Team Meat slams Microsoft's Xbox support
March 1, 2011 | 09:45
Companies: #indie #microsoft #team-meat
Team Meat, the indie developer behind Super Meat Boy, has spoken out against Microsoft at GDC in San Francisco and accused the Xbox 360 team of failing to deliver on promises of marketing support.
Speaking at GDC 2011 Team Meat's co-CEO Tommy Refenes said that Microsoft promised that Super Meat Boy would be the only title released on XBLA on the week that it launched - during MS' October Game Feast event. However, Microsoft then released Double Fine's Costume Quest at the same time, putting two popular games against each other.
Refenes claims that Team Meat was also promised top-billing on XBLA's spotlight section, but that it never appeared. Only after numerous complaints were Team Meat able to get any promotion, eventually appearing in fourth position much later on launch day. Microsoft instead gave top-billing to the 'Spooktacular' collection of already released games.
'An ad for a Mazda 3 was the number two slot – because you all go on Xbox to figure out what car you want, right?' said Refenes, according to Eurogamer. 'We were number four and we stayed number four the entire week.'
Refenes then claims Microsoft promised that Super Meat Boy would get more promotion the better it sold, but that nothing changed despite strong sales that eclipsed other Game Feast titles and critical acclaim.
'We just kind of got pushed to the side, and that's basically how the Xbox Live launch went. The only reason the game sold well was because of how we promoted it. The help from Microsoft was there in a very limited capacity,' Refenes said.
'It's not supposed to hurt your feelings because it's business, but it totally hurt my feelings. Me and Ed just killed ourselves trying to get this game done'
Refenes adds that the creative team Team Meat was in contact with at Microsoft were much better, though Valve was much easier to work with when the Steam release came about. The PC release went off without a hitch, with sales easily surpassing those on consoles. Super Meat Boy is now approaching 400,000 sales.
Read our Super Meat Boy review for more information on the game, then let us know your thoughts in the forums.
Speaking at GDC 2011 Team Meat's co-CEO Tommy Refenes said that Microsoft promised that Super Meat Boy would be the only title released on XBLA on the week that it launched - during MS' October Game Feast event. However, Microsoft then released Double Fine's Costume Quest at the same time, putting two popular games against each other.
Refenes claims that Team Meat was also promised top-billing on XBLA's spotlight section, but that it never appeared. Only after numerous complaints were Team Meat able to get any promotion, eventually appearing in fourth position much later on launch day. Microsoft instead gave top-billing to the 'Spooktacular' collection of already released games.
'An ad for a Mazda 3 was the number two slot – because you all go on Xbox to figure out what car you want, right?' said Refenes, according to Eurogamer. 'We were number four and we stayed number four the entire week.'
Refenes then claims Microsoft promised that Super Meat Boy would get more promotion the better it sold, but that nothing changed despite strong sales that eclipsed other Game Feast titles and critical acclaim.
'We just kind of got pushed to the side, and that's basically how the Xbox Live launch went. The only reason the game sold well was because of how we promoted it. The help from Microsoft was there in a very limited capacity,' Refenes said.
'It's not supposed to hurt your feelings because it's business, but it totally hurt my feelings. Me and Ed just killed ourselves trying to get this game done'
Refenes adds that the creative team Team Meat was in contact with at Microsoft were much better, though Valve was much easier to work with when the Steam release came about. The PC release went off without a hitch, with sales easily surpassing those on consoles. Super Meat Boy is now approaching 400,000 sales.
Read our Super Meat Boy review for more information on the game, then let us know your thoughts in the forums.
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