It just became a lot easier for game developers to sell their creations on the Xbox platform. Microsoft has announced a new program which makes it very easy for game developers to create and sell games for the Xbox One. This program will enable them to do all of that while bypassing all of the existing channels that game developers currently have to go through to get their games on the Xbox platform. Microsoft is calling it the Xbox Live Creators Program.
The program has been developed in a way that an independent game developer can pick up a retail unit of the Xbox One, use it as a developer kit, create a game and then self-publish it to the Xbox marketplace.
This wasn’t possible previously as developers either had to be part of an established game development or media company or they had to apply for Microsoft’s ID@Xbox game program in order to get the ability to self-publish games.
Microsoft has only opened up the Xbox Live Creators Program as a preview at this point in time but it will soon be opened up to the public. The company requires game developers to ensure that the game they submit is a Universal Windows App so that it can also run on Windows 10 devices. Microsoft is also reserving the right to remove the game from the Marketplace is it finds any “harmful or inappropriate content.”
The one-time fee for this program varies from $20 to $100 and Microsoft hasn’t really detailed how it’s going to decide what it’s going to charge each independent developer. Games self-published through this program might be listed in a separate section of the Xbox Store which will certainly limit their exposure to potential customers.
Filed in . Read more about Microsoft and Xbox One. Source: developer.microsoft