Can XNA Game Studio be used to distribute games in multiple regions such as Australia and US?

Question

I imagined that publishing a game to xbox live would make it available all around the world. It seems that this is not the case because there are far more titles available on xbox live in the USA (around 2000) than in xbox live Australia (around 700).

Before I commit to using XNA Game Studio, I would like to know the details of publishing to different xbox live regions. I am wondering if the difference is because there are restrictions of distributing software between countries. Though it surprises me that Australia and the USA are not interchangable.

I have read that it is possible to distribute games through xbox live, but I can't find any details about international distribution. Would I be restricted to distributing a game in my local market (Australia)?

For a test, I have tried getting one of the US xbox live games not found on the Australian site called Bop n Pop, but an error message reported that the game was not available.

The answer would be yes if you have published a game in an xbox live region different to your home market (or to multiple regions) using XNA Game Studio.

The answer would be no if you have tried and failed to publish to one or more different regions. If so, I am interested in why you were not able to publish internationally. Is it a policy or a technical difficulty (e.g. TV refresh rate differences between NTSC and PAL).

Answer 1

based on the XNA creators site FAQ here are the regions that can download and play the games, and the regions of those that can sell a created product.

In which regions are Xbox LIVE Indie Games available for purchase? Consumers in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Singapore and Spain are able to download Xbox LIVE Indie Games for purchase. We are continually working to add additional regions.

Developers from which countries are able to sell their games? XNA Creators Club Online Premium members in Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States are able to sell their games. We are continually working to add additional regions, but these are the only countries were XNA Creators Club Online is enabled to pay their residents.

http://creators.xna.com/en-US/faq#anchor_1_58

Answer 2

I just found an indie game developer who kindly published their sales figures broken down into multiple regions. Therefore, I assume that it is possible to publish to multiple regions using XNA game studio.

For those who are interested, the sales data was published by JForce Games. The game was called Avatar Showdown.

Australia was missing from the list of regions, so perhaps developers are not publishing to Australia given the smaller size of the market compared to the US and Europe.

Answer 3

Based on my experience, as an Australian, publishing on XBLIG (XBox LIVE Indie Games) in about October 2009:

When you put your game up for peer review, pending actual publication, you get a series of checkboxes for which regions you want to publish your game in. Currently those regions are "the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Singapore and Spain" (from the FAQ).

So naturally I checked all of those boxes - and it sells to all those regions.

Unfortunately you cannot sell XBLIG games in Australia. There is no technical reason for this - it's just Microsoft's rules.

In case there is any confusion: XBLIG is not the same thing as XBLA (Xbox LIVE Arcade). XBLIG is not available for end users/purchasers in Australia (currently). To get on XBLA you would have to have a "real" publishing agreement with Microsoft - and that would allow your game to be made available in Australia and probably other additional regions. (You might also need to get it rated - which is possibly what is blocking Microsoft from making XBLIG available in Australia).

(It's also worth noting, for anyone who skims your question's title - that this obviously applies only to Xbox - you can do whatever you want on PC.)