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Some XBLA Titles to be Delisted -- OP Updated, Major Nelson Responds
Bamelin
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Registered User regular
May 26th Update:
Saw this over at Neogaf -- Major Nelson announced in a podcast that delisted titles will still be able to be be redownloaded by those who have bought the game already. Also for people that don't own the game they can get a copy if a buddy sends them a link to it using the "tell a friend" link on the marketplace ... it still makes no sense to me removing these titles from the front end ... Would it be THAT hard to just set all the titles they deem shitty into a "budget" catagory or something.
Or maybe just FIX the fucking Marketplace UI so it's not a convulted mess~~?!!~~
http://next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10620&Itemid=2
Horrible horrible decision. Even though I won't shed any tears over crap like Screwjumper, I can't help but feel that niche titles will suffer as a result. Furthermore this will encourage developers not to bother with niche titles ... something XBLA is supposed to be a bastion of support for.
I thought part of the whole point of digital downloads was that we didn't have to worry about "shelf space"
Saw this over at Neogaf -- Major Nelson announced in a podcast that delisted titles will still be able to be be redownloaded by those who have bought the game already. Also for people that don't own the game they can get a copy if a buddy sends them a link to it using the "tell a friend" link on the marketplace ... it still makes no sense to me removing these titles from the front end ... Would it be THAT hard to just set all the titles they deem shitty into a "budget" catagory or something.
Or maybe just FIX the fucking Marketplace UI so it's not a convulted mess~~?!!~~
Neogaf wrote:In the Aaron Greenberg interview he mentions that de-listed XBLA games can still be bought through the ''tell a friend'' link on marketplace. Also if you downloaded it in the past you can still re-download it. So theyre not removing the files from their service - just the front end "store" of mktplace. Still seems like a strange decision to me.
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According to Whitten, XBLA titles that have been out for more than six months, have a Metacritic score of less than 65%, and have a conversion rate of less than 6% will be eligible for desliting. Microsoft will give three months of notice before these titles are removed.
http://next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10620&Itemid=2
Horrible horrible decision. Even though I won't shed any tears over crap like Screwjumper, I can't help but feel that niche titles will suffer as a result. Furthermore this will encourage developers not to bother with niche titles ... something XBLA is supposed to be a bastion of support for.
I thought part of the whole point of digital downloads was that we didn't have to worry about "shelf space"
Bamelin on
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Any ideas what current games might be covered by this?
And by brilliant I mean stupid.
You're probably screwed on that too. There's a disclaimer that says that you may re-download your games at will (unless it is no longer offered). So don't delete your "crappy" games!
Battle.net: Fireflash#1425
Steam Friend code: 45386507
Or a way to "pad" how good the overall review scores of XBLA titles look.
"Look 9 out of 10 XBLA titles scored over 65% on Metacritics!"
I imagine you won't be able to anymore, and you'll just have to suck it up and deal with it.
Superb Microsoft, superb...
I can't wait to see the phone conversation with Microsoft help desk to get your points back, but I'm sure they are protected with clauses everywhere saying they can taketh away at any time.
Class action lawsuit time guys.
Like it was said before they should just put them in a separate list. I do wonder if you try to get it from your download history though.
It's too bad that these games are getting thrown away because Microsoft doesn't feel like designing a better interface.
You're too slow, old man Bamelin.
It's the Carpel Tunnel ... my wrist it burns
Why you may ask? My favorites from the notes (Spoilered for size):
14. Long descriptions of items on Marketplace can be scrolled using right stick.
15. Better organization of free content on Marketplace.
21. Option to store up to 10 messages permanently on server (excludes invites, status messages).
23. Option to disable invites from non-friends or all players.
24. Option to disable invites from titles not on gamercard (excludes demos).
27. Option to download gamer picture (if available) from a gamercard being viewed.
33. Disable notifications to friends of user repeatedly signing into service (set period).
34. Option to see 'snippet' of text message in notification.
1. Option to delete titles from gamercard with 0 gamerscore and 0 achievements (excludes some titles that will be re-added to launch another title).
2. Organize My Games at the Games Library section better (includes disc-based titles) - sort by genre, platform (Games for Windows - LIVE), percentage completion.
A lot of them are stupid little things, but I was excited. Damn you microsoft! DAMN YOU
Though thinking about how they treated the MSN music drm shit hole then this doesn't look good.
I understand that they are worried that they have too many games, so how do you tell which is good, but that comes down to a problem with the shit heap that is the blades shopping system.
I think we need to form a "consumers union" or something to demand that we 1) get continued access to the content we've bought for , at minimium, the life of the console and 2) we can transfer these games over to our Xbox 3's.
