Xbox One ID@Xbox Could Push Away Indies, Lock Them Down, Or Deprive Gamers Of Games On Xbox ON

[diamondback8]

Hmmmm... interesting.

According to Real Gamer Newz, the whole new policy of the ID@Xbox could actually be a bad thing for indie developers, rather than a good thing. ID@Xbox was Microsoft's way of welcoming indie developers to self-publish games on the Xbox One when Microsoft was bashed for the many controversial policies they were going to put on the Xbox One, such as DRM-laden games and more. One of those things was the publishing part.

But it seems the ID@Xbox has some downsides to it.

Releasing “First” on Xbox ONE can get you priority positioning in the market place in order to be discovered easier by gamers clicking through the menus, but failing to release at the same time on Xbox ONE as other platforms that are planned for the title could result in being completely buried in the store, not promoted at all, or in ultimately worst case scenarios – being punished all the way up to potentially legal actions citing violation of the “parity clause” in Xbox ONE’s ID contract recently exposed by well known and industry-wide respected Development Studio Vlambeer On Accredited Publication VG247.

GamingBolt has reported Microsoft’s response which was public and generally speaking, stating that “developers should get in touch”. This is less than hopeful as it distinguishes no real expectation of the communication that will take place privately and the developer situation that indies may find themselves in (and which they may not even be allowed to talk about publicly).

RGN then asked the thoughts of one Syama Mishra, a developer for the indie game Assault Androi Cactus, on his thoughts about this.

First let us essentially recognize what all of this means. If devs submit a game to Xbox ONE and don’t release the game on Xbox ONE at exactly the same time as every other platform it’s planned for, they’ll risk being in violation of their Xbox Contract. Who knows what happens next, RGN doesn’t have this type of contract so we haven’t had the luxury of reading all of the documents yet. But we sure hope it would never include getting your game “never on Xbox” or getting your developer status taken away / given a strike of some sort / reduction of service, etc., sued, or anywhere near these potential outcomes.

My thoughts? Well, while Indie developers are finally given the chance to self-publish, it's good but if they have to publish the XB1 version the same time as the other versions, that can pose problems. What if the indie games needs work for the Xbox One but the other versions are good to go? What if there are some factors that can't have the Xbox One version out right away? It looks like even self-publishing has its limits with Microsoft. I hope they can figure something out 'cuz not all indie games can be exclusive to just one platform, and you can't really dictate when an indie developer can publish their games.

Source: Real Gamer Newz

 

[KN1GHTMARE]

I'm a big supporter of Indie developers and while I chose to purchase an XB1 first, the PS4 is a far better place for Indies to go. They have a better understanding of what Indies are and what their value really is.

 

[rkkeller]

Nothing new above, just a repost of something that was discussed in another thread here already.

 

[heavensdevil]

I knew it sounded too good to be true when Microsoft said that every console is a dev kit for indies. There is always a catch with Microsoft's policy and this is one of it. Looks to me that Microsoft only announced the program for publicity rather than really want to support indies. Such a policy might push the indies toward Sony but who knows, Microsoft might change it.

 

[jstep]

I hope this doesn't affect indie games coming to the Xbox One. Some of the indie titles on the 360 were some of my favorite and best made/most well thought out games on the marketplace.

 

[thedoodseven]

I'm a big supporter of Indie developers and while I chose to purchase an XB1 first, the PS4 is a far better place for Indies to go. They have a better understanding of what Indies are and what their value really is.

Exactly. Sony did the right thing and made it easy for developers to get their indie games in their platforms. Even if other platforms get them, indie games are still welcome to be put in Sony's platforms. See Hotline Miami for example: that game was already in PC months before Sony got them and yet Sony still welcomed them. And prior to E3, Sony was able to snag a lot of indie games to be put into their platforms. Now everybody gets to see Terraria, FEZ, Spelunky and many more come to the PS consoles even if other platforms got them. But Microsoft? They're not gonna let indie games UNTIL they have them launch at the same time on other platforms. Well, let's hope they can fix this policy up.

 

[marthyrocks]

I hope this doesn't affect indie games coming to the Xbox One. Some of the indie titles on the 360 were some of my favorite and best made/most well thought out games on the marketplace.

Yeah, I hope so. So far, it won't affect the indie games that were already out in other platforms like Divekick. But for the other games that have yet to appear on other platforms but make the appearance in Xbox One, the developers are required to make it appear on the Xbox One alongside the other platforms. Yeah, hope it doesn't affect them at all.

 

[spark_777]

Anyway, we haven't heard yet of indie games being affected by this term policy. As long as we can still see more indie games coming to the console, at least we know Microsoft is still nice. But yeah, KN1GHTMARE makes a point. Sony already started early with welcoming indie developers and so far, a constant supply has been coming to the PS consoles.