A quick browse through its catalog (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Games/XboxIndieGames) will reveal the problem with this approach, namely that it quickly turns into a giant swamp of Minecraft ripoffs and other such disposable crap.
Disposable crap is fine, so long as it's hidden by the good games that rise to the top. See: the iOS App Store. This XBLIG thing seems like a real second-class citizen on the Xbox. I've never even heard of it, after years of owning the system and Xbox Live. If all "good" indie games are released through a completely different platform/marketplace it's no surprise that Microsoft ignored XBLIG.
If you think that's how the iOS app store works you don't seem to know much about the iOS app store.
For reference, XBLIG did work that way, and just like iOS, the top sellers were the ones that rose to the top and remained top sellers. IIRC, the #1 all time selling XBLIG game is some sort of 'minecraft with zombies' deal that hit the top of the chart by being a) cheap and b) checking the boxes. Some of the most successful XBLIG devs literally churn out a game every week or two, all with low production values, and make their money off the $1 impulse buys from people who are browsing the lists.
'Good stuff will rise to the top' is broken reasoning for storefronts like this. Purchasers have terribly flawed information and don't have the ability to actually evaluate quality; the only things that 'rise to the top' are things that have an upward force applied to them, like marketing, word-of-mouth, or pure luck (for the last one, see Flappy Bird, that ended up catching all its traction as a fluke when it rose enough on the charts to get noticed.)
XBLIG seems to be filled mostly with low budget games, student projects, and abandonware. That's very different than the high-quality, supported, money-making games that top the iOS charts; Candy Crush and the like. You may not consider those games to be "good", but they are completely missing from XBLIG.
Comments
Microsoft did: the XBox Live Indie marketplace.
A quick browse through its catalog (http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Games/XboxIndieGames) will reveal the problem with this approach, namely that it quickly turns into a giant swamp of Minecraft ripoffs and other such disposable crap.
Disposable crap is fine, so long as it's hidden by the good games that rise to the top. See: the iOS App Store. This XBLIG thing seems like a real second-class citizen on the Xbox. I've never even heard of it, after years of owning the system and Xbox Live. If all "good" indie games are released through a completely different platform/marketplace it's no surprise that Microsoft ignored XBLIG.
If you think that's how the iOS app store works you don't seem to know much about the iOS app store.
For reference, XBLIG did work that way, and just like iOS, the top sellers were the ones that rose to the top and remained top sellers. IIRC, the #1 all time selling XBLIG game is some sort of 'minecraft with zombies' deal that hit the top of the chart by being a) cheap and b) checking the boxes. Some of the most successful XBLIG devs literally churn out a game every week or two, all with low production values, and make their money off the $1 impulse buys from people who are browsing the lists.
'Good stuff will rise to the top' is broken reasoning for storefronts like this. Purchasers have terribly flawed information and don't have the ability to actually evaluate quality; the only things that 'rise to the top' are things that have an upward force applied to them, like marketing, word-of-mouth, or pure luck (for the last one, see Flappy Bird, that ended up catching all its traction as a fluke when it rose enough on the charts to get noticed.)
XBLIG seems to be filled mostly with low budget games, student projects, and abandonware. That's very different than the high-quality, supported, money-making games that top the iOS charts; Candy Crush and the like. You may not consider those games to be "good", but they are completely missing from XBLIG.