Retro City Rampage Dev Feels Microsoft is “Setting up a Poor Precedent” on Indie Self Publishing 180

Retro City Rampage Creator Brian Provinciano has been vocal against Microsoft’s policies with indie developers and games in the past. Now that Microsoft announced that they’ll be able to self-publish, is he finally satisfied? Yes and no, as he feels Microsoft is setting up a bad precedent.

[iamnsuperman]

I guess he has a point. All of us here have no idea what went on behind the scenes but if Microsoft ignored what these guys were saying until their PR campaign became a nightmare shows how disorganised Microsoft was and hopeful that shake up a week or so ago will make sure issues like this are avoided in the future.

I remember on giant bomb's podcast they likened the reveal of the PS4 and the One like a run for presidency of America. Indecision could be bad (PR wise) for Microsoft and lets hope they stop changing things around (even though it is, arguably, beneficial for us) because for the average consumer (not the ones who go here) could get confused and it could put them off.

[Abriael]

yeah, that's my thought exactly. While them changing policies is doubtlessly a good thing, them doing so under bitching pressure isn't. Shows that they don't really care much about the indies, as much as about the PR, which is partly justified, mind you, but still leaves a bad taste.

[dennett316]

They've consistently shown to be out of touch with what developers and consumers actually want since their reveal. While it's good that they've now made this call, again, it's taken a bunch of negative coverage for them to do it.

I think it'll eventually be the same for Kinect. They're going to stick to their guns for a little while, but will eventually realise that people don't really care about Kinect as much as MS and their advertising partners do. The original Kinect sold a lot of units, but was there really enough interest for them to force it into every Xbox One sale?
Roughly a third of the 360 user base bought one, but you could count the appealing games that resonated with people on the fingers of one hand....and all of them are likely dance or fitness games.
All it offers the new console is a few gimmicks that present solutions to "problems" that no-one had, and a more sluggish way to go about navigating menus and changing channel on your TV. Woop de do.
I'd be interested in Xbox One if not for Kinect, and if not for the fact that MS have been a complete shambles since revealing the thing.

[jimbobwahey]

Yeah. Microsoft are panicking and announcing self publishing as a "Me too!" out of sheer desperation, but already developers are seeing through the smoke and mirrors and that Microsoft's self publishing solution is still grossly inferior to what Sony and other companies are offering to developers.

As Brian and other developers have pointed out, Microsoft are just renaming their XBLIG service (which was terrible to begin with), forcing developers to use Windows 8 (this won't work) and on top of that, also severely limiting their access to system resources in comparison to what other development teams are granted access to. Combine that with Microsoft's horrendous business practices (there's a reason developers hate working with them) and tendency to break policy and it's not surprising that nobody is being fooled by yet another 180 from Microsoft.

[Abriael]

Wait, is the forced windows 8 thing official?

[tuglu_pati]

I guess you cant please everyone

[n4rc]

I think its adapting to what customers want..

This whole indie craze is virtually brand new.. Nobody gave a crap about them 2 years ago.. I don't think its crazy to not cater to it when there are pretty obvious downsides to it..

And virtually zero upside for Microsoft other then happy customers..

The constant blind hate for this company is ridiculous

[slimeybrainboy]

It's quite clearly not ridiculous.

Let's say person A, B, and C work together. If person A helps out person C, while B steps on C to get try and get ahead. One day person A gets praised by the boss because of helping out C. B sees this, and he wants the promotion. B has an idea, if he does what A is doing, maybe he'll get praise and he'll get the promotion.

B is a dick. Despite B acting nice now, He's only doing it because he wants the promotion over A. B just follows what A does because A is getting praise.

Was A just being nice to get praise and promotion, possibly. But for sure B's a dick. You don't even know if B knows how to be nice, it just knows that A is getting praise and it wants it to get that promotion.

THE END

CREDITS
A = Sony
B = Microsoft
C = Customer's best interests
Praise = Public's general opinion
Promotion = Upper hand over competition

And that's why it's justified to hate MS.

[miyamoto]

Thatgamecompany is an indie game company help by Sony to make games for PS3 in 2007.

