Schafer: ‘Exodus of real creative talent’ leaving XBLA

Posted February 20, 2012 by Luke Stratford in Industry News, News.

News: Double Fine supremo Tim Schafer voices his concerns over Xbox Live’s seemingly self-imposed brain drain of talent.

Although once lauded as a new home for small, independent developers and studios, the Xbox Live Marketplace has come under close scrutiny as of late, as users voice their concerns over the new layout and attitude held by Microsoft towards supporting these talented individuls. Speaking with IndustryGamers at DICE, Double Fine’s Tim Schafer voiced his opinion on the ‘exodus’ occuring in the once fertile XBLA marketplace, referring to a recent article by 2D Boy’s Ron Carmel, which highlighted many of the issues now affecting the shift in talent:

‘I was hoping that would be a really, really eye-opening article for the console manufacturers… and I feel like it’s been totally dismissed. I really think it’s something they can’t dismiss and they should really pay a lot more attention to because he’s calling attention to a migration, an exodus of real creative talent away from those platforms to more open platforms, and I think they should do something quick to reverse that.’

‘Can you reverse an exodus? Is there a term for that?, he continued. ‘A redexus? Seriously, I think that that was kind of a warning call. It’s not like ‘it would be nice to do this’ for developers – [if they don't] they’re going to lose out. Things change every generation and just because you’re on top and the 900 pound gorilla in one generation, as you’ve seen, it doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t mean it’ll be that way forever. I think that these threats that are possibly being ignored are going to hurt those guys.’

Although the PSN network has apparently (according to Carmel’s research) been reaping the benefits of this migration, Schafer still sees the shidt as a problem that all major platform providers need to address. If so much talent can be shifted so quickly, it’s down to the people who provide the workspace to make themselves more attractive, not to bury the problem and hope it goes away. Which it will – to more open platforms that will give developers the freedome they need to create successful, profitable titles.

‘I like the Xbox and the PS3.’ He concluded. ‘I like Sony and Microsoft, but those systems are closed and curated very closely and it costs a lot more money to go through that system, to patch a game. It makes me stressed out that if I put a game up there, I might not be able to patch it because it might cost too much money, whereas these more open platforms will let us manage our own price and our own updates. It’s just a lot more appealing right now.’

Tagged as Developers, Double Fine, PS3, PSN, Sony, Tim Schafer, XBLA, Xbox 360