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[willy]

I want to port one of my games that is free on PC onto XBLIG.

I would release it for free on XBLIG, but I am forced to charge a minimum 8 Microsoft Points (1USD).

What are your thoughts on this? I don't want people to think they've been fooled or anything.

[moi]

If it's not worth one dollar, then don't port it to xblig.
You can port it to WP7 for free though

[willy]

Thanks

It's not a completely crappy game, and it would play well with a gamepad. To me it's worth one dollar.

But it is already free on PC, therefore some people may think it's not worth it. I don't want them to feel bad if they found out post-purchase it's actually free on PC, even if it's just one dollar.

[andy wolff]

I say go for it if that's what you want to do. It's certainly worth a try.

What's the game made in now? If it's already in XNA then it should be really easy to port it, and if it's not then you stand to learn a lot by porting it

[willy]

I can export to XNA. So that bit should be really easy.

I am completely green when it comes to xblig and want to learn a little about the community, the xbox limitations and the process of uploading, so yeah I think I'd learn a lot.

[bateleur]

XBLIG is broken as a channel anyway. It has the pricing conventions of iPhone but without the sales volumes.

[Hima]

You can tell them there's a free version in the game description, and they can try playing that one first. If they like it and want it on their XBox, then I don't think they'd mine paying $1 for XBLIG version.

[willy]

You can tell them there's a free version in the game description, and they can try playing that one first. If they like it and want it on their XBox, then I don't think they'd mine paying $1 for XBLIG version.

Thanks, I might go for something like that.

[tergem]

Speaking from experience and being in the 'AppHub*' community for years, you will not see many sales (maybe, at best, about 10 people earn a living, 1-3 with 6 digits a year... those guys are an extreme rarity, you will likely get about the low-mid 3-4 digits in a year from a single project, people tend to get the money for their submission back but not much else) but getting the game on XBLIG is a great learning experience and easy on beginners to submission processes. Also the joy of seeing YOUR game running on a home console and on the digital distribution service is immense.

In short: Pros: Joyous, simple, fun Cons: Not monetarily worth the effort for most games made.

* To me AppHub is still the Creator's Club, and Kinect is still Natal.

[willy]

people tend to get the money for their submission back but not much else.

I would be satisfied with covering the yearly USD99 Creators club membership. Would be great if it covered other expenses such as web hosting too, but I am not expecting much.

Thanks for your insight.

[SaturnineGames]

XBLIG is broken as a channel anyway. It has the pricing conventions of iPhone but without the sales volumes.

Eh, I'd say it's like iPhone but at a smaller scale.

Most XBLIG games make barely anything, and most iPhone games make barely anything. The top selling games on iPhone will completely blow away the top selling games on XBLIG, but either way you're only looking at a tiny percentage of the games making big money.

A good game is more likely to sell on iPhone than on XBLIG, but realistically you're not likely to make a ton of money on either platform.

[moi]

I'd think the opposite: a good game is most likely to sell well on XBLIG than on Iphone.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

yeah it'd be hard to imagine some games (particularly massage games and hardcore jrpgs like the call of the cthulu and breath of death) doing as well on iphone as they did on xblig. it's all about audience