Indie developers were happy when Microsoft announced last year that it would allow retail Xbox One units to be used as development kits. There’s just little problem, the functionality hasn’t arrived as yet even though it has been a year since Microsoft announced it. The company had initially said that this functionality will be rolled out shortly after the console’s release in November but that evidently did not happen. The company’s Xbox boss Phil Spencer has revealed that while this is on the roadmap, its not high on Microsoft’s list of priorities right now.
Speaking with Engadget at Gamescom in Germany, Phil Spencer said that it has been a year since the company talked about letting developers use retail consoles as developer kits but they still can’t do that. Spencer says that its “in the roadmap,” however there are a few things ahead of it that they’ll do first before focusing any time and energy towards it.
Spencer says that these priorities are based on the feedback they have received from developers and apparently a majority hasn’t been nagging Microsoft to follow through on its promise. The Xbox boss agrees, adding that while there has been a great response to Microsoft’s ID@Xbox program, “the request from the community so far hasn’t been the retail-to-dev kits.”
He also says that the company doesn’t want to do anything which the consumer, developers in this particular case, is not asking for. So before Spencer and Co. devote any time and resources to this functionality, they’ll make sure to come through for developers on what matters to them the most.