XBIG

Last week's Xbox 360 system update contained good news for indie developers by moving the Xbox Live Indie Games service to the top level of the Marketplace - but, for some reason, only in the United States. In a statement passed to Eurogamer and due to be posted on the AppHub Forums and XNA Community Blog, Microsoft confirms that it has acted on feedback from indie developers following the release of the Metro dashboard update in December, which buried XBLIG deep in the Xbox 360 menu system. More >

Microsoft has announced several changes to file size limits on the Xbox Live Indie Games service. The maximum size of games on the service is now 500MB, up from the previous 150MB. Developers can now charge 80 Microsoft Points for games of up to 150MB in size; previously, games over 50MB had to be priced at 240 or 400 MSP. More >

Projector Games' Xbox Live Indie Game, heavily inspired by Mojang's Minecraft, had grossed a million dollars from 350,000 copies sold by the beginning of last month. The intervening weeks have taken that total past the 500,000 mark, with the developer taking to Twitter to say: "After only 163 days of being available, I'm incredibly proud for Fortresscraft [to] finally sell that magic half-million; thank you everyone."

The second promotion designed to showcase "the diversity, talent, and potential" of Xbox Live Indie Games kicked off yesterday, with the release of Milk Stone Studio's Raventhorne. That is followed today by 2D fighting game Battle High: San Bruno, with one game to be released each day between now and the end of next week.

The Minecraft homage, the work of Projector Games, has grossed a million dollars in six months, the developer has announced. With 350,000 copies sold, it's believed to be the most successful game on the Xbox Live Indie Games service, though sales are sure to slow down when Minecraft gets an official XBLA release, with Kinect support, later this year.

In a damning indictment of the viability of Xbox Live Indie Games as a publishing solution for independent developers, Robert Boyd of Zeboyd Games has announced that, after just one week on Steam, his RPGs Breath Of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves The World have grossed more revenue than in over a year and a half on the Xbox 360 download service. Boyd said: "Thank you again to everyone that made this huge success possible."

Indiegames.com confirms a follow-up to December's Winter Uprising, an effort to promote the Xbox Live Indie Games service "to show people it isn't simply full of knock-offs and tacky-looking titles." This time organisers are taking submissions for the promotion, rather than choosing the games themselves; developers need to submit games for consideration by June 27, with the promotion to start on August 22.