Monaco dev laments "disappointing" Xbox sales
Blames last minute delay and demo.
The developer of wonderful robbery simulator Monaco has expressed his disappointment at sales of the game on Xbox.
In a post on Reddit, Monaco creator Andy Schatz said the last minute delay to the game "unquestionably hurt our sales". The delay, he explained, was due to a bug that meant four player games were disconnecting, but because it was specific to the retail Xbox 360 units, it was impossible to detect until after Monaco passed through Microsoft's certification process.
"I was never depending on the Xbox being our primary revenue generator, but I was very disappointed in Xbox sales nonetheless," Schatz said.
"We put a ton of effort porting the game, and to have that effort be largely wasted was really disappointing.
"OTOH, I don't think the demo was particularly strong... so it could be that the game wouldn't have done better on Xbox even if it had a simultaneous launch (though IMO it would have performed at least twice as well).
"We had to submit two patches, and luckily they had already relaxed the charges for that process about a month prior."
A number of indie developers have spoken out about their experience creating games for Xbox Live Arcade, and many of those have complained about Microsoft's processes and terms and conditions.
Microsoft's policies mean developers must sign a deal with an established publisher to get their games on Xbox 360 - or sign directly with Microsoft Studios. Read more about this in Eurogamer's investigation Making an XBLA: The Inside Story.
Schatz was diplomatic: "As for Microsoft's treatment of us through the process... well we had a publisher (Majesco) that buffered us from them. I don't really feel like it's a good idea to piss in the pool, so whatever complaints I have I think it's best that I keep them between me, Majesco, and Microsoft."