Don’t pay too much attention to that list of “Related” games when you’re searching through the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Winsource has noticed that no matter what game you’re looking at, the list of “related” titles is always the same.
So, Angry Birds, Doodle God, Fruit Ninja, and Kinectimals all show up as the top related entries whether you’re comparing them to Battle Tanks, Moonlander, or StarTennis.
“This is obviously unfair treatment towards game developers. Xbox Live games already get preferential treatment over the average game. Not only is this unfair, but it’s also annoying,” wrote Winsource.
Indeed, all the suggestions are Xbox Live enabled, which Microsoft is using as its big differentiating factor. The ability to connect to an Xbox 360 gamer profile, earn achievements, and play games against console gamers is one of the most important distinguishing features of Windows Phone.
But that doesn’t mean they’re the only games on the Windows Phone Marketplace, and if Microsoft wants to earn any interest from third parties, it’ll need to feature games that aren’t published by “Microsoft Studios.”
As Winsource put it, “I’m trying to find some new unknown games and the related apps just stays the same. As far as I’m concerned it might as well not even be there. If Microsoft wants to catch the eye of more 3rd party game developers they need to stop playing favorites and fix this.”
