Comment by jicea

In 2009, when announcing Windows Mobile 6.5, Microsoft launched the Windows Marketplace, a tentative to catch up with the App Store Gold rush. We were a french Windows Mobile game company back then, so we decided to submit our games to the Windows Marketplace. The process was really not smooth, on the technical side, on the "marketing" side and the process side.

On the technical side, the apps submission was crippled with bugs, with cryptic messages that we couldn't figure. A lot of developers were having the same troubles and we painfully figured out what were the problems while searching Microsoft forums. It gave me a really bad impression, and I remembered not being impressed at all. We were also in the process of submitting our first app to the iOS App Store and comparing the two experiences was not good for Microsoft, even with the complexity of certificates/signatures of the App Store.

On the marketing side, the entry price for submitting 5 apps to the Marketplace was $99. Then, you had to pay $10 for each new app, or for a new localised version of your app (you had to create a new entry for each localised version). Once again, on the iOS store, you just had to pay $99/year for a developper certificate and then you could submit any number of apps/version you want. I didn't understand back then why Microsoft had chosen theses rules: they just had to copy a successful model from their competitor. We did what almost all developers did at this time : we paid $99, submitted 5 apps and waited to see how successful was the Marketplace.

Our game, a puzzle game called Meon, began to be downloaded a lot. We saw purchases going up in the Marketplace vendor interface. We were super happy, but there was a problem. We couldn't figure how to fill the paiement account. All instructions seemed to be written for a US developper : you had to provide a proof of identity signed by a notary, you had to fill a W8-BEN form etc... We kept trying to submit our W8-BEN form but kept receiving email about our W8-BEN that told-us something was bad with it. For 6 months, we couldn't fill our paiement information, while we saw the royalties climbed up. At the same time, Microsoft launched the "Race to Market Challenge" to boost the Marketplace and motivate developer to submit apps. Ironically, we won the race in the 'Most Downloaded Free Application' (and accessory a really really big Microsoft Surface Table). As winner, we were invited in August in Seattle, among other developers, to attend to a private presentation of what will be the next Microsoft platform, Windows Phone 7. It was really cool from Microsoft to invite us, a small game company (3 persons) among big name like Bank of America. In the Microsoft office, I managed to explain our payment problem to one of the presenter, he sent a mail and few days later, our payment information was validated and we finally got our money.

What I learned then was to not trust Microsoft when you’re a small developer : if I hadn't been able to contact a Microsoft manager in person, I wouldn't be able to get my money. The whole process was not ready, and not in the same league of the growing App Store. As a 3 developers company, we prioritised to work on iOS and Android. Microsoft sent us Lumia phone to develop apps for Windows 7: It was too late, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.