Indie Game Gets Overlooked For Xbox, Publisher Suddenly Changes Decision

Oh no we don't get a rushed garbage license title

I struggle to believe the 'demand' for an Inspector Gadget game is significantly higher on both Playstation and PC. Are Playstation and PC players known to be hardcore Inspector Gadget fans?

From their perspective, the Xbox has the 'fewest' players so the cost of porting, optimising specifically for the Console and continued support of their game on Xbox may not sell enough to make it worthwhile doing that work.

It's similar to the Hellblade situation where Ninja Theory didn't have the 'Finances' to focus on Xbox too - they had 'pimped' their Studio out to work on others projects to earn the 'money' to allow a 'small' team develop Hellblade - opting to release on PS4 over XB1 because of Player numbers.

If you expect to sell to maybe just 1-2% of the player base, you'll pick the one with the most 'players' so as to sell 'more' games and recuperate your costs - if its 'successful', they may earn 'enough' to pay for an Xbox version, especially as its 'success' will may help 'sell' to Xbox gamers - perhaps more than they originally forecast. If it 'flops', Xbox doesn't get the game and Xbox gamers don't really care they 'missed out' on a Flop.

Another thing this 'may' do is 'encourage' MS to help the Studio and invest in them to bring this game to Xbox. Its not just 'gamers' demand, it maybe aimed at Microsoft to 'demand' they make the game for Xbox too and will 'help' financially at least to ensure it comes. It could be a way of them trying to ask MS for 'help' without directly asking....

@Brazenology I think they know the game won't sell very well on PC or Playstation even with the huge user bases they offer. If they know they might struggle to break even on those versions then developing an Xbox version would be a net loss.

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THATS IT IM SELLING MY XBOX SERIES X AND GETTING A PS5 INSTEAD JUST TO PLAY THIS MASTERPIECE. PHIL SPENCER NEEDS TO GO BECAUSE OF THIS.

"Windows phone" oh shut up Tom! Not even close to the same and this game is licensed shovelware. Can't stand these mongerers like Tom Warren and Jez. Even their profile pic tells you the type of person they are.

@Solidchief @Kaloudz Lol Exactly

@Kaloudz It's disappointing that Xbox misses out on Inspector Gadget: Mad Time Party aka the biggest game release of 2023. It's predicted to sell 100 million copies in the first month of release and guaranteed to win many GOTY awards.

So us Xbox players need to boycott this and ask for better because exclusives like Starfield and Forza Motorsport just isn't good enough.

I wonder if this is more about the make up of the player base rather than the size of it. This looks like a kids game and they may perceive that Xbox has more of a grown up player base that this game just simply won't appeal to. Looks like something that is more likely to do best on the Switch.

This is the last time I'm falling for a clickbaity title.

Well congratulations to the 2 people who will buy this on Playstation.

Who honestly cares about this game? It's not like Xbox is missing out on something like Mortal Kombat 1.

The Internet: Xbox is a bit player, too small to attract development, it's clearly dying.

The CMA and PS fandom: Xbox is a monopoly, they're devouring the entire game industry, the whole industry is doomed!

@Wheatly You have accurately summarized the situation unlike most of the comments who can’t see the forest for the trees.

Isn’t this a Mario Party style game?

As a child of the 80s, I would be all over an Inspector gadget game, but no interest on a “party” game.

I guess this is it guys. Xbox is no longer relevant, not even Inspector Gadget wants to be on the platform. How will we cope?

@Kaloudz Lol, your comment made laugh and I unite on the sentiment about this Inspector Gadget game, of all things!

@FraserG I saw that. Although I’m a little confused by that because I can’t see this huge “demand” in a day. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Go, Go, Gadget: Backpedal!

Lol what on earth was this about.

I probably would play an inspector gadget game if it was either £1 or on game pass

People had better buy it then, after all the moaning lol

Haha bloody hell, that didn't take long. Do you think they were just trying it on?

All this fuss and the game will probably be a solid 5/10 lol

So it turns out they were telling the truth and they just didn't think there would be much interest. Good to see that they are listening and quickly changed their minds, I hope they are justified in their decision now 🙂

@Kevw2006 a raging Twitter mob is powerful but I think you are giving them way too much credit.

@Kaloudz Well, it seems now that we won't be losing more sleep over this, lol!

Now, I don't want to be super harsh on Microids, I think they sometime have great games, (IIRC, they are the publishers of the Syberia series and that one is mostly cool, IMO).

