Tomas Sala, developer of aerial shooter The Falconeer (as well as Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles, a city-builder set in the same universe) recently spoke with Windows Central executive editor Jez Corden on the Xbox Two Podcast.
Sala has worked with the ID@Xbox program in the past, releasing The Falconeer as an a launch title for the Xbox Series X|S consoles back in November 2020. During the podcast, the duo touched on numerous topics, including what Sala would like to see improve across the Xbox PC store.
Sala described how the Xbox store doesn’t show large screenshots of games or trailers, and defaults out to the logo which doesn’t really accurately depict games. Sala suggested that Microsoft could do more to showcase what games actually look like right away, before expecting users to click in.
Sala also described how Xbox could boost its community-building tools, and noted that even Valve could do more here with Steam. “I’ll post my development updates and people love following how something gets created, and in the beginning it all looks like shit, and then a year later it looks pretty cool… that’s a wonderful journey to enjoy,” he says. “I would love to see that, that people can follow me as a creator and realize that they’re not buying into a single game… they’re buying into a person, or a world, or a universe.”
Continuing the discussion with things he’d like to see improve on the Xbox Store, Sala touches on the challenges of game discovery, and how it would be nice to have the Xbox PC app give recommendations and updates on what someone should play.
Touching on the challenge of getting attention in a time of TikTok videos and Instagram Shorts sucking up screen time, Sala points how Microsoft can and should be leveraging the advantages of a subscription service with Xbox Game Pass.
“The great thing about Game Pass is people are very experimental with the games they try, and they try a lot more variety… they’re a bit harsher, they’ll find stuff ‘Oh, I don’t like that’ and they’ll let you know, but they’ll have tried it,” Sala says.
The Falconeer and Bulwark are both available on Xbox Play Anywhere for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox PC, as well as Steam.
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