Xbox Live Indie Games moved to 'Specialty Shops' on new Dashboard, devs not happy

The new Xbox 360 Dashboard Update makes the whole interface look smoother and cleaner, but it has rubbed one part of the community the wrong way. Xbox Live Indie Game creators are bummed over on the Microsoft Developer Network forums, as their creations have been relegated to the "Specialty Shops" section of the new Dashboard, hidden behind the Avatar Marketplace and away from most of the game and demo traffic.

Most developers actually sound resigned to their fate, admitting that, while there are a few indie game breakouts, the category in general wasn't a big moneymaker for Microsoft, so it's not surprising it didn't get the spotlight when the update came around. But other devs say it's a chicken-and-the-egg problem, that indie games won't get the sales without the exposure, and hiding them away only dooms them to more failure.

That said, there's no sales data yet off of the new Dashboard; we'll just have to wait and see what effect this new placement has.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/11/03/xb...-new-dashboar/