XBOX 1 Development? Dumb Decisions are costly

Well, all the views in this post are not my views and they are of industry experts. One year back I was working on a project which was supposed to be on PC and then decision was taken to develop both for XBOX and PC and I was really amazed how company took the decision of XBOX and not XBOX 360 but so called visionary grand old man of gaming industry predicted XBOX 360 a failure and was sure that people will continue to use their XBOX consoles but how in this whole world give him an idea that XBOX title had market? Still I followed and started working on the project considering everything to be on PC and XBOX.
One fine day, I got shock of my life when that grand old man of gaming industry told me that he decided to drop the PC release as the kinda game we were doing was more suited for consoles and he dropped the PC version completely. The world stopped for me that day as I really couldn't think of such a decision by someone of that cadre. I was following the industry trend and XBOX 360 was rapidly gaining market and XBOX was being removed from shelves and everybody knows how Microsoft expertises in this practice. XBOX never had a presence and whatever little it had (3.6% in 2006), Microsoft itself was trying to eradicate its own presence and replace with powerhouse XBOX 360. PC version was the only excuse for me to continue working on that project and that excuse was not there so I decided to move ahead in my life with more meaning ful things. I don't follow instructions blindly, I have my opinions and I ask questions but when those big daddies think that our suggestions and questions don't matter then time is right to walk out. I did that and I'm happy.
Recently I found a relevant link on gamedev (http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=433541&whichpage=1&#2881364) which also talks about the XBOX future. These industry experts are right and let me summarize what they are trying to convey:

1. Do yourself a favor and look into XNA. I can't really see an Xbox 1 game selling very well, as well as XNA could potentially speed up your development time. If you could get your hands on a Dev Kit (at little or no expense) it might be worth it just to see what a Dev Kit is actually like.
2. The Xbox 1 is already as good as dead. Publishers aren't interested and some retailers are already clearing them out of their stores and selling off final stock.
3. The point is that you can't make commercial games on Xbox 1. By that I mean that you may be able to make a game but there won't be any way to make it commercial because Microsoft and all the publishers are giving up on it. The Xbox 1 market is dead now. 8 months from now (22nd Jan 2007) it will smell really bad.
4. The latest issue of the UK trade paper has some numbers for software sales per format by value....In 2005 the Xbox 1 had 11.6% of the market, In 2006 it was down to 3.8% and In 2007....?
5. Regarding usage of emulator to run XBOX game on XBOX 360, A publisher will only consider those if they are their own back-catalogue games. They won't want to sell an Xb1 game + emu to Xb360 users. There is no point when there are already more than enough 360 games available.
6. Publishers are stupid (very). If you are trying to sell a 360 game they want to see it on 360. Maybe less so once you are an established developer but essential if you are trying to break in.
7. Eight months from now most publishers won't have an Xbox dev system or console on which to view demos. The ones they have will have been tossed in the basement and they won't be able to find the controller/PSU.
8. If you ignore point 6 and go ahead with a proof of concept on a different machine then the only worthwhile machine would be PC as you can at least bring that game to completion and sell it yourself over the net.
9. The fact that someone already has the xbox is a problem not an advantage. He has invested time and money into learning it and thus doesn't want to waste it. However, going ahead and developing on that platform is a dead-end and as such is an even bigger waste of time and money. Time to drop it and move on.

Well, I think someone should be sensible enough to check the market trends also and going by personal instinct is really lethal for the comapany's reputation and people (at least I) will suspect the credibility of those big daddies and specially when the entire development cost has been paid up by someone else who is successful in all sort of business and thought of getting into gaming bcoz it yields huge returns and that's why he could afford to hire those big daddies but some months down the line, he'd realize that there's huge amount of difference between a marketing guy and a CEO. CEO is a visionary and marketing guys sell that vision but if you ask marketing guy to control the company, he doesn't have a vision and there's a dead end again........... I'll soon post the fate of that project.

Wake up Guyz

Those of you who just don't miss a single opportunity to curse Microsoft, take a gun and shoot at your head!! Those of you who think that XNA is good only for games like tetris and all, c'mon give me a break. Why would Microsoft invest its resources into something which is so elementry.
You wanna see what XNA can do for you?? Watch out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OHJpeCwOmk
This is as good as any commercial grade game written using any commercial grade engine.

