We have received some interesting whispers from our developer friends who are claiming that the Microsoft Empire is starting to become a bit choosy over exactly what titles will be appearing on Xbox Live Arcade for download.

From what our developer friends claim, the company has started to target independent developers as the area where they are reducing the number of accepted titles to be published on Xbox Live Arcade. The reason for this is that the company is concerned about oversaturation becoming a major issue, which has led to more than one title not achieving its sales goals.

The independent publishers are starting to hear that titles that they have submitted are too similar to existing offerings, or the title just was not original enough to be published on the platform. Of course, these claims of double standards seem to be reinforced by the fact that Microsoft seems to have no problem with major publishers and studios dropping a variety of revised retro titles onto the service.

Of course, some of this could just be sour grapes by independent studios that have had titles rejected by the empire. While we think it is likely that Microsoft might be changing or revising their submission guidelines, it seems that it could have more to do with the ability and space to promote premium titles that is contributing to this change in stance.

We think that it might be more important for the company to focus on trying to deliver more quality titles at affordable prices, as many owners continue to complain about the price increase that seems to have moved the majority of titles from an average of 800 Microsoft Points to the new 1,200 Microsoft Points plateau. Many developers and publishers, both major and independent, have complained that the sales numbers for even some of the best titles are not making back their investment. It would seem that promotion is the key, and without it no title stands a chance to do well; but if it is priced at more than consumers are willing to pay, then you simply are not going to sell a lot of them.