Fur Day is bitchin'
One player controls the movement/body of the tank, the other player controls the turret/weapons . . . Just one of many reasons Bad Fur Day is one of the greatest local multiplayer games ever (Certainly, my favourite ever - Beach ftw).
The Wii Play one was very good - but it was ridiculous that it didn't have a real 2-player competitive mode. You can shoot each other, but then the game ends. Dumb.
The N64 game was BattleTanx (note the alternate spelling and no spaces). Battle Tanks is a PSN game by Gameloft. Since this is the same game, the name change seems pointless...
It *might* get more people interested in the XBox Live Indie Games channel, but I have a feeling in doing so it's going to force actual indie devs and individuals to compete head-on with the big devs. :/
For those of you who are on the fence about purchasing it, it's definitely a fun MP game. If you were/are a fan of the old Tank Wars and Combat games on the Atari 2600, this game is very similar to those.
If the Indie channel ever allowed Achievements I am sure a lot more of the bigger companies would go through that channel instead of going through the Arcade route. It is a lot cheaper to make an Indie game, and a lot quicker.