Gaming Scenario in India

Those who've asked me about the status of Indian game companies...here's a small database of the projects being done at various companies:
1. Indiagames: This is surely one of the best gaming company in India and with serious business, intention and money. They are universally available on mobile, on PC and now on web in the form of GOD-Games on Demand (god.indiagames.com). Their Emperor Ashoka can be ranked as the best work so far (under production). These guys can be credited for Yoddha and Chakravyuha which are India's first FPS games.

2. Raptor Entertainment: This bangalore based company is amazing. They were hidden in dungeon and were working on their on XFORCE engine which is definitely the best til date from India. Now these guys are writing a game on top of it.

3. Dhruva Interactive: Who doesn't know this company? The pioneer (+_ with indiagames), the creator and the innovator. They started with their own engine which was good by international sandards too. They worked on some international projects but some problem with IP etc. but this company is still the first choice for investments and project outsourcing for foreign companies. They are working on several outsourcing projects and porting work and yes, their mobile game division is rocking.

4. Paradox Studios Ltd.: Another THE company which is now a part of Reliance and holds over 15% of mobile market. They tried PC gaming few years back using Gamebryo but failed but now they are back and working on a PC game, you gotta see their art guyz they just rock!!!

5. EA Mobile: Name says it all but they won't venture into PC as of now as they feel that they can't create COD or GeOW kinda game here, I agree.

6. GameLoft: Same as above

7. Nazara Games: They've got a huge portfolio of mobile games and tied up with Exit Games and Archie to create games for them. No intention for PC games as of now.

8. RZ2 Games: Started by who's who guyz like CHRIS WHALEY, GARLAND WONG and ANTHONY WHITAKER (was in ID). This unit is an extnesion of iEnergizer. They are in R&D phase but watch out guyz as they have the best talents available and they are always here so makes an impact.

9. VBeing: The company from Kawabonka guys, India's first MMORG site. These guys are using Lithtech engine and focus is PC gaming. They worked on an FPS called Marker Nash, turn based 3D game called Asian battle Chase and a multiplayer soccer game. The demo of FPS was promising but they scrapped the project but seriousness continues as they've hired Steve Oldacre (ex dreamweavers and psygnosis guy) and Angelo Bod (ex eidos and virgin guy).

10. FXLabs Studios: This company is a brainchild of Mr. Sashi Reddi who's the founder of Applabs Technologies. He's roped in Tony Garcia (ex microsoft, surreal, EA guy), Beau Folson (same as Tony), Brice Broadus (ex THQ guy) but they are operating from US and are on/off to India. For last 2 yrs, they'd been working on The Lost which is now renamed to Inferno (developed using Unreal 2.5) and working on Aarchie's Riverale Run (very much in line with Simpson's Hit & Run) for last one year and using Gamebryo 1.2.2 for this and this game is gonna be on XBOX. They've tied up with Yashraj to produce a game based on Dhoom-2 the movie.

11. RedOctane: The creator of Guitar Hero have their base in India but what they'll come up with in India is something I'm digging into.

12. Aurona Technologies: Main focus is on Art outsourcing (garfield and some more) and porting services. Nothing concrete in development but the guys are playing with Terrathon's C4 Engine.

Some big companies like HCL, Xensar and Wipro are also nurturing their teams to get into this. They are going the right way by first building the team and then taking the projects but I've seen companies doing other way round. I think their experience is teaching them the right way. Don't underestimate them thinking that they won't be serious, c the case of Microsoft (game studio). Microsoft is also tasting water & right now they just have casual game division here in India but things may change soon. Watch out for me too.

I'll update this list as I get more information. You can see that in-house productions are being done in 8 companies but no company as concrete development outsourcing but art outsourcing and mobile game business is flourishing. Still there's whole of time when Indian market will be mature enough to attract the complete development outsourcing til then be happy with mobile games, art outsourcing or porting services. In-House productions may also shine but that is directly proportional to the quality of International products as the games are looked and compared with that standards even in India.