@Steviematic
It's an Inspector Gadget Party Game with 16 whole mini-games. I hate stories like this because it makes a big deal out of missing out on a game I can't imagine anyone cares about

@AlwaysPlaying We're still missing an updated poll on if we think the ABK deal will go through or an article about if a hypothetical rumored Sony exclusive will be timed and eventually come to Xbox or not so we're not rock bottom on news speed today. Thank goodness for Inspector Gadget drama!

Only 25 hours until we hit rock bottom after the PS showcase though. This time tomorrow PXB will have tons of pictures of Jim Ryan and Clive speculating if each of the games will come to Xbox, if Xbox needs VR, and how you can play Wolverine on Xbox by streaming through a PC running Boosteroid connected to a PS4.

EDIT: ROFL, I just reloaded the front page, and there's the article about FFXVI and the picture of Clive. A day early. Nvm, we're at rock bottom. I hate it when my innate persistent cynicism is just too darn optimistic.

@NEStalgia Exclusive.... Wolverine smiles at the camera with a 2024 date.... then everyone on Twitter will be wetting themselves with excitement

Xbox live/gamepass monthly active users as of Jan 2023 was at 120 mill while PS was at 108 mill as of March 2023 with less than half of that actually subbed to ps+. I'm sure some of the xbox monthly users is PC bleed over but thats still people utilizing the xbox ecosystem. The "xbox has a smaller install base" logic is fundamentally flawed and just a piss poor excuse at this point. If some third party indie dev wants to create excuses instead of ports I won't buy their product on any of my systems.

@VokDaWiibSlayer I have a theory on this that Minecraft requires you to have an Xbox account to play with people on other devices so people playing on tablet, PS, Switch etc may all be classed as active Xbox logins.

@NEStalgia the internet has been infected by parasites and media bias is on a rampage

Lol what a much ado about nothing. Tom and Jez should feel stupid right now.

@Ephexis83
They have to finish Spider-Man 2 first before they even start working on Wolverine. So I wouldn't expect a 2024 for Wolverine. Considering it has taken 5 years for them to make a complete sequel to Spider-Man (Morales was a standalone DLC), Wolverine if we are lucky will be done by 2027

Just a quick reminder - Microids - made the beautifully executed remake of XIII

Disappointing but not surprising. It's a kids/older fans of the IP/characters/world and so on game but I do think Xbox games do get the short end of the stick even if there is an audience wanting the game but publishers won't get the money amount they seek for it. I mean how many people play Disney Dreamlight Valley on Gamepass/Xbox besides PlayStation and Switch. Probably a sizeable amount of people?

I assume even Hotwheels, Lego and more have sizeable audiences on Xbox. I mean even the Xbox 360 had Kung Fu Panda and other licensed games in bundles back then. What happened where at least 1 million maybe 2 million (at a guess or a few hundred thousand or whatever the case) Xbox game sales of a kids/older fans game is bad with a Xbox One 50 million install base and whatever the case Xbox Series sized audience? Sure many kids may play whatever is trending but there is still an audience for singleplayer games on Xbox as there is Nintendo or PlayStation. I mean how many platformer fans are veterans and older people not just kids that they can appeal to.

I'm a platformer fan I gladly support the Indies and AAA platformers I seek out if the price is worth it of course and the games don't disappoint me. I supported Clive n Wrench and enjoy it and I didn't like Ratchet Rift Apart so I don't need a PS5 so sticking with my PS4 instead I can use the PS5 my family has no problem but I'm in no need to buy PS5 versions to play them the sacrifice on PS4 doesn't bother me at all.

Which I think is a bit ridiculous there is an audience no matter how big or small that only have an Xbox why should they have to buy a third party on another platform just because they aren't able to get it it isn't a first party, it was an exclusive deal it was just they happened to skip Xbox due to them not knowing the demand of casuals, core gamers and otherwise that may be interested in this game or other games that also skip Xbox.

I mean how many anime artstyle gamers (ones that aren't based on an anime license but have an artstyle that is anime like say when Danganronpa 2 went to Gamepass I was surprised when they released there all these years later) on Xbox couldn't play certain games and now can as they were on PlayStation 4, Vita and Switch and Xbox got access to some of them the ones many AA Japanese publishers never made available to Xbox gamers until now (I mean same with Wii U owners for many games too they never got access to but still Xbox has the audience over other consoles of course and 50 Million Xbox Ones clearly there was at least 1 million Xbox owners willing to play some games outside the 'image' Xbox has but publishers seem to not see that even besides the money amounts speaking for themselves as well).

