BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: Microsoft confirms the rumours to Kotaku. Here is the official statement:
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.
Original Article:
Microsoft announced last June that independent developers could not publish their games on the Xbox One unless the developer was sponsored by a publisher. This would mean that indie devs who could only afford to self-publish would be left out in the cold. However, it looks like this will not be the case.
According to a report by GameInformer, Microsoft will be doing a reversal on this policy that will allow indie devs to self-publish. Additionally, Microsoft will be giving its certification system a revamp, making it more like iTunes where the folks there will only look at terms of service violations and major bugs, instead of scouring the entire code of a game. The Xbox One will also be able to be put into “debug mode” which will help devs test their games.
All of this is an attempt by Microsoft to gain more support for the Xbox One, which many independent developers, like Lorne Lanning of Oddworld fame, have already rejected due to the restricting policies for indie devs. He said earlier last month in an interview with Eurogamer:
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?”
Now that Microsoft is reversing many of the policies we all have complained about, does that make the Xbox One a possible purchase later this year? Possibly, but we need to remember Microsoft’s original plans for the Xbox One and know that they could always implement those plans later on in the future.
So what do you think about Microsoft reversing its self-publishing policies? Comment below!
