Zeboyd Games: Microsoft's Solution To Indie Games Rating Problems 'Highly Disappointing'

Zeboyd Games' Robert Boyd, the developer behind popular Xbox Live indie RPG titles Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World, says he's "highly disappointed" with the way Microsoft has handled alleged manipulations of the ratings system on the Xbox Live Indie Games service. Last month, Microsoft began investigating claims that fans of College Lacrosse: The Video Game were manipulating ratings on the service, using free accounts to give 5-star reviews while also providing the minimum 1-star rating to competing XBLIG titles. Microsoft revealed yesterday that it has amended the ratings system for its Xbox Live Indie Games channel, allowing only Xbox Live Gold members to leave ratings for games on the service through the Xbox.com web site. But speaking to Edge, Boyd said he was disappointed that Microsoft did nothing to roll back fraudulent ratings that have already been given. "At the end of February, there were nearly 100 games that had four-star ratings or higher, and a dozen that had 4.5 or higher on the US marketplace," he explained. "Just a month and a half later, these figures had both dropped dramatically – 51 games at or above four stars, and a mere three games at or above 4.5 stars." Boyd noted that both of his once-highly-rated titles, Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World, have fallen down the charts, and that has had a direct impact on his livelihood. "Sales for both titles have definitely dropped beyond the normal drop we would expect with the simple passage of time, no doubt due to the decreased exposure from being lower on the Top Rated lists" he said. Boyd did acknowledge that the changes made by Microsoft should limit this kind of problem in the future. "Restricting ratings to the console itself and Gold members on Xbox.com should make it much more difficult to manipulate ratings," he admitted. "Creating free accounts on an actual Xbox console is a much more time-consuming process and is much easier for Microsoft to track."