With the release of the new Xbox Live dashboard update many fans of downloadable games, especially of the independent variety, would be taking a backseat to content that was more enticing and otherwise more profitable for Microsoft as a whole. While we can’t speak to Microsoft putting the Indie Channel in a less than ideal space on the dashboard, they have made some steps to help indie developers get their games out there, and now they're doing more.

Initially there were a couple rules and regulations put in place for any indie developer that required they charge a certain price, keep their titles under a certain size, and limited the number of games they could make available. As indie games have continued to grow, however, Microsoft has raised many of those limits and caps, and just the other day they took them a step further. 

Before, any indie developer who created a game that exceeded the previous limit of 50 MB (going all the way up to 150 MB) was forced to charge between 240 and 400 MS Points for their product, but now they can charge the 80 Microsoft Points that a 50 MB game typically ran.

That 150 MB limit has also been lifted, and Creators Club members are now allowed to release games whose file size goes all the way up to 500 MB. There is however, no word on whether a price point is required for a game of that size. We’d hope not.

And finally, any Creators Club member can now put up to 20 games on their individual channel — a big leap from the previous limit of 10. That means developers can take greater risks and put more of their creations out there without worry of elminating something that might be a hit later down the line.

So, Microsoft might have put the Indie Games Channel on the back burner, so to speak, but they certainly haven’t neglected the influence that downloadable and indie titles have had on Xbox Live. Sure, these games might not be of the quality of something like say Bastion or Limbo, but they certainly can help developers like Supergiant generate enough revenue to deliver their version of those games.

Are there any indie game developers out there who want to share their experience with Xbox Live and how these changes will help them?

Source: XNA Blog