Proper Games: XBLA needs proper categorisation

Proper Games CEO Paddy Sinclair, who's company announced a key deal with Capcom for downloadable title Flock! at E3, has admitted to GamesIndustry.biz that he has "mixed emotions" about Microsoft's title cull for Xbox Live Arcade.

Sinclair, formerly at Visual Science before establishing Dundee-based Proper Games in 2006, feels that while he's worried that his company's title "could just get lost in the morass of arcade conversions", he also sympathises with companies for whom those games that get cut are their "bread-and-butter...trickle of income".

"Well, it's with mixed emotions really," he said of Microsoft's plans. "At the moment there is a little bit too much junk on there - that's not to denigrate the guys who have stuff there, but a way to tier and rate content would be nice.

"Obviously as we're coming to Xbox Live for the first time, it would be nice to be prominent, and we could just get lost in the morass of arcade conversions... So to a certain extent I'm behind the concept of delisting games that aren't selling, aren't well-received, but I think it's a combination of the two.

"But it's also the bread-and-butter for those companies - it may not be huge sales, but that thousand or so per month they are selling is a trickle of income, and it's just going to get sliced off...

"Flat-out delisting perhaps isn't the solution - it's a step in the right direction - but hopefully they'll come back and have a facility whereby if it's been on Xbox Live Arcade, you can always pick it up from somewhere.

"That's what I'd like to see, but I'd also like to see a way of properly categorising games - what's the most-downloaded game at the moment? What's been most bought?"

Flock! was announced to acclaim at E3 this year, and is scheduled for release at the end of 2008 or the beginning of 2009 for the XBLA, PlayStation Network and WiiWare platforms.

The full GamesIndustry.biz interview with Paddy Sinclair is available now.