Microsoft kicks the doors open to self-publishing on Xbox One

There’s always a catch. Of course there is. Games developed through the program will have to be published as Universal Windows Platform (UWP) games to appear on Xbox One. The games won’t have full access to the Xbox One’s powers nor to some core Xbox Live features. Among the missing features are matchmaking for multiplayer and Gamerscore. That last one actually makes sense. Without that restriction, you’d see a game titled “Press A to get Gamerscore” within a few days. For that, you’re still stuck looking up a copy of Avatar: The Last Airbender for Xbox 360.

To get full access to the Xbox One, you’ll need a hardware-based SDK, which is available through the ID@Xbox program that Microsoft will continue to run alongside the Xbox Live Creators Program.

The power of visibility

When we’re kids, we wonder what it’d be like to be invisible. Game developers, though, dream about the opposite – the power or visibility. Programs like this carry a risk of flooding the market and making the good games in the collection difficult to find.

Games made through the Creators program will be sold in a dedicated section of the Xbox store, and Polygon notes that Microsoft won’t be holding these developers to any kind of NDA or approval. They do reserve the right to remove inappropriate content from the service, though.

This visibility problem was part of the puzzle of the Xbox 360’s Xbox Live Indie Games program, too. It’s still one that Microsoft, Valve, and other digital marketplace owners have to figure out. We occasionally get a memorable game through these services, like the classic, I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1, but by and large most of the stuff published disappears without getting any visibility. We’re hoping Microsoft can find a way to highlight some of these titles along the way.

The SDK for Xbox Live Creators is available right now through the source link below. The program is in preview, but Microsoft says it plans to open the program up very soon.

Article source: https://www.technobuffalo.com/2017/03/02/microsoft-kicks-the-doors-open-to-self-publishing-on-xbox-one/