[No_Limit]

From the very beginning, the old policy regarding self-publishing needing a Publisher only pertains to Xbox 360. That old policy was never confirmed that it will be carried over to the Xbox One. It is just MS was waiting to officially announce it at Gamescon before the leak. People here act like they just made the switch overnight. The system is still about 4 months before launch so I don't see what the issue here is. The system will last 8-10 years so there are plenty of time to spread out the overall strategy for the consoles overtime vice at announcing it all in one shot at the beginning.

[miyamoto]

Xbox!
Kneel before Zod!

What is happening? Is Xposed 180 becoming everyone's slave bitch now?
Isnt it supposed to be in command?

Now it looks like being swayed left and right.

The more MS PR dep open their mouths the more they Xpose their back peddaling indecision.

They have no backbone and identity. All they do is react to what gamers like about all the right moves PS4 has.

Same thing they are doing against Google and Apple. Ketch up here ketch up there ti steal emerging markets' share.

Because the question is "Why just now?"

Yeah they have deep pockets and billions in their wallets to do this 180
s but you can't buy credibility and trust in a snap

Looks like they were really caught with their pants down and they don't have a clear vision of what they are doing and supposed to do right before launching their platform.

All these first aid bandaging of their deep wounds will never be enough to control the damage they inflicted to themselves.

[turgore]

M$ are not leaders at all. They just flip-flop on their original plans and copy Sony.

[HammadTheBeast]

Hm. Lots of different opinions on this subject.

[Redgehammer]

Ugh!

I prefer the companies I do business with to be flexible, and willing to change. Why is this a bad thing? Some of you malign Microsoft for the oddest of reasons.

[dennett316]

Eventually reversing unpopular decisions does not negate the very valid criticisms that people have had of MS and their handling of things like this.
It's great for devs that they've finally done this, but it still comes with more restrictions than there really needs to be, and it seems to be being done this way in order to boost a failing Windows 8 scene.

[Minato-Namikaze]

Because its not really change like jimbobwahey said above. Its a renaming of an already existing program that many devs dont like.

[Redgehammer]

With the limited information released, thus far, I find it presumptuous to see a conclusion and jump to it.

[golding89]

Here comes another articles to bash microsoft no matter the positives.. lol damn..smh

[dennett316]

Here comes another person who throws all criticism under the same category of "bashing", implying that there's no valid criticisms being made.

[christocolus]

welcome to n4g...

[GraveLord]

The 3rd console curse is very much real. It's up to Microsoft if its fatal.

[Minato-Namikaze]

Only 2 companies made it past the fatal stage (sony, nintendo). Its gonna be tough cause MS doesnt have the clout that those 2 companies had when they released their 3rd console.

[crazysammy]

Not to nit pick, but Sega made it past as well. True they stopped making consoles after the "4th" gen Dreamcast but that system was actually really good and was redemption for them. Sadly Sega had to make a decision, risk supporting the Dreamcast longer and maybe lose everything, or cut losses and switch to software. I think they made the right decision.

I guess thinking that way Atari made it past too... lol

[Minato-Namikaze]

@crazy
SG-1000?, genesis, saturn, dreamcast? I'm just tryna figiure out the 4 consoles?

[Electric-flamingo]

Wasn't there just an article on this.

Fanboys be trippin

[CrimsonStar]

They are really upset about the good news Microsoft is getting so they have to pump out as many negative articles as possible to make themselves fell better . lol its funny that the PS fan boys said they would like the xbox1 if they changed to be more like a PS4 , and when that happens they get more mad , spiteful , and envious . I have a felling they would never give Xbox1 a chance regardless of what it could do or will do .

[bessy67]

"Their policy sucked before, so they changed it. They really suck for changing their policy."

- Indie devs after complaining for months

[No_Limit]

To be fair, it is really a couple of trolls like Brian Provinciano and Jonathan Blow that are making these crazy comments. Many other developers that have no hate agenda against MS are very excited with this news.

[Minato-Namikaze]

Why are they trolls? Could it be that they had really bad experience with MS? Its not really just them though, look at the amount of indie devs supporting sony Vs. MS.

[WeaseL]

IF the XB1 is going to be an open console for Dev it will only speed the return of DRM and 24hr check-ins.
MS will say they have no choice but to return the DRM features to stop piracy.

[golding89]

You just know how everything's going to turn out. don't you einstein?