Multiwinia

[factoid]

Just wondering how Darwinia+ has been selling on XBLA? I've been pretty absorbed in Mass Effect 2 so I haven't even gone to see if they're promoting it on the main XBLA store pages. I certainly hope it's doing well. I really liked Darwinia, but don't personally crave multiplayer experiences that often. I really do hope it does well, though, because I for one would really love to see Subversion.

Any plans for an XBLA port of DefCon?

That's a game that I loved so much I would even buy it again to play it on XBLA. I would think you'd have MUCH less work to do on it than Multiwinia since you wouldn't really be creating a whole new game, just porting an existing one to Xbox and making sure the controls are good. It's already been play tested, balanced, etc...

I think that game would be a huge hit on xbox. It would have huge appeal to that audience, I think. And if Darwinia+ doesn't generate enough cash to fully pay for Subversion development it could be a short project that could generate some additional revenue.

Defcon is even the kind of game where DLC packs would sell well. A pack of wargame scenarios, new weapons, maybe a custom world map...that could be a nice little revenue bonus for not a lot of extra effort.

[bert_the_turtle]

Regarding Defcon, it's already scheduled to come out on PSN. It would make business sense to also port it to the XBox (controls would already have been translated for dual analog stick plus some buttons), but it's also a question of whether IV signed an exclusive deal with Sony and whether MS wants Defcon on their machine, as ultimately, it's their call. I also agree that the Live Crowd is pretty much the perfect audience

Raw sort of sales data:
The leaderboards count about 6000 total players. Major Nelson lists it as the no 9 best selling game last week, and it wasn't available for the whole week. It's certainly not a runaway hit, but doing all right, I'd say. We'll just have to hope it sees continued sales due to word of mouth propaganda and stuff.

The multiplayer player base seems healthy at the moment, unless you can only play during European mornings/American nights. Sure, you often run into the same addicts (<- like me), but there's always a game to be found when I try.

[Nutter]

Regarding sales the IV chaps said on their chat with gamespot uk ( http://uk.gamespot.com/pages/features/ukpodcast/index.php?skipmc=1 ) that it passed their minimum requirement by 30 units or so. They did post on their twitter account "3 hours after Launch Darwinia+ nails our Multiwinia day 1 store sales.". Hopefully it will continue to sell, it doesn't seem to be a runaway hit, but not a disaster either.