EDGE - BetaDwarf is a co-op-focused studio with a colourful history. Its two co-founders spent seven months squatting, penniless, in a disused university classroom before being discovered, subsequently moving to a shared house in the countryside and expanding to 15 staff in the process.
XboxCulture.com Interviews Betadwarf Entertainment about their upcoming game Forced. A Tactical Arena Co-Op.
Indie devs give their verdict on whether ID@Xbox needs its own dedicated storefront.
It better have its own store, i don't what a bunch of crappy games hiding the stuff I actually care to look at. Better yet keep your indie games on phones and the PS4 where I don't have to look at them
This crap is like the American Idol of video games. These games aren't good enough to stand on their own, lets not give them a platform to get their 15 minutes of fame.
Transistor, Don't Starve, and Mine Craft are all indie games, all very good games.
There are allot of bad ones, I'll give you that. But the same can be said about AAA games. You have to sift through and find what's best.
Good thing you don't work for Microsoft, developers Like bungie would Have never got a chance. Or do you?
I feel like it would definitely help. People are aware of some more high-profile indie titles, but there are a lot of great little guys out there and it isn't easy find them currently while browsing.
Until they create a storefront and remove the parity clause, I'm going to assume Microsoft's Xbox division isn't really interested in helping indies.
I think having a separate store would place a stigma around indie titles that they are lesser quality than games that show up in the normal store.
If all games show up as new releases on equal footing, I think the indie titles will see added exposure.
I agree.. I thought that was always an argument..
Indies getting the same exposure as AAA titles is huge for them.. Otherwise people would just ignore the indie store and never see them.
It's a delicate thing though. The wheat needs to be separated from the chaff, otherwise a typical user opens up that store and only sees chaff. Steam can feel like that sometimes.
But lock those indie titles into a seperate store and nobody will even visit, so the few indie games that do deserve attention will get none.
In a couple of years time we will know if either platform holder managed to get the balance right. It'll be interesting to see if our perspective aligns with the indie dev community's at that point.
I think the wheat will organically be separated from the chaffe... The same way it is with games that aren't self published. There are a lot of published games that amount to 'chaffe', and the marketplace has no problem weeding them out. Same with the indies... The good ones will get high consumer reviews, get media coverage, end up in the front page and the "popular now" sections, and enjoy success... The bad ones will quickly become hard to find.
@mhunterjr Not sure it qualifies as "organic" when so much back-end work is required to make it happen, but yes.
That's the philosophy Microsoft are embracing and relying on this time around. Sony haven't been so clear on their view, but I rather suspect they have a revamp of their storefront in the works as we speak.
Having it's own store would be nice, I have no doubt that this will happen in one of the system updates. That's a relatively easy fix. Although I understand what some of the devs think about not wanting to be "segregated" and wanting the same exposure as TF-like games. So really I hope they do whatever Devs want...I just hope in the future when games are flowing the indie games don't just get lost in the mix. Side note: I wanna play Riptide, that looks fun.
Yh because you know, having indies apparently means loss of AAA titles.
Do none of you know what AAA means anymore?
AAA was meant to be a high quality game, best of the best. Following this logic it's entirely possible for indie games to be AAA (Journey, for example).
Now AAA only means high budget, high profile. This does not mean these games are necessarily good.
Falcom, for example, is a low budget, low profile game company... Selling 400k would be a dream come true to them. They hit a niche.
Yet they're older than Square, and their JRPGs (especially the Ys series) are significantly better than Square's from a gameplay and setting perspective.
According to your logic we shouldn't care about Falcom who make better games, because Square have a bigger budget.
You do know most of your favourite developers started as indies before they became high profile AAA developers. Also with the current state of AAA gaming who are scared of trying new formula because of the fear of failure Indies are the ones innovating and taking more risk on new ips.
I cant make my mind up here.
On one hand it be nice to see an indie only store, for organisation purposes and easy navigation.
But on the other hand Im not sure Id notice games on a separate store so much. Some Indie games deserve to be listed with the big games, but most do not.
Pure|News had the chance to talk with Beta Dwarf one of the studios involved with the ID@Xbox Indie Developers, we talk about Microsoft's Xbox One and their new upcoming game for it FORCED.
Hmmm... thought I saw this on Steam. Not much depth. Still waiting for a Champions of Norrath game or Path of Exiles on consoles.
