In a rangy interview recently, Marc Whitten, general manager of Xbox Live, has stated why no 'under-performing' games have actually been de-listed from Xbox Live yet. Last year he'd stated, "we will be delisting older underperforming titles in order to keep the service focused on a section of high quality games."
Asked this year if anything had gone, he responds: "No. Frankly I decided to solve it in another way, which was to redo the user interface and make it work well. I'm a huge believer in the longtail effect."
He uses Civilization Revolution as his example, "Part of what excites me about the games marketplace stuff is a title like Civilization Revolution. I love Civilization Revolution. It was a great MetaCritic game."
'a great MetaCritic game' - interesting way of putting it...
"It did OK at retail, but it didn't do great. Now it's actually hard to find. So I love the fact that now by putting it into retail Games On Demand, I can create this longtail where someone coming in new can get this great content."
He also responds to a question regarding the fact that Games on Demand uses actual currency as well as MS Points as follows, "The way I look at this, Points have actually been super successful for us. People love being able to get them at retail, they love being able to share them as gifts. What I look at is to try things out, to learn what the community wants, what the community likes, how it works in the system, and be able to take it from there. So nothing to announce, but it's not like it can't be one way or it can't be the other."
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Asked this year if anything had gone, he responds: "No. Frankly I decided to solve it in another way, which was to redo the user interface and make it work well. I'm a huge believer in the longtail effect."
He uses Civilization Revolution as his example, "Part of what excites me about the games marketplace stuff is a title like Civilization Revolution. I love Civilization Revolution. It was a great MetaCritic game."
'a great MetaCritic game' - interesting way of putting it...
"It did OK at retail, but it didn't do great. Now it's actually hard to find. So I love the fact that now by putting it into retail Games On Demand, I can create this longtail where someone coming in new can get this great content."
He also responds to a question regarding the fact that Games on Demand uses actual currency as well as MS Points as follows, "The way I look at this, Points have actually been super successful for us. People love being able to get them at retail, they love being able to share them as gifts. What I look at is to try things out, to learn what the community wants, what the community likes, how it works in the system, and be able to take it from there. So nothing to announce, but it's not like it can't be one way or it can't be the other."
Don't forget, you can also find us Facebooking and on Twitter.
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Comments
Daz 8 Jun 2009 11:44
1/7
the points suck, they're only there so MS can over charge without you knowing, but I the Math 0.0085 per point soon adds up especially with the Xbox originals £10.20 you can get them off ebay a hell of a lot cheaper
OptimusP 8 Jun 2009 12:16
2/7
In Euro-land (don't know about Sterling-land), buying Wiipoints at retail is actually cheaper then buying them online...about 1-5 eurocents though...depending on the store
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M 8 Jun 2009 12:26
3/7
I think points are great, yeah sure tehy may cost more but at least it provides with choice unlike the PSN network which only allows credit card, what self respecting 23 year old has or needs a credit card?
M 8 Jun 2009 12:26
4/7
I think points are great, yeah sure tehy may cost more but at least it provides with choice unlike the PSN network which only allows credit card, what self respecting 23 year old has or needs a credit card?
Daz 8 Jun 2009 12:33
5/7
M wrote:
I think points are great, yeah sure tehy may cost more but at least it provides with choice unlike the PSN network which only allows credit card, what self respecting 23 year old has or needs a credit card?
live and wii you need a credit card, PSN allows cash/debit card (maestro, solo ect) or at least it did when I signed up, whether they've changed it I don't know but I can still use my maestro card.
PreciousRoi 8 Jun 2009 16:23
6/7
Err, I don't believe you need a credit card for LIVE! anymore...as far as I know you did a long time ago. but not for quite some time now, as both points cards and LIVE! membership cards are available at retail. And I don't find the points to be terribly confusing, despite the seemingly odd exchange rate involved...I know that 160 points is about 2 bucks US and can pretty much figure anything else out from there...Points and DLC are revenue streams which are largely immune to piracy, prior to the 360 and the advent of the firmware hack I saw LIVE! as the most promising anti-piracy tool, now the microeconomics of points has taken over, it provides a lever which can reach into the wallets of even those with modded consoles.
Daz 8 Jun 2009 19:45
7/7
@PreciousRoi
I wasn't talking about retail (probably should have said), to buy MS and Wii point's through the console you need a credit card and last time I looked it's actually cheaper to get MS points through the console than buying a card, Wii Points I think had no difference between the two. But PSN doesn't (or at least didn't) need a credit card points or no points.
I wasn't talking about retail (probably should have said), to buy MS and Wii point's through the console you need a credit card and last time I looked it's actually cheaper to get MS points through the console than buying a card, Wii Points I think had no difference between the two. But PSN doesn't (or at least didn't) need a credit card points or no points.