Xbox Live Community Games Not Financially Viable, Says Clover Dev
Posted by x3sphere at June 24, 2009, 1:51 pm
Daniel Jones, managing director of Clover developer Binary Tweed, has went on record to say that Microsoft’s Xbox Live Community Games platform is not financially viable due to its small size and will only be used in the future by the studio – if at all – as “an arena for proving concepts.”
Despite receiving critical acclaim from outlets around the world, Clover sales fell short of expectations. In a bluntly honest statement, Jones noted that the studio “definitely won’t recoup costs” through Community Games alone. Shame.
Jones also blamed a general lack of interest in games on the platform as being a barrier to increased sales, recalling that out of ten, only two games made the top selling CG titles chart during the first week of Clover’s release. The rest were applications.
Just a couple months ago, Mommy’s Best Games president Nathan Fouts lamented over costs and revenue cuts associated with releasing titles on the platform, placing monthly sales data of award-winning XNA effort Weapon of Choice in the category of “that hurts.”
Clover dev ‘disappointed’ with sales [Digital Spy]
Read more: Microsoft Can Pocket Up To 60 Percent Of Revenue From XNA Titles, GTA IV Shatters Weekly UK Sales Records, Outsells WiiFit 9:1, Japanese Hardware Sales – 10/22 – 10/28, Japanese Hardware Sales 10/29 – 11/4, Xbox 360 UK Weekly Sales Double, Surpass Wii
Isn't that the actual point of community games though, to take the place of homebrew and NOT to take the place of real (paid for) retail distribution channels suck as XBLA and physical media?
I for one have yet to "recoup costs" on any _community_ work I have done (community work generally denotes volunteer work) - but isn't that the point - contributing to a community you want to be a part of for the sake of making it a better community to be a part of rather than because there might be something there you'd rather walk away with?
Honestly it seems like Braid's success went to their heads and now they are crying because they didn't "hit the fad on the head"; braid was very well hyped and publicized before it got the sales it did from XBLA and this is the first I've even heard of (checks name) "Clover".