The XBLIG marketplace is broken

 Here’s what’s supposed to happen:

1)  Developer makes game, and publishes to the Marketplace.

2)  Game shows up on “New Releases” list, and is highly visible to consumers.

3)  People buy the game, and the Game shows up on the “Top Downloads” list.

4)  If people like the game, it gets rated highly, and goes on the “Top Rated” list.

5)  As new games are published, the “New Releases” queue moves, and old games fall off the end.

The problem is that #3 is broken.  The “Top Downloads” list hasn’t changed in over two weeks.  This is great news for people who happen to be on it at the time it was frozen.  This is terrible news for people like me who just released a game.  We’re missing out on prime visibility.  With Bad Golf, 95% of all sales were made in the first few weeks while the game was on the lists.  Once it fell off the New Releases list, that was pretty much the end.  So these first few weeks are critical.

I was so excited to release this game, I didn’t even think to check on if the Marketplace was working.  You just kind of assume that it would, ya know?

There are worse things that could happen, but still, it’s a little disheartening.