Same with the VC too. I'm willing to pay £6 for Super Mario mr nintendo. But not every 5 years.
2009 is a year of Updates - one every Monday. Hopefully. xx
It's the same with the Nintendo Channel removing their DS Demos. I mean... seriously... WHY? It takes more time and money to actively remove the thing than you'd save by just leaving it up there.
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OH NO THE XBLA MENU WONT BE FILLED WITH A HUNDRED SHITTY GAMES NO ONE CARES ABOUT!
I never asked for this!
Now show me that they are deleting an actually good game and THEN we can talk about bad ideas. But the principle of removing crap from the store is not a flawed principle.
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Probably people who download the demo and then buy the full game.
wut
When did this happen?
Third Party demos have a time when they are unable to be downloaded. The Ninja Gaiden demo was delisted for a week or so, but I saw it back on the list two days ago.
NNID: Glenn565
It's conversion rate they're going by, not actual sales. As in the percentage of people who purchase the game after downloading the demo. This shouldn't affect niche titles, which I would imagine are completely ignored by the general populace. It's a safeguard against games that sound cool but are really shitty, and their shittiness is apparent after spending five minutes on the demo. Additionally, the game has to be panned by critics. And even if a solid but niche title happens to fit those criteria for some unfortunate reason, that just makes it eligible to be delisted. Hopefully someone at MS would have the sense to leave it in, and if not there's a 3-month window of advance notice for fans to bitch and moan.
It's clearly not the ideal solution to Microsoft's problem (which would be implementing a shop interface that actually works), but it certainly doesn't spell doom and gloom for XBLA and indie devs.
But don't lots of people have their 360's set to auto download every demo that comes out, even if niche titles are never actually bought? That would affect the conversion rate right?
I could be completely wrong, but a 6% conversion rate sounds stupidly low enough so as to account for that.
I don't know. For some reason I seem blindly convinced that Microsoft must have thought this through and has a good reason for doing this, despite there being absolutely zero evidence supporting it and no history of intelligence with regards to how the XBLA is managed (stupid DRM relicensing).
What if I have one of those crappy games that gets de-listed, my 360 fucks up, I send it to MS, they repair it, then I want them to transfer my liscences to the new console and they tell me to re-download the games?
That's shit. This is exactly why people still buy boxed games. Because they can use them at will.
I don't care that it's digital distribution, if I paid for it, I should have it FOREVER.
Anyway it sounds like this isn't the end of the story and that there is something more to come, so maybe people should calm down before getting upset over what's either nothing, or a very small issue.
If they delist them but I can still redownload them or reliscence them at will, then I'll agree that it's a small issue. The problem, to me, is really about paying for something and then losing it.
My evidence is my Dashboard theme. I bought the SFII theme way back when (the one with the drawings of a different character in a different color on each blade). At some point, that theme was removed from the store. All they've got now on that page is the game itself and the avatar packs. The 360 I purchased the theme on was Japan-region, and when I came back to the US I eventually got a US-region 360. However, since the theme had been removed from the store, there was no way for me to get it onto my new 360 short of buying a memory card, right?
I was really surprised, then, that as soon as I recovered my gamertag on my new 360, the Dashboard set itself to the SFII theme. I never downloaded anything from the marketplace; it just did it automatically (after a short loading wait). And interestingly enough, if I log out of Xbox Live, the Dashboard returns to the generic background.
So, at least in the case of this one theme, something that is no longer listed on the Marketplace is not actually removed completely.
From the way the guy in the interview talks it just sounds like they are removing things from the general xbla list. Doesn't say anywhere that they are deleting content and you won't be able to download it if you own it. I mean why would they delete content either since it would only result in them losing money from potential sales. Where as delisting things from the main menu makes sense as it frees up the already overly cluttered menu.
I never asked for this!
Battle.net: Fireflash#1425
Steam Friend code: 45386507
This is what we don't know and what I want to know.
I really don't see how we could possibly re-download them, they won't be listed anywhere!
Battle.net: Fireflash#1425
Steam Friend code: 45386507
Seriously, name one game you guys care about that will be affected by this.
If it's de-liscenced, just choose the option "Redownload" over it.
If you completely erased it, then, I dunno. How far back does the download history go?
#14 on that list: I can't believe this wasn't a feature from the start. It's such a simple and obvious feature. It's one of the first stupid problems I noticed with the dashboard. It's instinctive, it doesn't require any thought to implement! Pulling down the right stick is the first thing I tried when I saw a slow-scrolling description box on the marketplace.
Battle.net: Fireflash#1425
Steam Friend code: 45386507