Oddworld Boss: Xbone Team Should be Fired Over Indie Stance - Polidicks

[url]http://www.vg247.com/2013/07/19/lanning-xbox-one-team-should-be-fired-over-indie-stance/[/url] [QUOTE=VG24/7]The problem Microsoft is presenting is this. For an indie to get published on XBLA, it needs a publishing partner as self-releasing on Live is prohibited. This partner may be Microsoft itself, the most prominent example of this type of deal being Minecraft. This means the indie has to give up a revenue share to get onto XBLA, whether it’s to Microsoft or a third-party like Warner, the publisher of Supergiant’s Bastion.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Lorne Lanning]"Ten years from now, the biggest banners out there, the hundred million dollar games, are going to be what happened in the indie community. That’s the only place we’re seeing real innovation because that’s the only place people can really afford to. You can’t do it on a hundred million dollar title because you have to be dialled into what that audience really knows and wants. Someone’s going to be burning the next hundred million dollar properties here, and it might be the least likely guy that was on that stage at the Sony conference. But that’s where it’s going to come from, and the smart people know that. I don’t see any indication of that foresight up in Redmond. They do not seem to be listening to their audience. [...] It’s a bit puzzling. It’s clear they’re not listening. I’m not sure who they’re listening to. Whoever their PR people are, whoever their marketing agents are, they should fire them all. That’s where they should start. There should be a big, mass firing and they should publicise that. Then they’d get people saying, ‘Hey, maybe there’s going to be a good change.’ But if they keep the rhetoric flowing, obviously everyone’s looking at it saying, ‘This isn’t real.’ How are they going to keep what they’ve got today? That’s a big question."[/QUOTE]

[quote]"and it might be the least likely guy that was on that stage at the Sony conference. But that’s where it’s going to come from, and the smart people know that".[/quote] This is so uplifting and depressing. People aren't very much looking over people who have original, insightful ideas on the next video game revolution, but it's that they don't have any sort of voice, and it's only getting quieter for them.

That's a ballsy statement, and it's one I completely agree with.

Lorne Lanning is one of nicest and smartest designers around. If he's publicly abandoning your platform, something has gone horribly wrong. Making indies look for publishing partners is a completely unrealistic requirement on Microsoft's part, and a big reason why the "indie" section of xbla is nothing but shit XNA games while the Arcade section is all smaller AAA teams or re-releases of well-received indie games like Bastion or Minecraft. There's no place to put games that haven't already become an indie success, or had a fair amount of funding. Microsoft really needs to throw serious cash, or remove the outside publishing requirement if they want to court indies.

Lorne Lanning is fucking inspirational, even more so than Gabe Newell to me.

[QUOTE=Darkimmortal;41523155]Lorne Lanning is fucking inspirational, even more so than Gabe Newell to me.[/QUOTE] traitor