Microsoft must not dismiss XBLA ‘warning call’, says Tim Schafer

Tim Schafer believes that Microsoft may have ignored a serious “warning call” over the state of XBLA development.

Last October 2D Boy founder Ron Carmel, one of the two men behind World of Goo, published a cautionary article about Microsoft’s supposed neglect of Xbox LIVE Arcade – complete with research that suggested indie developers might be moving away from the platform.

Now Tim Schafer has followed up on Carmel’s argument, expressing concern that Microsoft may be dismissing a serious problem.

“I was hoping that would be a really, really eye-opening article for the console manufacturers… and I feel like it’s been totally dismissed,” said Schafer, speaking to Industry Gamers.

“I really think it’s something they can’t dismiss and they should really pay a lot more attention to because he’s calling attention to a migration, an exodus of real creative talent away from those platforms to more open platforms, and I think they should do something quick to reverse that. Can you reverse an exodus? Is there a term for that? A redexus?”

In Schafer’s view, Microsoft can afford to be complacent about its relationship with smaller developers.

“Seriously, I think that that was kind of a warning call. It’s not like ‘it would be nice to do this’ for developers – [if they don’t] they’re going to lose out. Things change every generation and just because you’re on top and the 900 pound gorilla in one generation, as you’ve seen, it doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t mean it’ll be that way forever. I think that these threats that are possibly being ignored are going to hurt those guys.”

Unsurprisingly, the Double Fine boss points to iOS and Steam as major alternatives to XBLA – citing as a problem the high cost of patching Xbox 360 titles. Schafer recently revealed to Hookshot Inc that patching a game costs roughly $40,000 on XBLA.

“We can put something up on the App Store pretty easily. We can put stuff up on Steam really easily. I like the Xbox and the PS3. I like Sony and Microsoft, but those systems are closed and curated very closely and it costs a lot more money to go through that system, to patch a game.

“It makes me stressed out that if I put a game up there, I might not be able to patch it because it might cost too much money, whereas these more open platforms will let us manage our own price and our own updates. It’s just a lot more appealing right now.”

Schafer’s much discussed Kickstarter Project is currently on the verge of hitting $2m in advance contributions. You could read his comments here as simple showing off in the wake of such success, but that would do Schafer a disservice. It’s an argument that makes sense, and Carmel’s evidence speaks for itself.