ARMED! developers decided against Xbox Live support due to update delays

December 29, 2011 | By Surur

When we saw ARMED! our first thought was “Why is this not an Xbox Live Title?”

The developer answered the question somewhat on their Facebook page, where they revealed Xbox Live status comes with an element of cumbersome rules and regulations that would mean the app would need 2-4 weeks of recertification before any updates can be pushed out.

They write:

A large reason we didn’t support Xbox Live is because of some of the technicalities of their system. If we had went with Xbox Live we wouldn’t be able to release bug fixes/updates for 2-4 weeks AFTER they’re finished due to their certification process. Not being a Live title, allows us to ship updates a couple days after they’re ready. Quickly fixing issues and releasing new content is something we value highly and wouldn’t sacrifice that for anything.

Certainly an interesting reason, but likely all part of the quality assurance program which means most Xbox Live titles are pretty polished.

Do our readers think Microsoft has the balance right between speed to market and testing for Xbox Live tiles? Let us know below.

Thanks Adam for the tip.

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged game, software, video, xbox live

Anonymous

Sounds like BS. It would be pretty stupid to pass on XBL given sales for xbox live titles vs non at a higher premium and lure of points/gold.

Not buying it.
Anonymous

While I agree with them, this is the perfect game to go multi-platform as user input doesn’t really favor one side (I.e. Touch vs Xbox controller) due to its simplicity and being time-based. Imagine playing this and challenging someone on their Xbox.

Tom Spilman

We’re totally thinking the same thing… ARMED! will be on multiple platforms as soon as we can.

Xbox is tricky because i’m concerned about if we would get a good return on the investment for porting it…. there is no ad networks that work on Xbox that i know of.

http://twitter.com/counterblow the person

you know, considering how polished ARMED is compared to a lot of XBL dreck i’ve seen (broken controls, broken achievements) I think Microsoft needs to take some lessons from this and shape up! Hopefully Microsoft will approach them for ARMED TOO!

Anonymous

2 or also?

http://twitter.com/counterblow the person

just a play on words, I have no idea what they’ll call it.

http://twitter.com/JohnCollins24 John Collins

Sad the game is not of the Xbox live. Not a fan of constant updates that sometimes breaks other things. As another user said, if the game is that polish why worry about releasing bug patchs. If it is just updates and tweaks the release time isn’t that big of a deal it seems. Just seems more of laziness of going the extra step and just wanting to release it as is.
http://www.facebook.com/robbie.harris Rob Harris

Microsoft definitely needs to improve their certification process. I’ve seen all kinds of idiocy from it.

I totally believe the delays they refer to.
http://twitter.com/efjay01 Ef Jay

Being an Xbox live game could have brought console connectivity in the future. With no chance of that and no achievements not an attractive purchase for me.
Tom Spilman

This is Tom Spilman from Sickhead Games, creators of ARMED!.

I want to make this a little clearer as it’s out of context and sounds much worse than it really was.

The XBL program on the phone is run in similar ways to the program on the Xbox. Certification for a game or an update for a game is an involved process. There are really good reasons for that in the world of AAA games written to the metal for a mass market, but to me it never made sense for mobile development on a sandboxed device and sold on an online store for $4 bucks.

Still we tried to get into the XBox Live program early this year… we had an early version of the game and took it to GDC with us. Either i just ran into the wrong people or just had bad luck, but i could not get any interest from the Microsoft people in the phone division that did see the game. Before i left the show i passed my info along to their game publishing team, but i don’t know if they ever saw it.

The feeling that it would limit our agility in the marketplace and my inability to attract interest from the right people at Microsoft finally lead us to give up.

And in the end i think this was a good thing for us.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Milad-Bazzaz/100000479683479 Milad Bazzaz

thanks for clarification
Anonymous

you see you did not ran into the wrong people we have been trying to contact Microsoft about our game zombies night out sens agust 2011 written over 54 mail to varius people but thay do not answher back
and that is a proff that microsoft pick and chouse the people and game firm thay whant on xbox live for the windows phone
so it doesent matter how great your game is and quality is aaa on a phone wicth i think this game is you lose as a developer sad ,and i have talk with over 200 developers wicth has the same problems
this is the true facebook of microsoft

that is why we have chosen to dump this platform and we have invested 6 years in xna and game making

Anonymous

Talk about throwing the baby out with this bath water. You could have made a game without Xbox Live, yet you didn’t even try. As for Microsoft, of course they’re choosy about which games and which developers to work with. They can’t work with everyone.

