Over the last couple of console generations, digital storefronts have become a lot more open, operating a more freeform approach to game listings akin to something like Steam. This, in turn, has resulted in quite a bit more 'shovelware' appearing on console storefronts - and a new report from IGN looks into this issue, shining some positive light on Xbox in the process.
In short, Sony and Nintendo have been more lax when it comes to these low-quality titles appearing on their digital stores - the latter in particular during the Switch era. That's not to say that Xbox is immune from this phenomenon — enter, Mariostro Strikers — but it appears that a lot less seems to slip through the cracks on Microsoft's platform - something one developer backed up as part of the report:
"I think [Xbox] really puts a lot of effort into their service,
I would say they are tougher to launch on than something like [Epic Games Store] or Steam solely because they have pretty high standards for their pages and are very hands-on. In my experience, you work with their ID team directly to work through both your page and build cert. They will truly bend over backwards for you, even if you don’t see eye to eye."
The report adds that Microsoft "vets on a game-per-game basis" with its Xbox storefront, whereas the other major platform holders go through that process once per publisher, and then employ a more relaxed approval process for future releases. It's suggested that this goes a long way to eliminating this shovelware on Xbox - or 'eslop' as it's being referred to here.
The report is absolutely massive and definitely worth a read through, especially if you'd like learn a little bit more about the game certification process, alongside what other devs have to say about all of the major gaming storefronts. As users of all three major consoles (believe it or not), we definitely tend to see more 'spam' games on PSN and the Eshop, despite Microsoft not being totally immune from this problem.
What do you make of this developer chatter about the Xbox Store? Talk to us about this new report down below.
[source ign.com]
Comments 39
I'm not sure how the numbers stack up, but based simply on user experience on my end it's not even close.
The Xbox store is a much cleaner experience, not to mention the UI puts PS and Nindy to shame.
I can't stand PS " recommended for you", if will be flooded with shovelware crap where X store has actual games
The MS store is outstanding IMO - for both quality control and usability. The only thing I wish they did was fix the store reviews so that it shows game time played per user. Which shouldn't be hard given that most games have this in their stat profile.
There is definitely less rubbish that is for sure.
For the store, i really wish it would show when the last time the game got updated and a link to the changelog.
Too may games i've been put off buying because of reported crashes when this could have been resovled with the lated update. Similar to how googple play store works.
Dont get me wrong cool, this is becoming an increasing problem and has basically running android gaming but how did that awful Mario football clone get through then?
Or Xbox are less of a target. Shovelware goes where there is more of a general audience in order to harvest on either lack of funds or lack of knowledge.
But every outbreak got through though 🤣
@Kaloudz and not been able to review just because you have gamepass 🙂 at least 2 hour played to review should be done
@Ryu_Niiyama It’s a mix of both, in one hand they have a more strict verifications (that’s why some updates just arrive later on Xbox) but it’s also very true they’re not targeted as the PS Store or eShop are, as both of them have double or triple the users of the MS Store.
@Ryu_Niiyama Whilst there maybe some that will not release on Xbox due to the install base, That is much less of a 'reason' for Shovelware when the objective is to sell as MANY as possible, wherever they can get away with releasing 'slop'.
Microsoft also have numerous rules in place for what can be 'released' on their Platform. They have rules about Achievements for example that many of these 'eslop' games would fail on. Sony has/had many games that were literally just to add to your trophy score, games you can beat in 5mins with 'little/minimal' interaction with. They can't release those on Xbox as they'd fail certification. That's what a lot of those 'sim' games are.
I have no doubt that if they could release on Xbox, bare in mind that the 'costs' are extremely 'low', risks are basically non-existent and therefore would be profitable, these would be on Xbox. Its not like some big AAA dev who has to consider investing 'Millions' in porting, in supporting (post launch updates, post launch content etc), in manufacturing and distributing 'Physical' media and may not sell enough to cover the costs and staffing required.
