Indie Games

Wolverine359

Will the Indie Games section ever be available in Ireland? I just heard good reviews for Cthulhu Saves the World, and searched the xbla for it but no joy, then did some googling and learned about indie games on xbox, but that it's not accessible in Ireland for some reason. Is there a work around, like setting up a US or UK account, buy points and get it that way?

gizmo

There's no viable workaround really so all we can do is wait until MS take the finger out.

What really gets me is that Irish developers are allowed to submit games to the Indie Marketplace but we can't access it. It boggles the ****ing mind tbh.

Raze_them_all

Set up the us account. I know a few posters on here have done it that way

qbhod

They also don't have voice control for Kinect in Ireland "yet", pretty damn sure there's a quite a few 360 users in Ireland so i don't get all this neglect

Fingleberries

Raze_them_all wrote: »

Set up the us account. I know a few posters on here have done it that way

Yep - I've done this. You can just set up a US Based account on XBox.com (Hint: the old address of Bevely Hills, 90210 is a valid ZIP code ) and then when you log in on the XBOX you get to see lots of US Content, including Indie Games that you can download.

The Trial games are free, like with Arcade, but you will need US Microsoft Points to buy them. A lot of the cheap sites in the Sticky at the top of the forum will also sell these.

(Side Note: You also see US Games on Demand, Movies and TV shows, but I think these are region locked and you can't buy / rent them. Shame, because there are some decent reductions on the US Games on Demand - including $19.99 classics line, not the €39.99 they want to charge here for Halo3 kind of messing)

docdolittle

Yup, it's really crap I wanted 'i mad3 a game with z0mbi3s in it' and others... The worst thing is, I have a student developers licence, Microsoft are always in DIT and want us to make games with XNA, but we can't even buy our own games or see if we can get friends in Ireland to if we do

gizmo

docdolittle wrote: »

Yup, it's really crap I wanted 'i mad3 a game with z0mbi3s in it' and others... The worst thing is, I have a student developers licence, Microsoft are always in DIT and want us to make games with XNA, but we can't even buy our own games or see if we can get friends in Ireland to if we do

Have you guys raised the issue with them at all? What did they say?

docdolittle

gizmo wrote: »

Have you guys raised the issue with them at all? What did they say?

Well I haven't, I'm only in a 1 year back to education course in games there... I only started using XNA in this course and didn't really talk to the MS people, they were mostly there to push Windows Phone 7, make Microsoft look like a big happy company to work with/for and other stuff though :rolleyes:

I'm pretty sure I've seen a post somewhere from a MS rep saying that if indie games aren't in your area, don't ask when they'll be available, we'll tell you when they are... I'll look for it now..

Edit: here's the info http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/t/36780.aspx http://create.msdn.com/en-US/home/faq/xbox_live_indie_games#xboxfaq-regionalinfo

Unsupported countries for buying/selling - When will the list change? Reply Quote
Where can I submit games from?
Countries you can submit from http://creators.xna.com/en-US/faq#anchor_1_59
(Currently Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States)

Where can people buy XBox Live Indie Games/What regions can I submit to?
Countries you can submit games to http://creators.xna.com/en-US/faq#anchor_1_58
(Currently U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Singapore and Spain)

What languages are supported?
You can localise your games into English, French, Spanish (of Spain), Italian, German and Japanese. It is NOT mandatory to translate when you release to a region though it may help sales. Note that it will also likely slow your review. See Language Review issues

When will {my country} be supported?
There are currently no additional countries announced - please don't keep asking in the forums it doesn't change anything. Watch the XNA blog and news page.
If your country does not support Xbox Live then its not going to happen any time soon. Sorry.

Can I develop and play my own games outside of those countries?
If you can get a free membership code (see membership FAQ) then it will work in any country that has xbox live. However you cannot buy an XNA membership unless you are in one of the listed countries.

Can I work around the system?
No.
Many folk ask what is needed to work around the system? An address? A bank account? Tax ID?
We don't know for sure and if we did we wouldn't be posting in in here - its unsupported and Pheel says "don't think of doing it because then we might have to ban you"
The only supported 'workarounds' are
Move to one of the supported countries and fulfil the financial and tax requirements for that country.
If you work on a team and one team member lives in valid country then they can submit - its up to you to work out how to share profits and don't forget the person who submits deals with the taxes.
Anything else you do is at your own risk, unsupported by Microsoft and may have consequences for your account and your game...

Why is it not available in {my country}?
We don't know. Microsoft don't say why. It may be due to financial, legal or just simply not enough time. Remember that its a complex process that involves game ratings, international money transfers and taxation and therefore lawyers, accountants and even possibly politicians so you can image the trouble that causes!

Wolverine359

Thanks for the info guys! It looks like I'll be moving to California, at least I'll be able to enjoy a few indie games while I'm there.