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It's not looking good for the Xbox Live Indie Games channel. First Microsoft ceases development of XNA, the codebase that drives the self-publishing service that allows eager devs to sell their wares on the Xbox 360. Then Nat Brown, creator of the original Xbox, criticises Microsoft for what he sees as the "primary problem" with the Xbox 360, namely the lack of "a functional and growing platform ecosystem for small developers".The Indie Games slot on the Marketplace has diminished with every dashboard update, and while Microsoft has made some steps towards raising its visibility since, there's ample evidence that its presence on the Xbox Live Marketplace is merely tolerated rather than actively supported. Though Microsoft may yet surprise us by launching the console version of Apple's App Store, the assumption from most in the XNA development community is that the Indie Games Channel will quietly vanish when the next Xbox rolls around.
Will anyone miss it? After some early promise the service never quite shook off the perception that it was awash with tatty clones and ugly Avatar games, and it certainly never produced the sort of breakout hit needed to give it commercial credibility in the eyes of consumers.
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