Darwinia dev Introversion done with XBLA

By Robert Purchese Published 4 March, 2011

Steam represents its future.

Couple Darwinia+'s longer than expected development with a "poor performance" on Xbox Live Arcade, and it's no wonder Introversion has decided to focus its future on Steam.

"Do we regret working with Microsoft? No, but it's unlikely we'll work with them again," Introversion's mouthpiece Mark Morris told PC Gamer.

"[Microsoft] make you work harder on the production value, but they don't back it up with sales."

Darwinia+ is a combination of Darwinia and Multiwinia - a project bossed by Microsoft that took Introversion down a frustratingly long and winding development path. Darwinia+ was eventually released in February 2010, nearly four years after Darwinia - and a precocious, naive Introversion - won top honours at the Independent Games Festival.

The poor sales of Darwinia+ almost ruined a fragile Introversion. What saved the once bastion of British independent gaming was, coincidentally, Steam, and the sale of nuclear warfare strategy game Defcon.

"For the first time in a long time we've got a cash flow that extends out for two years at our size, which is nice," said Morris in August 2010.

With that cash, Introversion can hoist its sails; and with creator Chris Delay reinvigorated to be finally working on his beloved Subversion - comes the wind to fill them.

Subversion: Introversion's long-awaited 'next'.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (46) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • CaptainQuint #1 1 year ago

    Poor sales breeds bitterness and blame.

  • Timbercottage #2 1 year ago

    I love Introversion, true innovators in their field. Everything they've done has been gold and Subversion looks like it's going to continue that record.

  • CrunchinJelly #3 1 year ago

    Haven't liked a single one of their games.

  • gamerBOB #4 1 year ago

    It's a shame their new game isn't going to be released on XBLA, I saw the early demo for it and was instantly hooked. I'm a big fan of the minimalist design.

  • LazyDan #5 1 year ago

    Shame. It seems like the devs who are bigger than indie, but not quite big-time (Introversion, Team Meat etc.) really struggle with Microsoft and XBLA. It's almost like there needs to be a middle ground between XBLA and XBLA Indie games in terms of openness vs quality control.

  • dancingrob #6 1 year ago

    surely the middle groud is the 400MSP indie game?

  • jamscones #7 1 year ago

    The games didn't sell well because they aren't that good. Sad but true.

  • evild_edd #8 1 year ago

    "[Microsoft] make you work harder on the production value, but they don't back it up with sales."

    Slightly odd comment - Microsoft can't force 360 owners to buy games, or any particular game. I don't think MS insisting on certain quality levels is a bad thing, it's pushing to get the best to 360 owners, as I'm sure Sony push for PSN users etc...

    I can only assume that Darwinia just wasn't suited to 360 or the userbase. Just more of a PC game, perhaps?

    I liked the look of it, but never got round to buying it (comparatively high price point, if I remember corectly), but this had nothing to do with a failing on MS's part. I was aware of the release, I just didn't act on it.

  • useyourloaf #9 1 year ago

    But would they have got more sales if a slightly less polished game had been released much earlier? I think that is what they are questioning.

  • AccidentProne #10 1 year ago

    It's a shame, Darvinia+ is one of my favourite games on XBLA, it was criminally overlooked I reckon. I guess the 1200 point price tag didn't help and it probably takes a little while to "click", but I thought it was well worth it.

  • Dizzy #11 1 year ago

    "I can only assume that Darwinia just wasn't suited to 360 or the userbase. Just more of a PC game, perhaps? "

    Indeed.

    Also wasn't the price quite high?

    XBLA has plenty of games that make shitloads of money. Not so cool being angry about your game that didn't sell and blame it on MS.

  • Wahoffelmadenga #12 1 year ago

    I enjoyed the Darwinia demo but its 1200 MS points (~£10) but only £6 on steam

  • mingster #13 1 year ago

    Come back to PC console gamers don't appreciate your talent. We do.

  • Lexx87 #14 1 year ago

    Darwinia+ is two games you forget, Darwinia and Multiwinia. Both utterly excellent.

  • lockload #15 1 year ago

    Good games breed good sales, the games average user review score is 6/10
    Edited by lockload at 04/03/11 @ 12:54

  • Markusdragon #16 1 year ago

    I suppose I might have been able to get into Darwinia+ (although it's not exactly my usual genre) but I somehow managed to hit a gamebreaking bug in the first level of the demo. It's probably bad luck, but that kind of experience breeds apathy.

