Good news indie game developers and lovers, Microsoft has confirmed that they do indeed love indie games and developers.
Microsoft has confirmed that the Xbox One system will support publishing for independent developers. Retail systems will also double as a development kit, which means any Xbox One purchased in a store can be used for game development and testing purposes.
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Xbox corporate VP Marc Whitten told Engadget:
"Our vision is that every person can be a creator. That every Xbox One can be used for development. That every game and experience can take advantage of all of the features of Xbox One and Xbox LIVE. This means self-publishing. This means Kinect, the cloud, achievements. This means great discoverability on Xbox LIVE. We'll have more details on the program and the timeline at Gamescom in August."
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Xbox One's previous policy required developers to be paired with third-party publishers or publishing deals from Microsoft itself, making no exception for self-publishing.
Engadget also reports that a hand full of developers were glad to hear the news but also hesitant to express happiness until they got the complete details.
Rami Ismail of "Super Crate Box" and "Ridiculous Fishing" developer Vlambeer said:
"Of course, this is great news and Vlambeer is happy to hear that. Obviously, we'll have to wait until gamescom to hear all the details and figure out whether limitations are in place. We've been discussing this exact issue with Microsoft for a while and to see them following Sony's lead in an open indie strategy is great for the industry. Anything is better than nothing."
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While "Octodad" developer Young Horse Game said:
"For me I'm waiting to hear more details about the self-publishing on Xbox One before making any sort of decision as to whether it's a great thing or maybe just something that's only okay. I want to be able to see the visual setup of the store and how they're going to be handling discoverability. They recently said everything would be in the same store, but how will that store be organized and what does it take to get banner space or notoriety?
What are the technical requirements of this? Is there potential to interface with them on marketing and things of that nature? Or will you just be another app in the same way that things released on the iOS appstore can so easily be overlooked? I think it's a step in the right direction, but it's too early to know how large of a step."
More details will definitely emerge at Gamescom come late August.
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