Nathan Fouts of Mommy’s Best Games reported today via Twitter, “XBLIG Top Downloads now factor in 1 week of data. Compare to 1 day for all other games…and tons of XBLIGs are on top!” This then lead us to some information posted on the App Hub forums yesterday, stating:
“Previously games were selected and ordered based on the previous day’s sales information. This caused an illusion of the channel being frozen if sales data was delayed as well as exposing an instability in the channel due to occasional daily spikes. To improve this experience, we have changed the time interval from daily to rolling weekly. What this means is that the top downloads channel will show games based on the previous week’s data each day. Though it will be slightly more difficult to get on the list in the first place, the top downloads channel will be more reliable and less likely to be affected by daily delays or issues.”
The photo above is a screenshot of today’s Xbox Live Marketplace, featuring the “Best selling today” tab as seen in the top right corner. Despite the label “today,” it now reflects the weekly downloads for XBLIG titles, and the daily downloads for XBLA and retail titles. This is a breath of fresh air for those on the indie platform, especially coming off of the ratings sabotage business in the recent past. Just last week, Microsoft had taken measures to rectify the situation by banning Live silver accounts from rating games on Xbox.com.
Robert Boyd of Zeboyd Games, who initially brought the ratings situation to light claimed in response to the post “Although not the revenue-based change that many of us were hoping for (sorting games based on money earned, not just sales quantity so as to encourage and help higher priced games), I think this is probably a good change.”
Daniel Frandsen of RGB Games chimed in on his Twitter with, “Awesome! any exposure is great, especially exposure that says ‘hey, these games are selling well!’”
Angus Cheng, formerly of Baller Industry, doesn’t share the same sentiment though, asserting, “Well it makes it harder to get onto the top downloaded list.”
Only time will tell how this effects XBLIG developers overall, but certainly most are optomistic that it will boost sales and direct new eyes toward the platform. What are your thoughts? Does this effect the platform in a positive way, or a negative one? Leave your thoughts below.
Source: App Hub Forums
Via: Nathan Fouts
Update: fixed headline
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