With Project Spark/Dreams yeah Xbox owners I don't think cared as much for Project Spark, making their own game, maybe the tools were confusing or a creative game of that sort isn't for that audience/wasn't big enough but I thought it was cool Xbox had something like it, maybe it was ahead of it's time and too early or maybe it wouldn't change anything if released now or before Dreams. But compared to PlayStation owners got used to Little Big Planet and keep supporting Media Molecule and it just so happened to be that small audience that used the tools/and the larger audience bought it for the campaign levels and moved on so people wanting a easy campaign in Dreams got that/and the creative audience got a great game with so many tools to use and make whatever they wanted.

Is there many players EU/US interested maybe but on Xbox not sure. I mean it's not like it's image of games that sell well on it is the only audience on Xbox they aren't all shooter/racing/sports gamers only there are many other people buying other games on Xbox clearly.

Doesn't make people go hmm should we make an Xbox version the audience online and offline may pick it up but will we make the money amount we seek for the platform (I think publishers aim too high on sales still). I don't know enough about Microids. I bought Gear Club Unlimited 2 for Switch, think Eden Studios did a good job (reviving themselves also) and are doing well from mobile game to console space. I don't know if the other Microids games are any good or just shovelware which I assume may be the case as a publisher and the devs they work with. But like many European smaller publishers they are a grey area for me on quality or games they even make.

The thing to me is every little bit counts so no Xbox version seems odd when even if it doesn't do well in the grand scale of things all versions offer them enough money than less without an Xbox version. Is the cost high to port it/consider development for it I'd assume not that much.

Is there demand for this game I bet among kids and old fans for sure. Maybe newcomers buy it/see the tv shows even if it's more a game I think fans care about.

I do think Xbox gamers do get the short end of the stick though.

Sure it can run on the console but I do think the target audience focus many seem to give the Xbox is not accurate.

You may see the majority fit the shooter, sports and racing focus but I don't deny that many games do deserve to be on Xbox they aren't just the majority they are the other audinces on any other platform just they use an Xbox primiarly or have it as a second console.

Even for EU audience games are enjoyed by US gamers where maybe they would like to play a WRC game but don't get access to them as they don't release them in the US, I assume maybe similar for Soccer games even if mostly a EU thing both Soccer and WRC.

While in other cases many Xbox gamers may be anime/anime game fans.

There may be just people that stuck with Xbox and had no issues getting kids games in the 360 era but do now due to games like this not being on the platform because many skip Xbox when a fanbase clearly only has an Xbox or would like an Xbox copy available they don't want to buy another console for a third party game they can have access to on there but publishers don't want to bother.

@FraserG but I said I didn’t want it!! I’ll email them and reiterate my lack of desire until they give me an open world adventure Gadget game!

@Tharsman
An actually open world Gadget game solving crimes would be cool!

@Gkobz shamelessly add a cheap version of the UBisoft formula, tons of collectibles, all requiring the use of his special abilities to reach, could be one hell of a fun game even if it was just a double A budget implementation.

@Belkan I remember when the internet was an intelligent place. Idk what happened. I do know EMPs are the only answer.

@Tharsman Lego city undercover but with gadget? I'd pre-order.

@ZuneTattooGuy they already started Wolverine, they have more than one team workin on one thing!

@TheArtfulDodger
Their A-Team is completely focused on Spider-Man and yes Wolverine is in development but heavy development won't begin until the A-Team is done with Spider-Man. I'll be surprised if we see more than a Wolverine CGI trailer soon

@ZuneTattooGuy we already had a trailer. I think they’re further on than you believe they are.

@TheArtfulDodger
We had a 10 sec CGI announcement, again I would be shocked if they have anything to show and if it's release is before 2025

@Kaloudz IMHO, yes, Syberia 3 is good. Although, it was a little buggy when I played it (and it was a full year after release, IIRC). I remember one spot when the game "softlocked" and I lost some progress. It was only one time, but I read that it was much worse on release.

Now that you mention it, the main character DOES look like those Lara Crofts from the 2000's!

@TheArtfulDodger
They are so far along with Wolverine it couldn't bother to show up today

@ZuneTattooGuy Spiderman 2 does look good tho. GOTY imo.

@TheArtfulDodger
It looked like Spider-Man 1

Hear is the most bizarre thing. The Gadget game got a digital only release for X1/series Xbox but the ps4 has no digital version only a physical release but only the ps5 has a digital version.