Live Arcade quality is an easy target..

McDermotX

Have to say, in complete agreement with them...............there is some amount of crap on Live Arcade these days..(or maybe they're not happy with N+ sales ???)
Don't get me wrong, there's a couple of gems in there (that everyone's familiar with...mostly legacy titles), but the vast, vast majority are too crap, too similar and too overpriced................a complete reversal of the original idea behind XBLA..
Thank God for trial versions !!


http://gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17960

N+ Creators Speak Out On XBLA Quality Issues
As part of an in-depth Gamasutra interview published today, outspoken N+ creators Raigan Burns and Mare Sheppard have questioned the state of Xbox Live Arcade, suggesting quality issues and publisher-guided games are overwhelming its innovation.

The duo, which worked with Slick Entertainment's Nick Waanders to publish ninja action game N+ for XBLA release last month, had sharp words for the games released on the Xbox 360 digital download service, with Burns explaining:

"I think the thing with Live Arcade, though, is that I remember the last year and the year before. Two years ago was when we were first talking with Microsoft about doing it, 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."

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.

I guess it's because they have a lot of power that no one has pointed out that that's the primary reason. Those decisions that are ruining Live Arcade... it's like, who greenlit Word Puzzle? Who green-lit that hoverboard game that's just ****?

Nick [Waanders] has this racing... do you know Iron Man Off-Road Racing, like the old arcade game? It's four-player, and a little isometric. Nick made a racing game like that, and Microsoft was like, "Well, racing is too saturated on Live Arcade." But that's because they've greenlit like ten really ****ty racing games. There's no good racing games."

At this point, Gamasutra editor Brandon Sheffield interjected that the service "has that Yaris game", leading the duo to add:

Raigan: "Oh my god. Exactly! That's the whole thing. They all suck. 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 ****."

Mare: People are used to seeing crap on there.

Raigan: If I was a consumer, I could see not even looking at Live Arcade games anymore if I had downloaded 10 or 20 demos, because at a certain point, you're like, "Whatever. Maybe there's a good game in here.""

faceman

I agree too. Some of the crap in there. N+ is great.

But at the end of the day though, we have to remember that we dont buy our xbox's for XBLA.

McDermotX

Very true,
but in this day and age....there is a need for an online service which is capable of supplying quality immediate entertainment..
But there still needs to be a quality/pricing line-to-tow so to speak, or else we'll be overrun with inept Robotron/Beserk-alikes.............that not only applies to XBLA, but also to PSN, and to an extent VC (a far more disappointing service for me personally given that was a main reason for my Wii purchase..........although that is more down to the outrageous pricing than the quality of title)..

Sticking with the 360's problem though, barely a week goes by without yet another faceless clone, completely devoid of any real quality, yours for the grand sum of 800 points or so..
I wouldn't mind if MS threw out 75% of the junk on the service and started again with a new quality level established..
Then again, the fact that we are given the trials (with a certain hopeful level of purchase by MS) is evident of the quantity over quality mantra spoken out against by the likes of the above

johnny_ultimate

Solution: don't buy the crap.
Pay for the likes of Rez, N+, Castlevania, Puzzle Quest and Microsoft will eventually realise that quality sells. As long as people keep buying ****, Microsoft will gladly sell it.

McDermotX

Thats the easy solution alright Johnny........but the continued influx of crap suggests there is a level of sales/advertisement MS are prepared to accept to continue with this policy..
More alarming may be instances of potential quality developers being shunned into stopping development of possible XBLA gems in favour of the by-the-numbers baseline rubbish..