Survey: PSN attracting more devs than XBLA
Is Xbox Live Arcade "past its prime"? Results of a indie developer survey shows many abandoning Microsoft's console to work on PSN, Steam and iOS.
Is Xbox Live Arcade "past its prime"? That's a question World of Goo developer Ron Carmel is looking into. Carmel postulates that "XBLA's popularity among independent developers peaked last year," and adds that "Microsoft is not yet aware of this."
Polling approximately 200 independent developers, Carmel sought trends in the digital distribution scene. He found that the number of developers working on Xbox 360 has dropped, with many preferring PS3 over Microsoft's console. Plans for 2012 (graph above) show a clear preference for Sony's platform.
But why are developers leaving the iconic Xbox Live Arcade platform? According to Carmel's research (via Gamasutra), the "most influential factor" is simply the ease of working with the platform owner. A platform's install base actually comes second to that.
Working with PlayStation Network is only "so-so" according to surveyed developers, with only 27% of respondents saying it is "very easy" to work with Sony's online division. However, no one called working with Microsoft "very easy." In fact, 48% of responders called Microsoft "excruciating" to work with. Looking at these stats, "it becomes perfectly clear why XBLA, despite being a very strong channel with a large audience and huge earning potential, is dropping in popularity among these developers," Carmel concludes.
Carmel offers many improvements Microsoft could make to its XBLA platform for developers, and notes that without significant overhaul, talented developers will move on to greener pastures. Steam looks to be the most beloved destination by indies, with 64% of responders calling it "very easy" to work with. Apple's iOS platform also earned high marks. Given the growing number of options available to developers, Microsoft will have to do much more to remain competitive.
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replyAndrew Yoon posted a new article, Survey: PSN attracting more devs than XBLA.
Is Xbox Live Arcade "past its prime"? Results of a indie developer survey shows many abandoning Microsoft's console to work on PSN, Steam and iOS.-
In one word, yup.
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I think discovery is still key--and something neither Sony or Microsoft (or Nintendo, ha!) have figured out. I think the new Dashboard does a great job of hiding XBLA content.
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Why Sony gotta get punched? They already got punched for a couple years at the start of this gen, and with the PSP. They got punched, now they are rebounding. Give and take.
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Um, Apply does not make it easy to release apps. Havent you seen the horror stories of apps being turned down because their icon wasnt 'appealing' to Apple? or all the apps that are turned down because Apple doesnt approve of their content? or the apps that they approve and then remove from the stores days later?
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^^this.
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I believe most if not all to be edge cases and if you and I created a game right now, even a mediocre one, it would be accepted. Same goes for Android/Amazon.
Exaggeration and fanboyism I am referring to (mostly) are free and easily accessible development tools and a very popular app store. The 3 game companies should move toward what is happening with mobile companies. -
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Yeah, man, fuck them for funding indie development. The bastards
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Seriously. They should get a real job.
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I'd hope so. I mean, it could just be a coincidence, but that'd be a weird ass coincidence.
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I would be curious to know what made the developers experience "excruciating" or "very easy". Like does XBLA requiring a playable demo on release fall into "excruciating" for some? because honestly i have bought MANY more games on XBLA than PSN for the simple fact that i could play the demo first.
Also just meeting certain criteria also happens alot on PSN, which is mandatory on XBLA. The demo is the biggest one, but also including stuff like listing if your game is coop, multiplayer, and how many players in each is huge to me. Also to a lesser, but still worthwhile extent, screenshots and videos. All of these things are missing on the vast majority of PSN games, and i always feel like i am making a blind purchase.
That extra work when hitting a release date could turn away alot of developers, but it leads to a better platform imo.
Those types of extra requirements can be viewed as frustrating...but it really is critical to the consumer.
Its an interesting survey, but i would like to know more about it....
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Do all PSN games require achievements and leaderboards no matter how out of place it would be? I've heard developers complain about that for XBLA games.
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I don't think they do. Doesn't Microsoft also mandate each XBLA game having the same menu options or something as well?
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indi devs. what percentage of titles on xbla are indi? how important are indi devs to the overall success of xbla?
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This whole thing is based on about 100 survey responses which leads me to question the accuracy of the stats. Wouldn't he need a much larger sample size in order to really see accurate trends?
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So what's driving the shift in preferred platform? My (uneducated) understanding was that XNA (and by extension, XBLA Indie development) was incredibly accessible, even for novices; while PSN had a much steeper learning curve?
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