  • darleysam #17 1 year ago

    I much, much preferred Defcon to Darwinia, and would like to think that Defcon would've sold much better on XBLA. Just couldn't get into Darwinia.

  • StooMonster #18 1 year ago

    Defcon on iOS * please, instabuy for me, and would work so well with touch interface.

    * and Android et al too.

  • mcmonkeyplc #19 1 year ago

    Defcon on mobiles NOW!

  • Cronan #20 1 year ago

    I like these guys, I like some of their previous games, but Darwinia+ just isn't very good

  • Mark1412 #21 1 year ago

    I still hold by the fact that had it been just Darwinia at 800 points it would have sold better. 1200 for two games, one of which almost nobody was going to play, was too much (and I realise Microsoft forced the price, but I doubt they forced them to package both games).

  • Triggerhappytel #22 1 year ago

    Don't MS set the price point for games on Live though? I mean, besides the 800 or 1200 price being rigid, I'm sure I've read that they have some input into how much to charge for individual games - I recall reading that both Jonathan Blow & Team Meat wanted to charge 800 points but MS insisted on 1200.
    Edited by Triggerhappytel at 04/03/11 @ 13:42

  • Xboxfanuk #23 1 year ago

    XBLA is made for hack 'n slash RPG's. When Torchlight hits expect sales through the roof. If Atari doesn't ass-fuck D&D Daggerdale with a stealth launch at 1200MSP it should do very well also.

  • wobbly_Bob #24 1 year ago

    1200 ms points for a niche game withot eye popping visuals, its obvious why it didn't sell well.

  • Ranger101 #25 1 year ago

    Oh man... why did they call their game Subversion... that's going to really confuse Google if you're a coder/developer! Hell, they must be using SVN themselves!

    Unless of course Subversion is a video game about Code Repositories, with special attack options like MERGE, and BLAME and the dredded CONFLICT.

    Activate your DIFFs boys and girls.

    /supergeekmode

  • kully #26 1 year ago

    Sad, but I was wondering why the geek was so much in love with SVN too :-)

  • AHiFi #27 1 year ago

    The 1200 pricepoint was its downfall. The last 1200 points I spent were for Serious Sam: TFE, Serious Sam: TSE and Geometry Wars 2...

    If it drops down to 600 in a sale, I would most likely end up buying it as would many others I'm sure.
    Edited by AHiFi at 04/03/11 @ 14:14

  • beastmaster #28 1 year ago

    What's going on with all this MS slamming recently? They have to have certain quality standards and ensure that it doesn't keep crashing or cause other problems.

    There's a fair point from Team Meat(?) about bring promised to be the only release that week to find it bundled in with a couple of others. At least we can try before we buy.

    I'll download the trial versions of most XBLA games and give them a punt. Didn't like Darwinia but loved Blade Kitten. MS had no influence over that decision.

  • pinchofsalt #29 1 year ago

    There seems to be a lot of these indie developers winging and blaming others for their lack of success on a particular platform. They need to realise that games need to be tailored to the platform they are going to be released on. I'm shocked that they are surprised that a RTS with a highly abstract art style didn't sell on a games console.

  • Toothball #30 1 year ago

    I have to admit, I only bought Darwinia on PC when they had the £5 bundle on Steam. Tremendous value there, although meant it was fairly unlikely I'd revisit it on XBLA. No loss really though, I'll just keep an eye on Steam for more from them.

    @dancingrob

    400 point indie games seem like a good idea, but I don't think it worked for Space Giraffe.

  • Quixz #31 1 year ago

    To be fair the game just wasn't very good IMO.

  • RodHull #32 1 year ago

    Like many I baulked at a 1200 point price. 800 seems a lot fairer when compared with Steam. And MS don't decide price points for all XBLA games, just the ones they publish.

  • dancingrob #33 1 year ago

    Toothball - I agree that it isn't ideal.

    The way I can perhaps see around the problem is a way of integrating the better indie games into Game Room, although I've absolutely no idea how possible this is from a licensing / rights etc. issue.

    Game Room has been a massive flop (to put in mildly) as the quality of the games is incredibly low, and the cost is high compared to indie games.

    Good indie games struggle to be noticed, unless they're massive hits like I Made a game with Zombies, or you follow lucky-jim's stirling work on the EG XBL Indie Games thread, yet most of the best ones are precisely the kind of retro / score attack type things that Game Room is all about.

    If MS could find a way to 'approve' titles up to be released through Game Room, it would solve a whole load of issues regarding indie game visibility, and also add a few other fringe benefits like adding achievements to indie games in the process. It also means Game Room becomes a far more useful feature than it is right now, which should satisfy all parties.

