Sony and Nintendo’s digital marketplaces are no match for Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade in terms of volume of product and benefit to developers. That’s according to Castle Crashers developer The Behemoth’s John Baez, who sung the platform’s praises in a new Official Xbox Magazine interview.
“I think without a doubt the indie console community would not exist as it does today if Xbox Live Arcade had been dropped after the original Xbox iteration,” Baez said. “No other console hardware manufacturer has had the success of downloadable games that XBLA has had. And many smaller developers have shared in that success.”
The Behemoth most definitely is counted in the latter, as Castle Crashers has sold over 2 million copies on Xbox Live alone, the report states.
Co-organizer of the annual Xbox Live Indie Games Uprising Dave Voyles also had kind words to share concerning Microsoft’s digital platform.
“I don’t believe Microsoft was prepared for the success that it would see, both in terms of the number of devs who were on board, and the volume of people who would browse the marketplace,” Voyles said. “Before XBLIG, and even after, there has yet to be an easy avenue for independent devs to get work released without going through a closed platform or dealing with a publisher.”