Personally, I would think that the rules and of course the verification on a 'Game-by-Game' basis is much more likely to prevent many of these from even trying to release on Xbox knowing they wouldn't get 'verification' than worrying about whether or not the 'minimal' work and therefore minimal cost to port/release on Xbox would actually bring enough revenue back in to justify that.
I wonder how long this will last? The others don't have as stringent curation as it costs money at both ends. You need more people to do the vetting, and you lose out on sales of these slop games.
Is having a reputation for a well curated store front worth the cost when you're the ONLY storefront? If the Xbox store stunk you can't go elsewhere for games on Xbox. Same with the other platforms (Steam has a monopoly on PC).
At some point I fear this team at Microsoft will get cut way back, and the floodgates will open.
@IOI Yeah I can see your reasoning there, similar how Windows PCs are much more targeted for viruses over the Mac OS and Linux. On the other hand, the Xbox user base is still in the tens of millions and that is a HUGE amount of potential sales, so it doesn't really make sense to not attempt to utilize those numbers.
The fact that Microsoft allow you to download and try a Digital game and apply for a refund if you don't want it would have a lot to do with it.
Sony on the other hand if you even download it you now own it as far as their policy goes, I don't know what Nintendos policy is.
@Rog-X
Xbox Microsoft store digital game returns policy is fantastic and I have used it.
And it worked perfectly. UK.
I agree that Xbox does have a better store than PS or Ninty, but their PC store really needs some help. They don't have nearly as many games as console users have.
@Kaloudz
As a Spanish speaking person, you know how many reviews are there in my region of people giving games one star because it's not in Spanish? It's sad and frustrating.
@Rog-X
I have refunded stuff both in Playstation and Xbox with no problem.
Although in PS I had to chat with someone. In Xbox it's all automated.
It definitely has less rubbish than the other two. Another thing that makes it better is how it's integrated into the interface, making it much faster and smoother.
@Rog-X For Nintendo is outright impossible to get a refund, Sony is very specific with each request, sometimes it’s approved but most of the time it’s denied, Microsoft is by far the best in this regard.
I bought Battlefield 1 for like $2 in December but they gave it away for free two weeks later so I submitted the request for refund and was able to redeem the free game no issues.
Why doesn't the xbox store have a price sorting function though, always irked me
My region's reviews are garbage if you can even call em reviews lol
And the movies/tv section never worked for me, always crashes.
@BAMozzy I am sorry but your post is a bit distracting. Why do you use single quotes so much? You aren’t embedding a quote so I keep getting confused. Is it a phone formatting thing? I am not trying to start anything, but it’s driving me to distraction.
Edit: Apparently my comment was offensive so if anyone is reading this please disregard.
@Rog-X Nintendo is in general “All sales are final”, but you can call and beg for a refund if your sob story is good enough. I have done it once but no longer remember why/what game it was (was during the early 3DS era).
Yeah the store is fine just make all the games films and everything about 30% cheaper and that's perfection really 💆
@Real_game_passion The others are far worse for that hahaha 😂
@Ryu_Niiyama Tell me you aren't from the UK without telling me you aren't from the UK.
It's an apostrophe, not a quote. If I was to Quote you, I'd do it this way "Why do you use single quotes so much?" - Quotation marks, not apostrophes which are used more to indicate missing letters - for example It's (it is) There's (There is) What's (What is).
I would use italics, bold, or underlines to add emphasis on certain words or sentences - It maybe because I'm using a 'generalisation', maybe some phrase (like 'Game by Game' for example) or even a word that I wouldn't use (as in 'Slop' or eslop).
As I use so many different Forums, chats etc, many don't share the same 'formatting' and as such, I find it so much simpler to 'format' this way where words/phrases contained within those apostrophes would otherwise be italic, bold etc. It was more to do with typing on OLD typewriters/word processors etc long before there was 'codes' to format as you typed! I'd say it's probably an archaic typing format now.
I also don't criticise others for their Grammar, their spelling, their choice to 'format' how they want. That is 'respecting' their right to express themselves in their own way!!
