Kage Maru
New member
We already started an online movement via Twitter under the hashtag #SaveXboxWP when Asphalt 8 launched without Xbox integration, the first Gameloft game to do so. Read here for details. We've let both Microsoft and Gameloft know our opinion. If GTA launches without Xbox support, we'll add them to the list and lobby them continuously. If you think online social movements don't work then you need to go back and look at the aftermath of Microsoft's Xbox One announcements at E3. People mobilized online and Microsoft changed their policies. (I was not one of them as I preferred the original Xbox One policies, but that's a different rant). The best way to get what you want is to boycott a product and let companies know exactly why you are doing so. Then you encourage others to do the same. How do you not get what you want? You buy their nerfed product anyway hoping that that will somehow encourage them to give you what you want later (news flash: it won't). You want me to spend my own money on a game that doesn't have the features I want? Eff that. I buy games that already have what I want in them. I'm not running a charity here.
I hope your #savexboxwp movement works, I really do. However you’ll have to excuse me for having major doubts. What happened with the Xbox One is more of an exception to the norm than anything else. The ONLY reason why MS changed anything with the Xbox One is because the negative reaction was so overwhelming, they really had no choice if they wanted that system to sell at all. I don’t see this same overwhelming demand for XBL integration for WP games. If this demand was there, the sales would show for it. However as we see with games such as Chickens Can’t Fly (which previously had XBL integration) and Asphalt 8, the sales of WP games does not seem to warrant the extra investment necessary to add XBL features.
I’m sorry but your view of this whole thing seems to be clouded by ignorance. You claim games without XBL features are “nerfed”. These games are generally the same as they are on IOS and Android, so they aren’t nerfed at all, they are actually up to the industry standard. They are only nerfed compared to your unrealistic expectations. Speaking of unrealistic expectations, do you even have the slightest idea how game development works? You say you’re not running a charity here, but ignore that men and women still work very hard to produce the games that appear on our platform of choice. These developers rarely get to choose what features they wish to add to a game, any major developments would need to be approved by the publisher first. So even IF the team wants to add XBL features, this would need to be green-lit by the publisher.
You say you’re not running a charity. That’s fine, but I much rather not punish hard working people for my own selfish desires, especially if I want the game. As long as it’s a good port that can stand with the IOS and Android versions, it deserves my sale IMO. Makes no point to deny myself of enjoying a good game.
Xbox integration makes games better: it increases replay value, it provides a unified experience, it increases the social aspect of gaming, and it offers a sense of exclusivity that other products don't have. I won't buy a game without it, and I know thousands of other people who feel the same way (these are also the same people who are more likely to buy games and more likely to encourage other people to buy games). It is in my opinion that the growth of the platform is dependent on the growth of Xbox games on the platform (not vice-versa). This feature is the only way to compensate for the fact that iOS and Android get more games and they get them faster. So we get fewer games and we get them later, but at least they had something extra, something unique to set them apart from iOS and Android; they had exclusive Xbox features. Without that, they're merely boring ports. The trend away from Xbox gaming on Windows Phone is detrimental to the growth of the platform and goes against the appeal and uniqueness of Microsoft's "One Microsoft" strategy.
I’m sorry but huh? When I asked whether or not XBL integration makes a game better, I was referring to it directly contributing to the gameplay itself, it does not. So while I think it’s great that you and thousands of people you “know” enjoy these extras, the facts show that these features are not a selling point. In fact all of the evidence contradicts what you claim in this paragraph. It may be your opinion that the growth is dependent on the growth of Xbox games, but it’s clearly a flawed and misguided opinion. Sales of the platform has continued to increase year over year while support for XBL has gone down. If what you say is true, sales of the platform would decrease, not increase. You also point to getting games later as an excuse for your demands of XBL, but what if we don’t get GTA:SA later? What if we get the game the same time as IOS and Android owners? Why make frivolous demands when we’re treated the same as IOS and Android users? What you also may not notice is that adding XBL features adds considerably to the development process, which may result in us getting the game late. I've seen an estimate that porting a XBL WP game to another platform, or vice versa, can add up to a month (or more) of development time. Really, read this quote to get a better understanding of what you're asking:
Microsoft originally claimed that porting games from iOS to Windows Phone would be a fast and easy process, with Fairway Solitaire (pictured above) supposedly taking just two weeks to translate to Windows Phone. That game actually took months to bring to release though, and multiple developers have since told us that porting is no minor feat of work.
The best comparison one of them made is that it an iOS game can be ported to Windows Phone in about half the time it takes to make a brand new iOS game – and that’s if the game doesn’t use Xbox Live. If it does, double the porting time at minimum.
In other words, it can take one or more months of effort to port a game. The bigger the game, the more work required. To get release date parity, Gameloft would have to delay the iOS and Android versions to match the Windows Phone version’s release, losing potential sales from those platforms in the process.
If a platform is large enough to represent a significant portion of a game’s potential sales – for instance, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 have similar worldwide install bases – then holding on to one version until another version is ready makes sense. Windows Phone has a much smaller user base, and so games won’t typically be ported until the lead version has already been released.
That extra time to add XBL features requires extra investment (i.e. extra money) on a platform with by far the lowest install base, and least likely to recoup the cost of said extra investment. This isn't even counting the extra hoops that MS requires developers/publishers to go through just to add XBL functionality.
Regardless if you care to admit or see it, WP does NOT have the marketshare for the users to make any demands. Regardless if you care to see it, XBL integration doesn’t matter to the majority of owners. Again, if it did, the sales would be there. If the sales were there to begin with, we wouldn’t see companies like Gameloft dropping XBL support. You can keep thinking what you want to think, but that doesn’t make it anymore true. You should at least give companies such as Gameloft the credit of trying with XBL support. It’s not their fault the extra investment didn’t pay off, that would be MS’ fault and the fault of the userbase (us WP owners).
So to recap: the demand (regardless of the thousands of people you supposedly know) isn’t there, what happened with the Xbox One doesn’t support your theory, and really in the end you’re still doing more damage than good to WP by not supporting these devs. Thankfully more people don’t think like you, because if they did, we wouldn’t have any support. I would love it if every game had XBL integration, but at the end of the day, I’m happy to pay for an app/game as long as it’s a quality app/game. The integration of XBL alone should not be the basis of what we consider “quality” and worthy of our money. I'm just being realistic about the situation, and I would suggest others do the same before we lose what support we do have.
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