Max: The Curse of Brotherhood developer Press Play has a new game coming out in the form of Tentacles: Enter the Mind, which will be releasing for Windows 8 PC and RT devices such as tablets. It will be out in early Summer through the Microsoft Store.

Creative Director Ole Teglbjærg stated that, “Tentacles is first and foremost about playful, challenging mechanics that are both entertaining and engaging. It takes place in a twisted, surreal universe where there are no limits to Professor Phluff’s fantasies. And I guess this game speaks to a very broad audience…who doesn’t like mad scientists and tentacles?”

You’ll play as tentacle monster Lemmy who must work to clear the troubled mind of Professor Phluff, a mad scientist dolphin man infected by all things cute. In the process, you’ll be avoiding enemies, eating eyeballs and doing whatever it is a tentacle monster does. Sound good? Let us know what you think below.

Microsoft’s Xbox Music, which is their music streaming service (think of it as a rival to Spotify, Pandora, or Sony’s Music Unlimited) has been available on Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows Phone, and obviously, Xbox devices for a year. Now, Microsoft has announced that their service will be expanding; in addition to headlining their music offerings on the upcoming Xbox One, it will also be available on iOS and Android devices.

Xbox Music offers an unusually good deal in that for the first six months, it offers free unlimited streaming of music with no limitations, from its catalog of over 30 million tracks; following the first six months, users who won’t pay are limited to 10 hours a month (similar to Spotify), whereas they can also subscribe to the service for $9 every month (which obviously removes the limitations).

The caveat here, however is that the free streaming will only be available to you if you are running a Windows 8 device, or using the web version, meaning those on an iOS or Android app will need to subscribe; although that sucks, it is, again, like competing services, so it remains a fairly good deal.

We’ll be seeing 15 new games releasing today for Windows 8, and though they encompass titles most of you may have already played on DOS, they feature all kinds of bells and whistles like multiplayer, leaderboards and more. Also, you can try before you buy, which is always a great option.

The list of games releasing on Windows 8 include:

– Toy Soldiers
– 4 Elements: Special Edition
– Hydro Thunder Hurricane
– Rocket Riot 3D
– Reckless Racing Ultimate
– Microsoft Solitaire Collection
– Microsoft Mahjong
– Microsoft Minesweeper
– Taptiles
– Adera
– Pinball FX2
– Wordament
– Gunstringer: Dead Man Running
– Ilomilo+
– Skulls of the Shogun

Of these titles, Toy Soldiers won’t be available for Windows RT, and Skulls of the Shogun will be releasing at the end of January.

Check out the launch trailer for PLAY below, and let us know if this news has you excited for the future of gaming on Microsoft’s App Store.

But what happens when it starts affecting their bread-winner, Windows? Even if it is Windows RT, surely the news that Rubicon, UK developer behind the game Great Big War Game, sold a measly £52 in it’s first week must be upsetting. Especially when Rubicon’s Paul Johnson estimated that it cost them around £10,000 to port it and Microsoft could care less about promoting it.

Writing on the developer blog, Johnson announced that, “A week after release we have made the princely sum of £52 in sales. That’s not a typo. And despite this, and the fact that GBWG is one of only several halfway decent launch titles, Microsoft have confirmed they will not give us any promotional features or help us with visibility in any way.

“If you’re familiar with their new store, this means our app is forever consigned to the garbage bin, presumably earning us less than £52 a week in future. Even if that rate is sustained, it will take just under two years before we recoup the salary paid to the guy who did the port.”

This is especially problematic when you consider that Windows RT doesn’t support the typical program applications of Windows 8 or even legacy programs (i.e. Windows 7 applications), and is entirely reliant on it’s app store for providing applications to its user base. And when you’re doing a shittier job than most of promoting, much less calling notice to those apps, the entire ecosystem eventually suffers.

In contrast, Johnson writes, “Apple regularly promote our apps. Android regularly promote our apps. Even RIM (Blackberry) regularly promote our apps. We enjoy working with those companies and it’s nice to see them acknowledge that we bring them some small amount of additional value to their setup. Firms our size need a bit of a leg up, and we go out of our way to show our gratitude to the above for helping us out in this way from time to time.

Johnson recommended other developers avoid RT, besides stating that Microsoft won’t be seeing another Rubicon title again on their platforms again.

“Microsoft…clearly do not value us at all. Even whilst there’s almost nothing to promote, they will not feature our title for bizarre admin reasons. And this is whilst their store is empty and they need developers like us to fill their store far more than developers like us need them to pay us £50 a week.”

Maybe Johnson should come down to India and pick the Xbox India chief’s brain on the matter?

Source: GIBiz