Fez And Skullgirls Top The Charts, Despite XBLA’s Useless Interface!

23 responses to “Fez And Skullgirls Top The Charts, Despite XBLA’s Useless Interface!”

1. 

   D.C.

   April 19, 2012 at 12:33 pm

   Yeah, I definitely think the current UI is a step backwards from the one before. (I actually liked the classic blades design too, except for the navigating Xbox Live part but we’re basically back to that struggle now any way.) I went hunting for the demo for Fez the other day and it wasn’t on the new release demos section. Found it eventually, but good luck getting impulse buyers if they can’t find it… :S

   Reply
2. 

   Neo-Kaiser

   April 19, 2012 at 12:37 pm

   I would like to have bought Skullgirls (even if it was intentionally named that to sound similar to Schoolgirls) but the game wasn’t designed with a controller in mind.

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3. 

   Karachi King

   April 19, 2012 at 12:40 pm

   I’ve never had any trouble finding new releases in the “new releases” section…

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   1. 

      Batguy

      April 19, 2012 at 1:00 pm

      Which you get to by right bumpering 4 times to get to “Games”, then “Game Marketplace”, then “New Releases”. Easy once you know what you’re looking for.

      I’d be very interested to hear from indie devs whether this new design is affecting their sales on XBL. I’m sure it would have to, because only people actively looking for stuff will find it now – e.g. you won’t use bing to search for “Fez” if you don’t know it exists!

      I know that MS won’t release actual sales figures, but maybe you can ask around Mark?

      Reply
      1. 

         Ahtaps

         April 19, 2012 at 1:07 pm

         You have to do a little extra finger work though if you only want the XBLA new releases, that page shows all releases across all categories.

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   2. 

      MoVENTURA

      April 19, 2012 at 1:03 pm

      Same, this is where I usually look.

      Reply
4. 

   Ahtaps

   April 19, 2012 at 1:15 pm

   I dislike the new interface as well. It’s noisy and cluttered and very unintuitive. I’m glad to see that Skullgirls is doing well, hopefully we’ll see more fighters done by smaller studios in future.

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5. 

   DanMazkin

   April 19, 2012 at 1:15 pm

   It really is a useless discrace of a UI. I mean, it looks nice enough, but for the gamer who feels like buying a new title by browsing what XBLA games are out (new or old) it’s utterly hopeless.

   The menu layout, the Marketplace structure, the SINGLE LINE KEYBOARD. All of these things are a huge backward step for Microsoft. I just don’t understand why?

   AND WHY DO THEY FEEL THE NEED TO KEEP GAMES LIKE TIME-SHIFT AND NAUGHTY BEAR AT THE TOP OF THE LIST? NOBODY BOUGHT THEM THE FIRST TIME AROUND, SO THEY DEFINITELY AREN’T GOING TO BUY THEM NOW THAT THEY’RE 2 OR 3 YEARS OLD AND YOU KEEP SHOVING THEM IN OUR

   Rant over.

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   1. 

      DanMazkin

      April 19, 2012 at 1:17 pm

      …faces. Shoving them in our faces.

      Reply
      1. 

         Batguy

         April 19, 2012 at 1:22 pm

         I was going to point out that your rant was not actually over when you claimed that it was but, well, that was part of the appeal of the rant 🙂

         Reply
6. 

   ShiggyNinty

   April 19, 2012 at 1:22 pm

   SKULLGIRRRRRRLS!

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7. 

   Jem

   April 19, 2012 at 1:29 pm

   I do find it absolutely amazing that Microsoft have just released their two (or possibly 3) best exclusives of the year and have chosen not to advertise them ANYWHERE on the dashboard. It’s…
   http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSTcMtCJxDohp8g4UI_aMzlyRVk5W2XgxVoPWGa-VkvPmhbc5B1ayMP8Q
   INCONCEIVABLE.

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8. 

