Indies praise Xbox One self-publishing – but Microsoft must drop its launch parity po

April 1st, 2014, 00:31 Posted By: wraggster

Microsoft’s ID@Xbox program has been received well among the indies we spoke to, but launch parity remains a concern.

The ID@Xbox program is being hailed as a success by indies releasing games through the initiative, but Microsoft must revise its launch parity policy if Xbox One is to become as indie-friendly as rival PS4.During GDC Microsoft announced that that it has sent Xbox One devkits to over 250 independent studios, and it also confirmed a roster of 25 self-published games to be released through ID@Xbox in the coming weeks and months. While the indies we spoke to at the GDC launch event were delighted with how much friendlier Microsoft has been in recent months, there were still lingering concerns over launch parity.Many indies have voiced their concerns over the clause, and even Sony has taken a swipe at its rival’s stance on indie self-pubishing – before GDC PlayStation’s VP of publisher and developer relations Adam Boyes tweeted a ‘list’ of platforms developers are not allowed to release their games on before they hit PSN. So, at the ID@Xbox event we asked corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Xbox division Phil Harrison if he’d seen the tweet, and what he thought of it.“I laughed,” he said. “Taking aside competitive positioning and all of that, the winners in all of this are game players. There are more games coming out for these platforms, there are more developers creating for these platforms, there are more fresh minds coming into our industry than any time in recent memory. And that’s so, so important to the future of our industry.”

http://www.edge-online.com/news/indi...parity-policy/

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