Great Big War Game makes $83 in first week on Windows RT

The studio behind mobile hit Great Big War Game has criticized the Windows RT platform, noting that in its first week on sale, their flagship game made just £52 ($83) in sales on the platform in its first week. Great Big War Game has been available for iOS and Android since earlier this year, with sales on Android topping 100,000. The studio decided to port the game over to the Windows RT platform, for use on the newly-released Microsoft Surface tablet. However, in a blog post on its official website, Rubicon's Paul Johnson noted that he "will not be working with Microsoft again to bring any of our titles, old or new, to this platform." This is because the game has made just $83 in its first week on sale, thanks in part to a lack of promotion from Microsoft, claims Johnson. "Apple regularly promote our apps. Android regularly promote our apps. Even RIM (Blackberry) regularly promote our apps," he says. "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." He continues, "Microsoft on the other hand 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." Johnson also noted that even if this rate of sales is sustained, it will take two years to recoup the £10,000 ($16,000) porting costs. [UPDATE: Johnson has now deleted his original blog post, noting that Microsoft has been in touch with him. "If anyone already read this post, it has had a very positive effect and Microsoft have graciously decided work with us to iron out the problems and get us past this incident," he explains.]