So then, where the Fuck is the PSN version?

awww ! This can explain the release date delay.... well I'm disappointed.
I bought some stuff from their website to show my respect because they were doing a PC release and now I feel betrayed, why oh why Xbox360 first !!!
Money money I can understand and I don't blame them for trying to make some bucks, but this really puts me down.
I don't trust them any more. That's my bigger grief. What will be the next step ?
I will buy the game for sure anyway, if the PC release is happening that is, and if I don't have to wait too much because of a Microsoft exclusive contract.
It seems that the XBox360 is becoming mandatory in order to be able to play the best indies.

This is great news to me. Love the Fez inspired announcement image as well :)!

luc -- relax a bit, the ign article says "The WiiWare and PC versions will follow shortly after."

yeah, sure Zaphos, it's only a video game after all.
But still it left a sour taste in my mouth, I didn't get excited for the release of a video game since a long time.
I just won't wait eagerly for the game and will get it when it's out.
Besides that, when you're making a statement and then change it, you have to expect people to have some doubts, no ?

YES! Thank Jebus!

gee wiz, i wonder why go with XBLA before wiiware?

maybe it has to do with wiiware lack of demos?

wiiware sucks.

Yo dudes.
SMB is coming out for Pc (steam and other portals) Wiiware and possibly Mac later on.

all versions will probably be slightly different due to limitations of the system as well as "contractual obligations" but the meat of the game is the same on all systems the extra content is basically fluf.

SMB will launch on all 3 within the same month but xbla version will come out first.

Thanks for making things clear Edmund.
I feel so childish now...

There's no need to explain Edmund, there's no point in releasing a PC version of any game to be honest.

Good for you to stick with the platform though even with the astronomical piracy rates and general ungratefulness of the cock-bags.

I'll be double buying on the XBLA and PC to offset your hospital bills :)

God forbid - along with the recent news about Alan Wake - that Microsoft do anything to cut the PC platform a break these days.

P.

-huge rant-

mushijako I believe that the console people are bigger "cock-bags" then PC gamers for a number of reasons, but lets not go that route (that would no doubt end with you flaming the shit out of me whilst I try arguing actual reasons).

piracy rates a a load of bollocks IMO, it's just an excuse by game developers because they didn't get the predicted sales which could probably be due to the fact that games are heading towards the hyper-realism route (instead of trying to offer better features and gameplay) and upgrading your system every few years is beyond something like 95% of the population (bullshit figure that I just estimated).

there will never be a good figure that shows the rates of piracy for a game, nothing will ever be able to stop piracy unless games only go through a digital distributer like steam, but even so about barely any of the population would consider game piracy, most of these people wouldn't consider buying the game in the foreseeable future anyway.

I think it's stupid that everyone believes piracy is killing the PC (hence it actually is killing the pc, but indirectly), probably something bought around to increase sales on consoles, another solution to combating piracy would be to sell games cheaper, indie games are perfectly priced, cheaper games = people buy more games = more profit (if a person could buy your game and a competitors game for the same price as buying /either/ your game or your competitors game then it doesn't matter as much if your game is slightly worse than your competitors unless the gameplay is roughly the same).

Nice. Now I will be playing it on the big screen.

The only thing that bugs me about this is it was the Wii community that was really behind this game all along (due to the alleged exclusivity that has now vanished w/ no explanation), and now they turn around and release it on 360 first?!

It doesn't much matter to me because unless it's orders/worlds/epically better than the super-crappy game that spawned it, I won't be getting it (on PC) but, yeah, not very classy, Team Meat.

Sorry, but do not buy now. In several affiliate websites Wii was made to promote the game, and now ... zero interest.

I have to say, ****** really is a major factor in why small developers tend to prefer XBLA/PSN. I don't know if ****** = piracy, or what, but there is definitely one or two orders of magnitude in terms of sales of a successful PC game vs XBLA game.

Do you realistically think Castle Crashers would have sold 1M copies for PC? There's just no way.

I don't know if it's piracy -- personally I feel like that has to be at least one of the factors. I also prefer playing non-freeware games on a console, since my PC is older and stuff doesn't always run properly on it..

Anyway the idea that piracy is "a load of bollocks" is a load of bollocks, IMO. It's at least part of the reason that the worst XBLA games sell 10-20k units while many PC titles are lucky to sell that many.

I understand that indie developers need to make money... I just don't understand the sellout towards everything that is a console/mobile platform.
What would be the problem about releasing it on a PC on the same day?
Do they really expect us to go out and buy an xbox in order to wait less to play SMB?.... seriously...

I love the indie scene but there's so many developers directing their creations towards consoles/iphone stuff and neglecting the pc users....

If you're going to make something please make it on a pc as well so we can play it...

no i will not buy a console

releasing a game on PC is a nightmare.

releasing a game on a console is also hard, but once you get it working, it works. on PC, who knows? i know i dont want release something on PC for that reason, not piracy.
i simply dont want to have to support the billion different configurations out there.

i personally detest everything about PC gaming. the instals, the patches, the drivers. it's always a huge headache to get anything working on even a clean, new machine. whereas on console, you pop it in, and it works. its better for the user, and its better for me because i dont have to make sure the game is gonna work on your old piece of shit infected computer with a shitty graphic card.

