New XNA FAQs

What's strangest about that, at least from what I read on the multiplayer blog is that Microsoft is the one who'll decide how they'll promote your game.

 

Sounds like they are looking at potentially free offerings but not now. Not sure I would either if I were them at this point. They are providing the hosting service, storage, security, bandwidth, etc. Until they can build up the ad market around community games, it would be a big money sink if most people published a bunch of free mostly junk games.

 

Yeah, but now they can have a bunch of not-free mostly junk games that no one will buy. Plus, most game portals already work with free games and already offer most of what you described.

Do you need to pay to access the store as well, either via Gold accounts or that XNA account thing?

 

Interesting. I still have an idea for a game, and I've already automatically renewed my creator's club fee - I must say I despise that, I never realised that this was going to automatically renew. Oh well. I might give making a game a go still though ... I'll try to reserve some time to figure out how easy it is for me to create a working prototype from some earlier programming work. If it's easy enough, then I may go ahead and see if I can manage something.

I'm not sure if this is the best way to make the service a success, but I can understand that they go about it like this, being Microsoft. I think this is one way that they are going to pay for the fact that they'll probably spend a lot of extra time initially reviewing the peer-reviewing process, if you get my drift.

 

Disagree. So you think creators will be more inclined to sacrifice their reputation, potential income, and overall quality of offerings because people will have to pay to own their games and that they would work harder on them if everyone was able to simply get them for nothing? IMO, the majority of creators will feel some responsibility for delivering a better product since people will have to pay. Free game portals are ad supported so re-read my post, and really aren't the same thing anyway.

No

 

Alternatively, how much money will MS make from millions of free downloads...?

Pricing structure is painfully weird - why is size the deciding factor? Fill your simple game with huge, uncompressed assets and get paid more for it. A tiny procedurally created infinite world will be worth less. Seems MS thinks people value quantity over quality.

Other than that, it's a great opportunity for homebrew.A group can get together and try their luck with a Live! title without needing a complex publisher relationship, yet with a more receptive market than an indie PC title.

 

Heard the news from a friend of mine last night!

Can't wait to get my game done now!!

I'm a little concerned about MS 60-40% royalty split on high performing titles that they *choose* to promote however..

Does the developer have a say in whether they get MS's promotion or not?

What exactly constitutes "promotion" in their eyes & to what degree are they going to commit to this in order to qualify them for the extra 30% cut?

Seems like this could could be either a blessing or a curse at this stage without further information..

I'll wait & see how things pan out I guess..

As for the "no free games" issue, I guess you could always pack a load of content into the free trial. Seems like a reasonable enough loophole to me anyways..

 

It doesn't work quite like that. If your game is <= 50MB, you can charge 200, 400, or 800 MS points. If it's > 50MB and <= 150MB, you can only charge 400 and 800 for it. So padded your game out would only serve to give you less pricing options

I can surely agree with that. Consoles have traditionally been so inaccessible to indy dev's, but now the door is wide open. I'm really impressed that Microsoft put their money where their mouth is on this one.

I still wish there was an option to have games for free though...I'd been basing my current project on the assumption that we would be giving our game away for free, but not now that free isn't an option I've had to reconsider things. Simply giving away all the revenues to a charity seems like a good option for my case, although I'll have to see if Softimage will let us keep using ModTool for free.

 

Okay, that makes padding counterproductive.

Hmm, yes, that has changed the landscape somewhat. Tools free for non-commercial use will not be usable, and the actual cost of development is likely pushed up somewhat. In a way, it's forcing a more professional take I think. You will have some outlay, and you will be asking for people's money. You will thus, presumably, want to provide a more commercial product to recover costs.

In you're in the compfortable position of not needing the money at the moment, another option is to invest it in future products where you can be more adventurous. May be able to grow a good little business from here, then be your own boss!

 

Well it's not just that I don't need the money, it's also that I don't want to violate any of the terms of my contract with my current employer.

 

I also don't think that the interface will be free of ads for things that aren't XNA games.

 

Hi Tommy,

A W-9 is not to apply to get an EIN. A w-9 is what you give to Microsoft so that they can report to the IRS any payments they make to you. (And ultimately, so you can report that income on your own tax return). Individuals would put their SSN on the form. (If you are developing as a corporation, you'd put the corporations EIN on the form).

It's analagous to filling out a W-4 for an employer. It's just something you gotta do.

It's not a big deal.