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Indie Games gets new pricing on Xbox Live

by on27 July 2009

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Should help Indie developers be more successful

As we told you previously, Microsoft is changing the name of its Community Games on Xbox Live to Indie Games. As part of this transition, Microsoft has announced that they will be introducing a new pricing structure to go along with this change.

Starting with the new update, which will make the name change transition, Microsoft will be changing the pricing structure. The previous pricing structure allowed independent developers to price their games at 800, 400, or 200 points. Now the new pricing structure will change, which means all Indie titles will be priced at 400, 240, or 80 points. This means with the new structure the most expensive Indie developed title will be about $5, while the cheapest will be about $1.

The one restriction is that games 50MB in size or less can be priced at 80 Microsoft Points. As for those games that have already been released, they will stay priced as they are unless the developer updates the game, at which time the developer will have to select a new price point for the title. Developers are also free to choose another price point.

The new “reputation” system will award developers points and levels based on their activity in the Creators Club. Once a developer achieves the Premium status the developer can give out tokens that act as vouchers for their games. Customers that have downloaded titles previously will now receive prompts when updates to a title are available for download.

In addition, the Creators Club will now be accepting submissions from Japan and Germany. Developers in Japan, Germany, Singapore and Sweden will be able to submit games to the Indie Market place for download and sale, as well.

Look for sales to improve for Indie developers with the new pricing structure. High prices have been said to be the major road blcok to higher sales for Indie developers.

Last modified on 27 July 2009
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