Will You Sign This Petition For An Indie Games Channel On Xbox Live?

Mike Smith, a concerned games journalist, has started up a petition that he plans to present to Microsoft so that they give indie games their very own channel on Xbox Live. He’s asking for 1,000 signatures, do you feel strongly enough about this to sign your support?

This has been due for a while now. Indie games on Xbox Live have always had a hard time due to the open nature of the platform which is happy to home just about any old thing. However, back in early December 2011, Microsoft updated the Dashboard which put the indie game marketplace further away from the default page, some argue, further into obscurity. There have been game parodies, outrage and developer pleas since, yet, Microsoft have shown no response.

Like many people, Mike has had enough though and has moved into action by creating a petition for those who care about indie games enough to sign. The petition asks for indie games to get their very own channel on Xbox Live which would bring the marketplace in a more visible place for potential customers to see.

“I..ask anyone who cares about the independent circuit of video game development to sign this petition so that we may all ask Microsoft to change the layout of their XBox 360 Dashboard to give more exposure to the Indie games.”

If you do want to sign the petition or just check it out, head on over to its official page. While there you will see that a number of XBLIG developers have already signed the petition and are having quite the debate.

William David of Swing Swing Submarine (Blocks That Matter) says:

“Since the last update of the Xbox360 Dashboard, I’m just completely lost each time I turn on my console. And I’m a game developer, so I can’t see how people that are not even familiar with XBLA and XBLIG can find these sections. Obviously, this new dashboard is no more about games, it’s about ads.”

Dj Arcas developed one of the most successful XBLIG games, Fortress Craft, adds:

“I wrote FortressCraft, the best-selling XBLIG of all time, with almost 700,000 sales; I would REALLY like to be not relegated as a second-class type of game!”

We want to know what your take on this ongoing debate is. Are you going to sign the petition or do you believe developers should concentrate their efforts in other forms of promotion/exposure?

Let us know in the comment section below!