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Posted by: Stephanie Carmichael

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The prevalence of indie games on consoles is all because of Microsoft's successful Xbox Live Arcade, according to Castle Crashers developer The Behemoth, whose beat-em-up game first appeared on the platform and has sold over 2 million copies there.

John Baez, the studio's co-founder, believes neither Nintendo nor Sony has matched the level of support for indies that Microsoft has shown, and it's because of XBLA and its push for downloadable content that others indie developers have found a place on consoles.

"No other console hardware manufacturer has had the success of downloadable games that XBLA has had," he told Gamasutra, "and many smaller developers have shared in that success."

He added, "I think without a doubt the indie console community would not exist as it does today if Xbox Live Arcade had been dropped after the original Xbox iteration."

Others might disagree over Microsoft's overall treatment of these developers, and Sony has shown support with Pub Fund and Nintendo with the Wii U's new eShop. But pointing to Microsoft as the starter of the trend is fair.

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Tags: Castle Crashers, XBLA, The Behemoth