Queasy
Moderator<br>Console Gaming
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In this exclusive interview with general manager of Xbox Live Marc Whitten, Next-Gen gets all the first details on big changes to the service?including that there will be no spring dashboard update, and that underperforming XBLA titles will be removed.
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.
Whitten also told us that there would be no spring dashboard update for Xbox 360 owners this year, saying that resources were instead focused on ?building the proper infrastructure and scale for the service.? There will however be a change to DRM policy and a tool released next month that will allow 360 owners to re-license content to a single console?finally fixing the issue that forced gamers playing XBLA games to be connected to Xbox LIVE if their 360 broke down and was replaced.
Read on for the complete Q and A, which provides all the details on this news and more, including a new 1st party development studio and why the DRM issue took so long to resolve?
Could you describe the changes we can expect to see in the Marketplace in the near future?
Well probably the biggest change I can share with you today is a series of new policies along with a new internal approach and investment in the Xbox LIVE Arcade business going forward. While the service has had a lot of success and now boasts over 130 titles, we think it is time to continue our focus on quality over quantity. This means that we need to allow developers more time and more space to make even bigger and better games. So we are officially increasing our XBLA game size limits dramatically from 150mb to 350mb. We are also giving publishers more flexibility in how they price their games and opening up a new 1600 Microsoft Points price point for some of these now bigger and better games. This week we already have seen a title that is taking advantage of this and getting great response, Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One. In addition to allowing these bigger and better games we will be delisting older underperforming titles in order to keep the service focused on a section of high quality games. Finally, we are also going to be putting our money where our mouth is here and are launching a new fully funded 1st party studio which will be focused on high quality digital content creation.
What would qualify a title for delisting? Would Microsoft choose titles for delisting, or would the publisher or content creators be involved in the decision as well? Are there any titles currently on the Marketplace we can expect to be delisted in the near future?
The way it will work is that the title will need to be at least 6 months old and have a Metacritic score below 65 and a conversion rate below 6% on the service. This way titles are not just considered if they are not selling well or not getting good reviews, but actually a combination of both. We will also give a three-month notice before delisting any title. Overall I think you will find this will focus the catalogue more on larger, more immersive games and make it much easier to find the games you are looking for.
Last year Xbox 360 owners got a spring dashboard update in early May. It's now late May and you still haven't announced anything regarding this year's update. Should 360 owners be holding their breaths for it?
We have taken a different approach this spring and spent a lot of our time and resources of building the proper infrastructure and scale for the service not just today but also into the future. So while most users will not notice any significant changes to the dashboard this spring, I can tell you that the team will be releasing a new digital rights management (DRM) tool next month that will allow you to better consolidate your licenses for downloaded content to a single Xbox and allow you the freedom to be able to play your content both online and offline.
There have been some high profile complaints on the web about how difficult it is to transfer things like XBLA game licenses to replacement 360s in the wake of an under warranty hardware failure. Would these changes to DRM policy address these issues, letting people who have experienced such failure re-license their purchases on their new Xbox so they don't have to be connected to Live to play? Are there any other sorts of changes to DRM policy being made here that would affect the end-user experience?
Yes, this new tool will officially launch next month on Xbox.com and will allow you to be able to consolidate these licenses onto one box so you can access things like Xbox LIVE Arcade games and TV show you have downloaded even if you are not online. Because this involved allowing users to re-download licenses for content that belongs to our partners it has taken some time to work out the agreements with them to allow this, but we have heard the concerns from folks about DRM and are happy to announce that everything is nearly in place to roll this out in June.