   Scott

   April 19, 2012 at 1:50 pm

   I agree that the new user interface isn’t as good as the previous one, but the thought of someone giving up on buying a game because it’s too hard to find is equivalent to walking into a department store for a DVD but giving up because the entertainment section isn’t immediately visible from the entrance.

   If my 5 year old can find new games on the dashboard there’s no reason an intelligent adult couldn’t.

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   1. 

      Mark Serrels

      April 19, 2012 at 1:58 pm

      I get that. But the only way you’re going to find Fez is if you specifically go on your Xbox with the specific intention of looking for it, then buying it.

      That’s not ideal.

      Reply
      1. 

         [doa]

         April 19, 2012 at 4:08 pm

         That’s the only way I found it, knowing it was there… somewhere?

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   2. 

      Batguy

      April 19, 2012 at 1:59 pm

      True, but there’s a reason why they also put a bunch of new and cheap DVDs right where you walk in/out.

      Reply
      1. 

         D.C.

         April 19, 2012 at 2:03 pm

         Not to mention the fact that XBLA games policy is almost designed for the impulse buyer too, requiring a demo for all games and the like. Their position in the store doesn’t seem to reflect that. I agree, though, if you know what you’re looking for bad design won’t get in your way of finding it eventually. Though considering it’s the third (I think?) iteration of the dashboard, you think it’d have been thought about already…

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         1. 

            Batguy

            April 19, 2012 at 2:21 pm

            Unfortunately, it has become very obvious by their recent marketing movements where their priorities lie with the xbox now: Kinect, Watching media, and social networking. The new dashboard design and selection of featured items reflects this.

            I guess people who purchase traditional games are an established market, who do all their own work to research what they want, then find it in the UI. We’ll stick around anyway, so they should try to push other aspects that will grow their overall market further?

            Reply
         2. 

            Aliasalpha

            April 20, 2012 at 8:49 am

            Requiring a demo for downloadable titles is one of the best things to happen to gaming in years, its saved me heaps of money on games that turned out to be shite & got me to buy games I never would have tried otherwise (fez is a perfect example)

            Reply
9. 

   MrTaco

   April 19, 2012 at 2:19 pm

   Oh man, want Skullgirls so bad. If only it were retail.

   Reply
   1. 

      alex

      April 19, 2012 at 2:40 pm

      Oh man, I want all 3 of these so bad. If only they were on PC . Arghh

      Reply
10. 

    AkumajoBelmont

    April 19, 2012 at 3:34 pm

    It’s not just the dashboard either. Which is, as everybody’s correctly stated, horrid.

    It’s Xbox.com too. I used to purchase games on there, and queue them for download just as often as I’d sift through the Marketplace on the actual system. And Xbox.com suffers the exact same problems. It’s horrible. Games are hard to find, buried under pages of useless drivel. Ironically, after I was just about to close the site off, a pop-up window appeared asking me to complete a survey on what I thought of Xbox.com. Needless to say, I ticked a ‘WHOLE HEAP’ of Very Dissatisfied columns…

    I don’t understand the focus on Kinect, Social networking and all the other filler they seem to be focusing on. Despite the fact Kinect is an apparent success, I only know one person who owns one out of the countless people I personally know with Xbox 360’s. None of us use Facebook, Twitter, Netflix or any of that stuff either.

    Besides, who the hell goes out and buys and Xbox if they’re not a gamer? The casual market as I see it now either still goes out to buy a Wii, or is happy gaming on Facebook or their smartphone – occasionally breaking out Singstar on the PS2 at parties. I know that when my parents and grandparents hear the word ‘Xbox’, they immediately roll their eyes, knowing full well that it’s a games system first and foremost. Or rather, it is in the eyes of pretty much everybody except Microsoft…

    Reply
11. 

    AkumajoBelmont

    April 19, 2012 at 3:36 pm

    correction * None of us use Facebook, Twitter, Netflix or any of that stuff either ON THE XBOX

    Reply