If you want a sense of Xbox Live Arcade's significance, picture copies of Fez, Toy Soldiers: Cold War and LIMBO standing proudly at the head of an aisle in HMV, emblazoned with "must-buy" stickers and full-fat RRPs. Struggling? That's because the idea is improbable to the point of absurdity. As the oldest and most successful downloadable gaming platform on consoles, Arcade is one of the main reasons we're still buying and playing games that aren't glossy, bloated renditions of a handful of racing, shooting and RPG concepts. With no packaging or distribution costs to worry about, and instantaneous access to millions of eyeballs, it's an environment where esoteric, sub-£10 gems can pay themselves off many times over.



Nevertheless, the service is starting to show its age alongside faster-evolving storefronts like the App Store and Steam, recently bolstered by the announcement of community curation project Steam Greenlight. With next gen hardware launches impending, Microsoft has big plans for online in general: the manufacturer aims to reinforce links between Xbox Live, smartphone apps and long-established PC software franchises like Internet Explorer, tying its various digital endeavours together into one, uber-profitable, non-platform-specific whole. But how should the firm expand and improve Xbox Live Arcade amid all this, to avoid losing development talent to competitors on other platforms? We contacted a number of big indie names to find out.

For Size Five Games' Dan Marshall, it's a question of minimising the fuss and expense of actually getting something onto Arcade. The British independent's raunchy edu-tainment title Privates was denied Xbox Live release in August 2010, as it broke Microsoft's guidelines on sexual content in games. Marshall harbours no grudges, thanking the publisher's "really supportive and helpful" staff, but echoes a wider sentiment that Xbox Live's content certification procedures are too much work.
"I'd like to see them introduce a little more wiggle room to help get more great games on the service," he said. "I'm aware there's currently a lot of red tape, a lot of to-and-fro. I've regularly met exhausted-looking indies who upon being asked how things are, they stare bleary-eyed and utter 'we're going through XBLA certification' and there are knowing nods of sympathy from other developers. It's a notorious nightmare in our circles, and that's not a great place for them to be."

According to a survey orchestrated by World of Goo co-creator Ron Carmel, 48 per cent of independent developers describe Xbox Live certification as an "excruciating" experience. In an excellent article over at Arstechnica, Braid designer Jonathan Blow questions the need for any form of certification whatsoever, pointing out that Apple imposes no such entry-point restrictions on App Store developers. Marshall feels some form of quality approval is necessary, however. "Clearly the total free-for-all of Xbox Live Indie Games hasn't worked particularly well, but I'd like to see Microsoft address the fact that times have changed, and see what they can do to make XBLA a more approachable service for everyone."



Introversion's Mark Morris takes a harder tack - according to him, Xbox Live is now well behind the PC's finest when it comes to ease of access. The studio's Tron-styled RTS Darwinia became an independent gaming figurehead following its PC release in 2005; a tuned, tucked version eventually made it to Live Arcade in 2010. "XBLA is still predicated on this view that every game must be perfectly polished and comply with seven million technical requirements," Morris insisted. "They just don't have the audience to support this extra development effort. It took us longer to port Darwinia to XBLA then it took us to write it in the first place - that can't be right."

He criticised Microsoft's willingness to support and promote games that aren't obvious best-sellers, like 4J Studios' phenomenal Minecraft port. "As well as the extra development effort, [developers] don't have the merchandising in place to continue to support the game through its life. Steam has proven how to successfully run sales and assist developers in squeezing every last penny from the back catalogue. Microsoft takes the view that if you game isn't a massive seller, you'll simply fade away and they won't help to push you.

"My view on XBLA is that it's too hard to achieve a game they are happy to launch and they are not able (or willing) to help to continually market the game," Morris sums up. "Put simply, XBLA is not worth the risk."



It's partly a problem of transparency, perhaps. When Smudged Cat Games' David Johnston released the wonderful Adventures of Shuggy in June last year, he wasn't entirely sure what led Microsoft to give other titles more limelight. "Being a small developer I'm more focused on making the games," Johnston told OXM shortly after release. "I don't really know a lot about the process about why Microsoft decide to promote some games more than others. Eventually, Shuggy was released at the same time as the new Magic: The Gathering game, which has obviously got a bit more clout behind it."

XBLA titles benefit less from exposure in the videogame press than their boxed cousins, he added, making such inscrutability on the publisher's part all the more aggravating. "We've had quite a few reviews online, but I think the main source of it actually comes from the Xbox dashboard itself. It's all very well getting great online reviews, but I don't know how many people really check Live Arcade reviews online - I mean, the fact that you can fire up your Xbox and see what releases there are, I think that's where a lot of people find out about games. They just fire up the Xbox and see what's there."

Johnston's comments came a few months before Microsoft's most recent dashboard update, which blurred the distinction between movies, music, TV and game content, giving more front-end space to new partners like LoveFILM and the BBC. Hello Games' Sean Murray (the man behind the fabulous Joe Danger) suggests the shift has made it trickier still for independents to capture attention. "Right now, it's already getting really hard to find new games that you might not know about, or even ones that you already know. Microsoft has made a mistake in putting movies, music, games, DLC, avatar items, XBLA and everything all in the same feed for instance."



He suspects forthcoming dashboard reboots will approach this spread of content more sensitively, however, tailoring results to the user. "In future, I'm sure that division is going to much clearer. Like I shouldn't be told about DLC for a game I don't own, and I should be offered games that my friends are playing right now! I think we're going to see a Dash that has a lot in common with the best parts of Amazon or Youtube."

The biggest threat to Arcade's current success stories may not be films and music, but competition from so-called AAA franchises, now making their way online to escape the collapse of boxed retail. Major third parties like Capcom, Warner Bros and EA have already reaped huge returns from Xbox Live in the form of spin-offs like Dead Rising: Case Zero, Gotham City Imposters and Battlefield 1943. There's less room nowadays, perhaps, for the verve and originality that's possible when you're not dependent on shareholder approval.

Murray is alive to the risks, but feels the heavyweight competition will spur his peers to greater feats. "I think in future Xbox Live Arcade Games will no longer exist. There won't be retail games and XBLA, there will just be games and you can download them all. You might be able to get them in the shop as well, but day one of launch I think Call of Duty will be right there on your Xbox Dash.

"I'm excited for that, but it's going to mean that [digital gaming] won't exist as we know it anymore. Small developers like us are going to have to compete directly with Assassin's Creed and Grand Theft Auto, and we can only do that by being even more innovative or interesting, or pure."



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