Self-publishing on XBLA "impossible" for small devs

October 8th, 2011, 00:11 Posted By: wraggster

Rudolf Kremers, the designer of the independent game Eufloria, claims it is "impossible" for people in his position to self-publish through Xbox Live Arcade.
Speaking to PSN Stores, Kremers discussed the importance of Sony's "Pub Fund" - a $20 million reserve of cash to help indies publish their games - in launching games like Eufloria on the PlayStation Network.
"We would never give up our IP. [Sony] did actually want it, they were making us an offer to publish it for us. But it meant that we would have to sell the IP to them in exchange," he said.
"We had to stand fast. We had to look at other ways, and that turned in to the self publishing route. We made that possible because Sony were happy to include us in the pub fund. One of the qualities of the pub fund is that it's a viable avenue for micro teams like ourselves - Microsoft don't have that any more."
Omni-Labs, Kremer's studio, was approached by Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony about publishing Eufloria, but the PlayStation Network was the only service offer an affordable way to self-publish without relinquishing IP ownership and creative control.
"For Microsoft the cost would be prohibitive, as they had all sorts of mandatory features - multiplayer and the like. And of course you have to use their QA... The cost picture would be so prohibitive that self publishing would be impossible."
Earlier this week, 2D Boy's Ron Carmel questioned Microsoft's content policies for Xbox Live Arcade, and offered data to prove that the service is losing "star talent" to competing services like the PlayStation Network.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...for-small-devs

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