Legendary games designer Tim Schafer has spoken out about the current state of indie games on existing console platforms. He paid particular attention to Microsoft and Xbox Live, and warned that if something isn't done to further improve matters, they face a potential "exodus" of talented games developers.
In an interview with Industry Gamers, Schafer said: "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."
The man from Double Fine then went on to point out some of the reasons why Microsoft could lose out: "We can put something up on the App Store pretty easily. We can put stuff up on Steam really easily. I like the Xbox and the PS3. 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."
Schafer also talks about his affection for games like Geometry Wars: "We were used to thinking of these huge triple-A games and all of a sudden when you got your 360, one of the things that felt really next-gen about it was that you could download Geometry Wars for five dollars, and we hadn't done that before."
"I hadn't thought of buying that kind of game on a console before and I'm having tons of fun and I think that leads to a new creative outlet and brought us games like Limbo and Castle Crashers and all the great games that we saw on that platform. I want that to succeed."
Given the strength of the competition, can Microsoft really afford to ignore this warning. With competition coming from PSN, Steam and iOS, surely now is the time for Microsoft to try and recapture the initiative.