N+ creators explain XBLA criticism

Metanet, the developer behind innovative ninja-themed game N+, has told the Internet it didn't mean to cause such a row by slagging off Xbox Live Arcade.

In an interview with Gamasutra Metanet's Raigan Burns stated, "I don't understand, first of all, how every game on Live Arcade has a demo, and yet people are buying so many of them that are crap. You'd think that having a demo would be like no sales.

"Two years ago was when we were first talking with Microsoft about doing [a game for XBLA], it was really exciting, because Live Arcade had just came out, and they were like, 'Oh, it's new. It's not going to be like retail. There's not going to be all this crap. There's going to be all these small, great, fun things,'" Burns continued.

"But now it's exactly the same. There's all these big-budget ones with big publishers making them, and the real problem, I think, is that the same people who are deciding what retail games get greenlit are deciding what Live Arcade games get greenlit."

Titles that have been greenlit, of course, include N+, which was released earlier this year. Dan liked it. But Burns pointed to Word Puzzle and the "ten really sh**ty racing games" on XBLA as examples of titles which are preventing N+ getting the attention it deserves.

"They all suck," he said. "It's like, when we started out, we were excited, just like with N. There were 30 games on Live Arcade. If N was one of them, it would stand out. Now there's like a hundred games, and they're all sh**."

Funnily enough, the Internet went bananas when it heard what Burns had to say. Metanet has since posted a response on its blog, stating, "We didn’t intend to provoke outrage, we simply spoke candidly. Actually saying what you think rather than being fake in an interview situation is apparently just not done, but don’t shoot the messenger - it’s not our fault that the vast majority of XBLA games suck!"

According to Metanet, it's not true that the best games will naturally stand out - they reckon people are ignoring XBLA completely because they're so used to playing demos of rubbish games. "The fact that the channel is glutted with crap IS a real problem that shouldn't be dismissed," the post goes on.

"This ties in to the larger rant of, 'Why do the majority of games TOTALLY SUCK ASS?', which is a very complex topic. Certainly everyone is to blame - gamers, developers, publishers, press. Hopefully someone will figure it out before consumers become totally jaded and it’s music-industry-style meltdown time."

Well, readers? Do you think the majority of games totally suck ass? Is the games industry going the same way as Britney and Winehouse? Or what they actually meant.