Indie Game Pricing Structure Released
posted Saturday Jul 25, 2009 by Scott Ertz
The change of Xbox Live Community games to Xbox Live Indie Games has had a lot of people concerned. Anytime Microsoft makes a change like that, it is never just a name change. When Passport became Live, everything changed. And that seems to be the case here as well.
There is a whole new pricing structure, and it is not going to make developers happy. The current prices are 800, 400 and 200 Microsoft points, working out to $10, $5 and $2.50. The new prices are 400, 240 and 80 MSP, or $5, $3 and $1. If you are currently offering a game for 200, it will automatically drop to 80 at the launch. Also, your game must be sized under 50MB to qualify for this price point. If you currently offer a game for 800, you will be allowed to keep that price point, as long as you don't make any changes. If you release a new version with bug fixes, sad story, you must choose a price from the new list.
For many developers, this is going to dissuade them from developing for Xbox, because now their games can max out at half what they were once worth, certainly damaging profit margins, and even insulting some people. This might bring some development over from the iPod Touch platform, but it could also cost Microsoft some of their best Indie developers. What do you think about the new pricing structure? Too low, too high or just right?