As for the certification process, as a gamer I like it. Why? Because the last thing I want is for Xbox consoles and Windows Phones to become like PCs, where broken ass games are released, knowing they can try and fix it with numerous patches. If you can make a game that works out of the box, don’t waste my times with umpteen patches, because I’ll just delete the game if I have to constantly download patches to get it to work, when it should have worked to begin with.

Oh well, life goes on.

Anonymous

thanks for the nice review the fist version was a phototype
the game is now a fullblowen fps shoter and it works out of the box
we have spend 1.5 years on the game and we all got to start someware
that is why we released a phototype in may to see if people is hook on the game and i think thay are with 82.000 download the fist week

Anonymous

English is not my main language but with that post we can see clearly why you don’t get a reply to your emails.

Anonymous

sorry i am kiend of wordblind
you can read more about it here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexia_(condition)
verry sorry but that is the way with me
sorry

FutureFrankie

Tom, you may not get this message, but let me tell you: I’m not a gamer by any means, maybe I get bored or maybe I just suck, but man! Your game is sick. I was up from 2am to 7am playing ARMED! I wish I could buy it twice, or 4 times.

The point I’m trying to make is that your game is INCREDIBLE, INCREDIBLE, INCREDIBLE

Tom Spilman

Thanks for the praise Frankie.

We’ve been overwhelmed by the response and we’re working hard on fixes, improvements, and new features now.

The best thing you can do if you want to see more ARMED! is tell your friends and get the word out… we will continue to update and improve it as long as people are buying it.

http://www.facebook.com/willem.evenhuis Willem Evenhuis

Tried the game a few days. Very nice and addictive. There are a couple of big flaws. As the game progresses, the rendering of the game slows down.
http://twitter.com/mrpakiman adam

ALL CAPS RAGE!!!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jon-Rob/2052352 Jon Rob

The marketplace is all screwed up. It really needs to be re-evaluated.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=547254164 Camilo Guido

Some things do need work, such as local multiplayer matches. Otherwise best multiplayer game available for windows phone

Tom Spilman

We’re about to send off an update today to certification which should fix all the major issues from launch. After that we’re immediately starting on Mango support and some new features and maps.

Alexandre Bardelot

Hi Tom Spilman.

I’m one of the developer of Arcane’s Tower defense for WP7.

We had the same issues with Xbox live program so we also decided to release it on the market.

We won a contest in France with Steve balmer and CEOs from huge compagnies with ATD, and even with that and our 3D Tower defense, MGS didn’t get any interest from us. They answered to our xbl request with the default answer email …. we send them a 180 page documentation, a test version of the game and a trailer video.

Microsoft doesn’t help new editor to publish their game, they only help android/iphone devs and well known developers to certificate game like crog mog rally or PItfall. It is really sad.

Anonymous

that is what i meen no matter how hard we try we will all ways be led down
and you know why they only help android/iphone devs
becourse there future custmores are there and microsoft whants to make shure that the people that by the phones has the same games
microsoft do not care about there developers that have supported them manny years
so you all need to do games for iphone or android and then you get spotted by microsoft
then you can make an xbox live version and earn some real dollars
Tom Spilman

Hey Alexandre.

Yea… it does seem their priority is working with established IPs or well known publishers. It might be a better strategy if you really want to be an XBL game to find a well known publishing partner first then have them deal with MS.

That said… in our case the game was made and we needed no funding to complete it. A publisher would have brought only some advertising and access to the XBL program… for probably alot of our revenue.

I personally am an Xbox achievements whore… so i would loved to have had them, but there was no path there for us at the time. Still i’m happy with how things turned out for our game… we’re in control of our own destiny.

I think the only alternative for us indies is for a game-centric social network aggregator to become available that can link all the major networks… XBL, Playstation Network, Scoreloop, and OpenFeint profiles under one account.

Tom

Tom Spilman

We totally agree… ARMED! will be on other platforms as soon as we can. The game lets itself well to cross device play. Xbox is one thing we’re considering, but i do worry about return on that investment… those games are even harder to find in the new dash update.