Making a Living Developing Xbox Live Indie Games? Don’t Count On It

With the mobile game craze seemingly unable to reach a peak, and with Sony, Microsoft and even Valve making it relatively easy for indie developers to publish their games for mass consumption, it might seem like there is no downside to the settling on indie game development as a career choice. But, as it seems, it’s not as easy as it looks. Making money, that is.

Ars Technica talked to a couple of indie developers who have published their content through Microsoft’s Xbox Live Indie Games program, and of the developers queried, the average earnings per title wound up being… $3,800. Ouch. On a game that might take a year or two to develop, how on earth can an return-of-investment like this be justified, and can it be improved?

Developer Zeboyd Games, who’ve tapped the XBLIG for all of its releases so far, saw an impressive 50,000 sales with its first game, Breath of Death VIII, selling for $1, and then 16,000 with its second, Cthulhu Saves the World, at $3. In terms of XBLIG sales, these numbers are actually impressive, but as a game developer trying to live off of such sales and look to build up a company, they’re extremely non-impressive.

Why is that? In the article, there are a couple of areas explored. One good reason could be that Microsoft just doesn’t promote indie content well enough – or at all. Another is that indie content cannot contain achievements or be played offline, a potential major problem for some players. It can be expected, then, that the vast majority of Xbox players will never even venture into the indie category, but rather stick to the Xbox Live Arcade. Why don’t more indie developers strive for their titles appearing in the Arcade section? Huge entry fees.

At the very least, it’s argued, Microsoft could step up and help promote indie content better. I think it should, because in my personal experience, indie games can be some of the most fun and enjoyable out there. On the other hand, though, the last time I stepped into the indie section on my Xbox, I was immediately turned off by some of the totally nonsensical titles that simply didn’t seem to belong – and I’m confident I’m not alone.

Still, can’t Microsoft do more? To be fair, Sony doesn’t seem to do much more, but take Valve, for example. Even though its Steam service sells and heavily promotes the latest blockbusters, people who use the service are well aware of indie content. Valve even goes as far as to work with indie developers on occasion, and regularly offer indie bundle packs for mind-blowing prices. Perhaps we need to see something like this happen on the Xbox (and PlayStation 3), else all of these indie developers will wind up moving to mobile platforms – or better yet, the PC.