XBLA chief brushes off ‘bottleneck’ reports

In an exclusive interview with Develop, Xbox Live Arcade’s worldwide portfolio planner David Edery has said that games developed for the service are not being delayed.

"Rumours of bottlenecks in the XBLA title schedule are precisely that: rumours," said Edery (pictured) in part one of a feature running on Developmag.com today and tomorrow.

"Once an XBLA game clears certification, it almost always makes it onto the service right away," he added.

"In fact, I’m proud to say that in the entire life of the service, we have never held a title for more than a few weeks. We keep the pipeline of approved games reasonably steady precisely so that we never find ourselves in too nasty of a schedule crunch."

However, he did add that some developers "occasionally choose to delay their games for a variety of reasons. For example, they may not wish to go up against a similar title, or they may desire more time to improve gameplay".

Instantly attractive gameplay, in fact, is key to the XBLA experience, added Edery, who reinforced that developers need to "produce an experience that literally sells itself within minutes" when gamers download the demo for new titles.

He explained: "You need to put together a fantastic trial experience that will encourage sales."

In the interview, Edery also gives an overview on how developers can get their game on the service, and also what the current average budgets and team sizes for an XBLA game: around $450,000 and three to nine-man teams.

Part one of the interview can be found here.