XNAC dev depressed by size of MS' cut

Weapon of Choice developer Mommy's Best Games says Microsoft can claim as much as 60 per cent from Xbox Live Community game sales.

Update: Microsoft has altered its policy and now maintains a 30 per cent cut across the board.

MBG president Nathan Fouts recently received sales figures for November 2008 to March 2009, and was shocked and depressed to find that Weapon of Choice sold under 10,000 copies - a figure he had pre-emptively labelled "that hurts".

According to Fouts, Microsoft takes a baseline 30 per cent of money made, on top of an additional 10 to 30 per cent for advertising. Plus there are royalties owed to contractors and state taxes to play. That's not to mention rent and food.

"What all that means to our bottom-line, we do not yet know, but it does not feel great. Maybe rational people hang up their keyboard and call it quits. But if you played Weapon of Choice, you realise we’re far from rational," writes Fouts.

Yet despite this setback, Fouts and MBG are hard at work on their project, although they're not ready to say anything concrete.

Head over to our Weapon of Choice review to see what the fuss is about.