Microsoft raises the cap on game sizes, number of titles allowed from developers in the marketplace.
If you're a developer for Xbox Live Indie Games, Microsoft has just tweaked their rules a bit for you. In a post over at the official MSDN blog, MS details the three big points that will be affecting you if you plan on building anything for their indie game marketplace: an increase in game sizes up to 500 MB, allowing a developer to have up to ten titles in the marketplace, and allowing the 80 MSP price point to be applied to any size game of the developers' choosing.
One thing this effectively does is move the Indie Game marketplace further in the direction of an App store, with the Wild West feel of competitive, possibly even cannibalistic pricing. One thing that will be interesting to see is if Microsoft starts giving greater visibility to their indie games going forward. Here's the detailed text from the blog:
Higher maximum CCGAME size
Since the start of Xbox LIVE Indie Games, CCGAME bundles submitted for Xbox LIVE Indie Games were limited to a maximum size of 150MB. We’ve heard all the great feedback on this subject and today we are pleased to inform you that developers are now able to submit CCGAME bundles up to 500MB through App Hub for publishing on Xbox LIVE Indie Games.
New limit for 80 point games
Another area we’re adjusting today is the requirement that titles larger than 50MB be priced at either 240 or 400 points. After raising our maximum size we’ve decided to also raise this limit. Starting today you can apply the 80 point price to any game with a CCGAME size under 150MB, which is three times the current limit of 50MB.
More titles per developer
The last change affects a fewer number of developers, but we still believe it’s an important update. Originally developers were limited to just eight titles on Xbox LIVE Indie Games. When Creators Club became App Hub, we raised the limit up to ten. We’re happy today to let you know that we’re again raising this limit up to twenty titles per developer.
[Sources: MSDN via The Next Web]
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