Happy Birthday Xbox LIVE Indie Games

What a difference a year makes…  Xbox Live Community Games launched on November 19th, 2008, populated with many titles from Microsoft’s first two Dream.Build.Play competitions (2007,2008).  Launching with amazing games like CarneyVale Showtime and Weapon of Choice, quality titles quickly became lost in a sea of mediocrity.

The Community Games channel was overwhelmed with more clones than Star Wars, from Pong, to Breakout, Asteroids, and beyond.  Not to mention all the “me-too” apps.  Sadly, controller massage apps are one of the great success stories of this grand experiment.

Things have greatly improved since Microsoft introduced the rating system over the summer.  Microsoft implemented a bit of a reboot, changing the name and pricing scheme of Community Games.  Quality titles are seeing dramatically improved sales through increased exposure.

While I despise the onslaught of shovel-ware, I love Xbox LIVE Indie Games.  It is one of my favorite features of the Xbox 360 platform.  Each year, Microsoft’s Dream.Build.Play competition shows more and more of the potential of XNA and Xbox LIVE Indie Games.

Have you tried any Indie Games?  What are your favorites?

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