@BAMozzy Wow that escalated quickly. Yes, I am from the US so I use those grammar rules when reading text. I didn’t say you couldn’t use anything or express yourself so your reaction feels excessive, but you are welcome to feel how you wish. I simply asked why you used single quotes because it was distracting for me and I wasn’t sure if it was a formatting issue or not as we all use different devices. Also, since such punctuation isn’t used on this UK based site to the same extent you use it I was confused by your usage. Again, I didn’t know if it was formatting or not. Asking a question about usage isn’t a criticism. I would have asked the same question if I saw someone using a capital letter for each word.
Also I gave an example of how single quotes are used in US English. In US English an apostrophe is used to denote plurality or a contraction. And single quotes as opposed to double quotes are used to embed a quote in a quote. So it was honest confusion.
Nonetheless, I seem to have offended you so I will stay away from you and your comments. To lessen any further misunderstandings I politely request that you do the same. Again sorry to have offended you, won’t happen again.
@IOI I do wonder about that. Many legitimate games don’t go to xbox or are delayed heavily and I can’t imagine that shovelware devs, who simply want the highest ROI would even bother at that point when mobile, steam, eshop and PS Store are low hanging fruit. I am not a dev though, so that is simply my hot take.
@Decimateh Capping it with a time played limit would be amazing at chasing away those ten minute players. For sure.
@Lup Sucks doesn't it? I also don't get why most reviews talk about pushing grannies down the stairs 😅
@Ryu_Niiyama It’s because the user base is much smaller than other consoles and Steam, plus Xbox users tend to not buy games compared to any other platform, logically because of Game Pass, so if a game releases on every platform it just makes way, way less money on Xbox, that’s why even Microsoft themselves are porting first-party games to anywhere else.
That plus being a bit more complicated to port games to the Series S is why some major games just choose to skip the platform increasingly so, quite disappointing tbh.
I love the Xbox store- Except that unless I come across them in a sale, I can never find the older games from 2014-2018 etc. When I go into “‘New Games” it only goes so far back plus you can’t even flip it to “oldest to newest” games like you can with PlayStation. Weird and annoying.
@joey302 If I understood correctly, you want to browse the whole catalogue. I have never tried that, but I just found the Browse all games website. You need to press "Load more" at the bottom, probably many times LOL.
https://www.xbox.com/en-us/games/all-games/console?PlayWith=XboxSeriesX%7CS%2CXboxOne&xr=shellnav&orderby=Title+Asc
You can only sort by title or relevance, but there are filters you can use.
On console, at the end of the store main page, there is a section, By genre, that seems to have all games sorted by genre, including backwards compatible titles.
Agreed and agree with most here "the content and pages" are great. The base navigation that's a total other story and could be completely overhauled and gutted.
@Kaloudz not even 10 mins players mainly those weirdos who don't even play em see a game they don't like usually indie n one star em 😭 or one star coz they're not happy with the games that month 🙄
The Xbox store is a lot cleaner and an enjoyable experience to use.
I’ve noticed that a lot of games on the PS store don’t have the pricing visible until you click on them. Also scrolling is awful as it only shows about 2 rows at a time.
@Decimateh That's exactly the issue. I hate the whole "let's review bomb something because it's 2D" winds me up lol. Your idea of not being allowed to place a review with X-time played would fix that no problem.
@Decimateh we got a one star review on Google from someone who couldn't find us, as they put the wrong postcode in.
Like, it's on all of our adverts and website. We are on an A-Road with our own slip road.
Strangely it kind of helped, as other reviews since have commented on that review in our defence.
I think part of the reason is that Microsoft has known for a very long time that the future of the brand was in that store.
@kaloudz ye IV seen loads people putting Japan anime trash etc indie garbage it's like just don't play 🙄 like its gunna Change. Anything on gp they're dumba asf 😂😭 @themcnoisy that's nuts 😂😂😭 one star because I don't know how to use Google n have single digit iq😂
@Banjo- cool thank you I’ll give that a shot 😊
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...