I figure I should say something about the new dashboard. In the update, Microsoft moved the indie games channel under something called "Specialty Shops". The immediate reaction from the internet was that this was a Microsoft
snub, with some people going
a bit further. We've got at least another couple weeks before sales data comparisons are meaningful, and I have some thoughts on the change.
I don't think this is actually that bad. I won't go so far as to say it's a good thing, but it isn't the end of the world. They haven't come out and said it, but I suspect some actual market research went into the moving menu.
It's hard to say exactly what the market looks like for the indie games channel, all we know is what games sell well. I suspect the sort of people who wander into the indie games channel and actually plop down money on a game are the same sorts of people who spend money on the avatar goodies and game room games. I think this target market is heavily invested in the services offered by xbox live, and is willing to spend the money (and I think more crucially - the time) to investigate the service, try games out, and purchase the good ones.
I imagine that a team at Microsoft looked at the marketing data when working on the final dashboard menu setups. They probably looked at the data and saw a correlation between the downloads and purchases from storefront A and storefront B, and put them into the same sub menu. That would be a logical move, and should be a benefit to sales for both. This is all guesswork of course. Marketing data of this sort is generally a trade secret, all we'll get is the
generic press release.
Some of the other changes are quite nice, and I think much more important than the menu location. The longer lists were really needed, and navigating through games and viewing game pages is a lot nicer. The real question is whether the move and improvements translate to higher sales. In another week, we can get probably start getting some decent numbers, but until then we can only guess.
