XBLA’s Braid Needs More Sales

XBLA offers great opportunities for the indy developer but everything comes at a price. Over the last three years Braid‘s developer Jonathan Blow spent a reported $180,000 to create the popular Braid title on Xbox Live. He’s going to need a lot more sales before he can celebrate the highly valued, highly reviewed title.

The Independent Games Festival was kind to him, giving him the “Innovation in Game Design” back in 2006, since then he’s put his money where is mouth is; his own money. There are good times and bad times when you’re discovering your dreams. The reviews surely made him feel great about the work he has done over the last three years but a review won’t pay the bills.

It may be a hard road ahead for Jonathan, hopefully at least breaking even on the project. Although he may not look back at the game as a financial success we can only imagine he’ll have a lot easier time getting funding or publishing for his next title, if that’s the path he chooses.

(Thanks, Kotaku)

0 thoughts on “XBLA’s Braid Needs More Sales”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

Rock Band 2: Free DLCRock Band 2: Free DLC

If you purchased Rock Band 2 you’ll find you can download 20 free songs if you register at rockband.com. Unfortunately, for now, you can only register to get an e-mail when the offer goes “live.” This is one step more than we could do last week if we purchased Rock Band 2 and went to their website to register.

How do you know if you can register? It’s on the back of the instruction book… what, you didn’t know to look there? Well, it’s okay because you still can’t get your 20 free downloads. In the future, if you register, you’ll get an e-mail (someday) with the codes you’ll need to be able to get 20 free song downloads.

We’re still not finished the song tracks that exist in the game, plus our old DLC and we still haven’t exported (or purchased the “patch) the Rock Band 1 song tracks. So, for a few of us, knowing we’ll get 20 downloadable songs in the future is great news.

For those that didn’t know about this – check the back of the booklet and then go and register your e-mail address!

(Thanks, GameStooge)

Episode 691: Lost TransformersEpisode 691: Lost Transformers

The guys discuss Baldur’s Gate 3 and Dead by Daylight, as well as other topics.

This week’s news items include:

  • Rumor: Elder Scrolls 4 remake is in development
  • Cities: Skylines 2‘s maps will be about 5 times as large as those of the original
  • Hasbro says Activision has lost its Transformers games on a hard drive in its offices somewhere
  • Baldur’s Gate 3 has a “hidden skill tree” for Illithid powers

Let us know what you think.

Episode 271: Paul-less PodcastEpisode 271: Paul-less Podcast

This week’s Gaming Podcast lacks Paul S. Nowak, who had to bow out due to illness, but there’s still Jonah Falcon, Jordan Lund and Daniel Quick to keep the podcast lively. This week features yet another weird NES title, Wall Street Kid, and some friendly Paul-less banter between the trio.

This week’s news includes:

  • Capcom: Street Fighter X Tekken DLC will never come to Xbox 360
  • Vivendi finding few buyers for Activision-Blizzard
  • Gearbox: “Wouldn’t be surprised” if more aggressive PC games start to appear
  • Grand Theft Auto V will support planes and jets, won’t have beta test

Jonah also startles Dan and Jordan with a “secret topic” with the $99 console, the Ouya, which leads to the Question of the Week, “Would you buy a $99 Android-based console?”