"oh boo hoo, why dont they just release the game on every console known to man at the same time? WHY?"

because microsoft wont let you release anything on XBLA if it already exists elsewhere. they demand somekind of timed exclusivity. if your game is already out on wii, they just flat out reject you. and wiiware sucks. world of goo managed to push a lot of copies, but it still stands as an exception. if you're gonna make any money as an indie on a console, it's on XBLA. XBLA is BY FAR the best console-based digital distribution service, and for that reason they get to make exclusivity demands.

also, i dont know if you realize, but team meat is TWO MEN. trying to make a whole game on their own, and you people just expect them to somehow pull off a simultaneous launch? get real.

and if you think bending to microsoft's will is selling out, know this: getting greenlit for XBLA is just that. permission to release a game. you dont get money until 3 months after the game is out and selling. microsoft dosent pay you anything. they just allow you to release a game on their platform.

i think it's a very smart move on the part of meat boy to forgo the wii exclusivity for an early XBLA release.

i bet the XBLA release will sell more copies on day one than wiiware ever will. wiiware is that dismal.

and as for all the poor little fanboys who got their feelings hurt because they thought the game was coming out on their platform of choice, cry me a fucking river.

ill try and respond to a few of the comments to clear up more confusion.

We NEVER said it was a wiiware exclusive game and in fact was very open to the fact that we were looking to release on other consoles if possible and always announced it was going to also be on pc, the wii exclusive illusion was simply there because wii sites picked up on the game and pushed it as a top wii title... it was never called exclusive.

As many have pointed out in order to release on a platform like xbla we need to cut a "deal" with microsoft. Xbla is the leading platform and we had been talking to them from the start about doing smb on xbla.. it took this long to get a reasonable deal worked out with them.. and trust me this current setup is AMAZINGLY reasonable conspired to early negotiations.

All in all if you want the game you now have 3 options, the core of the game is identical on all of them we simply wanted more people to have options and get smb in the hands of more people and this is how it worked out.

if you dont want the game that's totally fine, but for those who do they now have more options.

harrow: we tried our best at doing a sim launch but this was as good as it could get.

the game will come out on pc in the same month and you will be able to download it on steam/d2d and probably off our own site if we get it all hooked up in time.

also keep in mind we are only 2 people and tommys the only programmer (hes working on 3-4 versions of the game)

Edmund: ..thank you for the response, I appreciate it.

I also understand where you're coming from.... sorry if I came across as too criticizing.. it was not my intention.

I'm just frustrated that I can't play (and support) indie games that I like just because I don't have an xbox/wii/iphone.

The Indie scene will always be a PC scene for me...

(I'm buying SMB for the PC)

the pc version will have a higher rez than the wii and no limit on file size.

steam will also feature achievements.
and if we get time to do a level editor we could only do it on the pc

Fair enough Edmund.
After all there's a lot of good XBLA games which I really want to try, and more to come during this year SMB of course and FEZ which is XBOX360 only now. So I might take the plunge and get an XBOX360.
Since there's some months now before the release, it's time to start some savings.
And talking about the delay, I would rather play the game as you pictured it with Tommy than a rushed release.
Keep it up. We just need more crazy podcast/interviews in the meantime :)

I'm fine with the delay and the release on multiple platforms. I can wait a couple more months to get a quality game. About releasing on more platforms, i don't see where is the problem, since they haven't abandoned any of the previously announced. More people to play the game, more profit for them, everyone is happy. Anyway, nice to see that Edmund cleared some things up. Waiting for more info and i really hope you will do your best about releasing the level editor too. Keep up... ;)

raigan, I don't believe "piracy is "a load of bollocks"", I know it's very real. what I'm saying is that people that use piracy as an excuse for poor sales are wrong.

as I said and FISH picked up on I believe the main reason for PC sales not being as good is the fact that PCs are a lot more complicated.

on a console at most all you have to do is buy one extra peripheral for a game and plug it in, on PCs you have to have a bit of knowledge about your PC which is beyond a vast majority of the population.

not only that but nowadays PCs are barely better than consoles, an area which PCs have always had the advantage (and still do), but to upgrade your PC to be better is more expensive than the consoles in many cases anyway.

people who like a product will try to support it if they can, if they truly like a product they will feel bad about pirating it, so if you don't make a very good game then you're not likely to sell well, and 90% of the games released are cruddy clones or messed up by the publisher (spore, all but a few wii games & EA in general, as a few examples), if it doesn't sell well they should blame themselves (of course there are a few select games which are amazing but don't sell well, the blame for that is market trends and publicity or other factors).

Well they lost my sale. It's not about it being released on the Xbox alone. It's that they decide to tell everyone relatively shortly before it comes out. So whereas some people were really glad it was a Wii exclusive (as far as consoles go) and they decided to try and show appreciation for that. Now those people are pretty much stabbed in the back.

If they announced from the start that they were considering an XBLA version or if they announced that they were working one then you would almost completely avoid that situation.

I'm also very against giving certain releases advantages over the other. Make them as similar as possible. Instead they decide to make the XBLA version blatantly better with online play and an earlier release date.