The not-so-sound economics behind XNA Community Games ultimately discourages any upcoming games developer from seeking a profitable business.
In the words of Andy Jackson, “If they don’t have achievements, I’m not buying it.” That’s besides the point, but it does remark upon the kinds of incentives that could drive sales for the Community Games platform. But I don’t think the platform was ever intended to achieve the stellar sales success that the Xbox Live Arcade enjoys. It’s more of a place for experimental games development rather than a glorified games marketplace. It allows anyone and everyone who invest in the resources to be given free development tools to create, share, and produce content. However, this results in titles such as Fireplace which demonstrate that the platform is clouded with problematic and useless software. Thus being deterimental to any talented developer regardless of the level of skill they may possess.
I’m honestly not surprised and Jeff Gerstmann from Giant Bomb isn’t surprised either. If you’re an indie games developer and want to have profitable sales, don’t depend on XNA Community Games to be your savior.