  • number3son #34 1 year ago

    This week may come to be known as the week of love for PC gamers, what with the amazing Battlefield 3 video, developer plaudits (from Team Meat and now Introversion), and word of strong sales growth from the PCGA. Good times.
    Edited by number3son at 04/03/11 @ 15:40

  • dancingrob #35 1 year ago

    @beemoh

    Not convinced that the retro titles 'lack visibility' myself.

    A lot of decent / well known retro releases all received a full 400MSP XBLA release in the early days of the XBLA service, meaning that Game Room has pretty much been left with the dregs, with only maybe 5-10 games that most people would want to play - some of which are also full XBLA titles, meaning interested people had already bought them 'outside' of game room.

    The muddling issue is certainly true, although I'm not sure it's a problem?

  • Toothball #36 1 year ago

    @dancingrob

    Indie games definitely need more attention, but I don't think Game Room is a good mechanism for that. It's not proved all that popular in itself and I don't know anyone who's been back there since the first few updates. Something similar might work for Indie games, but could easily suffer the same problem of people not paying any attention to it.

    I'd like to see them showcased a bit more often on Spotlight a bit more though. I really enjoyed the Independint Charles show when it was on, and The Ballad of Apple Jack actually got me to make my first Indie purchase. It might have come off as a bit too strange for some though, but I really liked Consolevania so it worked for me.

  • digitalash #37 1 year ago

    Microsoft aren't perfect, but Darwinia+ didn't sell because it wasn't as good as the studio's previous output. BTW, I love Introversion, I own all their games, but this seems like a case of workmen and tools.

  • RedSparrows #38 1 year ago

    Darwinia+ is excellent. It's a shame it didn't sell more.

  • agparrot #39 1 year ago

    This is a shame, because I'd buy an XBLA Defcon, probably at 1200 points.

  • metalangel #40 1 year ago

    Yeah, Independint Charles was great, there is a serious amount of shit on XBLIG and you have to be in the right mood to trawl through it all.

  • 43n1m4 #41 1 year ago

    I had the game already on PC, and had played it years before the Xbox360 release. In short: If it had been released at the same time as the PC version, I might've got the console version. It simply a matter of timing, imo, and I don't see MS as the culprit here.

  • O11Y #42 1 year ago

    Re: Many of these comments

    Reading between the lines, what Mr Morris is saying is that Introversion naively completed changes to Darwinia+ under Microsoft's recommendations without sufficiently evaluating whether the costs required to modify the product would be recouped. Which they weren't.

    His complaint is that Microsoft essentially screwed them. They decided on a price point which was too high for the product and placed unreasonable demands on his company. Of course Introversion could have declined the changes but Microsoft essentially have them in a 'catch 22': Either you turn your back on us and make no money or you go along with our demands and risk making no money (i.e. not selling enough to offset your costs).

    Essentially Microsoft DECIDES that that Game1 should cost 1200 points, DECIDES that x and y needed to be done before Game1 can be released, but leaves the entire financial risk of the project with developers.

    So now, 6 months later, when Game1 has sold 5 copies and the developer has gone bankrupt, Microsoft ambles over, pats them on the shoulder and says sympathetically "maybe we should have charged 800 points".

  • metalangel #43 1 year ago

    @O11Y: if Microsoft decides, how was it Team Meat were able to do a reduced price for the launch of Super Meat Boy?

  • 32768Colours #44 1 year ago

    I like Introversion's games, but I didn't think Darwinia worked as well on XBox as it did on PC. I'd never played Multiwinia so was looking forward to getting the XBLA combo, but just didn't enjoy it so much.

    Sad really, but at least the experience didn't sink them, and their minimalist approach to visuals means there won't be many PC owners who need to miss out on their games.

  • O11Y #45 1 year ago

    @metalangel: Because Microsoft allowed them to do so - obviously in agreement that it could help sales.

    I'm not saying that Microsoft intend to harm games or developers, on the contrary, I'm sure that they always have the developer's best interests at heart. But at the end of the day, if I'm a small developer and I'm putting my company on the line to publish a game to XBLA (although I'm not bashing MS in particular here, I'm sure that other platform holders are culpable) then personally I'd prefer that key decisions regarding pricing and features were under my control.
    Edited by O11Y at 07/03/11 @ 09:39

  • edhe #46 1 year ago

    Tried the demo of their game. It sucked and was too expensive.

    NB - reducing your market isn't going to do very many positive things.
    Edited by edhe at 07/03/11 @ 14:35