Xbox One Clarifies Indie Game Publishing - 'Every Person Can be a Creator'
Microsoft changed another one of their initial plans regarding the Xbox One, and this time the issue is their handling of indie games.
There was confusion on how Xbox One would work for indie publishing companies as they felt slighted by Microsoft, and thought they were unable to self publish to the console. A clarification to their intentions has Microsoft touting a special program called, ID@Xbox as a supporter for smaller indie studios. The program will offer events, forums, and technical assistance.
Developers will have full access to the capabilities of the system including cloud services, Kinect and the Xbox Live toolset reports the Guardian.
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"Our vision is that every person can be a creator," said Xbox One business Vice President Marc Whitten to Engadget. "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 programme and the timeline at Gamescom in August."
Techland.time.com originally reported that Microsoft was infuriating developers of Indie games because they couldn't publish on the Xbox Live network and instead had to find a publisher and sign a deal of exclusivity when signing on with Xbox.
Essentially, that would have taken away the entire notion of being an Indie game. In addition, if the developer would have liked to make changes to a game, they would have to pay to do so.
"Why do we need a publisher when we self-finance our games, we build our own IP, we manage our own IP and we've turned nearly two million units online as indie publishers sold – not free downloads? Why? What's wrong with us?," said Lorne Lanning, president and co-founder of Oddworld Inhabitants to Eurogamer. "Who's in touch with their audience? And who seems out of touch with their audience? All we know is we've tried to get our games on their platform and we can't do it – and I even helped them release the box."
Hopefully the clarification will help indie publishers and the Xbox One ease their tensions.
