XBLIG Winter Uprising campaign stalls
Only eight of 14 promised games released.
Last month a group of developers got together to launch the Xbox Live Indie Games Winter Uprising, promising a deluge of quality games in the first week of December. Alas, it seems things didn't quite go to plan.
The initiative originally promised that "the first week of December is going to be the best week of gaming the service has ever seen." However, of the 14 games slated for release, only eight have actually made it out of the gate so far.
The campaign's organiser Robert Boyd, told Edge Online, "Several of the big hitters in the promotion haven't been released yet for a number of reasons – a bug found at the last minute, an incorrectly checked feature on the game description, or just plain not being finished yet.
"The way Xbox Live Indie Games are set up, it's difficult to release on a specific day," he explained.
"You can't get your game approved and have it come out later at a day of your choosing – once a game is approved it goes up automatically within 48 hours. Likewise, if you submit a game for approval and then find that you have to pull it for whatever reason, however small, you have to wait a minimum of seven days before resubmitting."
Of the games that did make it out, the runaway hit was retro RPG Epic Dungeon, which has been downloaded over 6,000 times in 10 days.
Others fared less well however. Shoot 'em up Break Limit only managed 400 downloads, while Asteroids Do Concern Me and Ubergridder couldn't even manage that.
It's a pity. The service deserved a bit of success after being unceremoniously shuffled around the Xbox 360 dash following the system update in November.
Still, Boyd is looking on the bright side, insisting "it's already done good work towards drawing positive attention to the service." He didn't confirm whether the promotion would return next year but promised that all advertised games would eventually be available for download.