GDC 2023: Looking Back at 10 Years of ID@Xbox  

GDC 2013 was tough on independent developers and Xbox. Just five years before indie games entered the gaming mainstream with 2008’s Summer of Arcade, the way we were working with indie developers seemed very progressive and groundbreaking. it was clear. Castle Crashers, Braidand Geometry War: Retro Evolution 2 – It was not working. The indie developer scene was growing faster than ever, and business processes and backends couldn’t keep up. And the developers knew that, and they weren’t happy.

As we looked to the future, it was clear that indie games and independent developers were important to our strategy of getting Xbox players to play a wide variety of content. So, at GDC 2013, when a developer swiped his XBLA and Xbox, we set to work the hard work of listening, pitching ideas, getting feedback, and listening more. Things had to change.

In the summer of 2013, we worked hard to develop new programs on Xbox. This program will not only meet the needs of developers in 2013, but can grow to meet the ever-changing and growing needs of the indie developer community. The program (his name was changed three times in the week before announcing it at Gamescom 2013!) [email protected]celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

I don’t like to declare success. Especially when you know you have more to do. [email protected]

Enabled Xbox to ship over 3,000 games from independent developers (more than the number of games released on the original Xbox and Xbox 360 combined), brought over 5,000 developers into the program, and had four or more developers paid the person. billion dollars. We’ll talk more about Game Pass later. $4 billion is really a lot of money! This is not only about the power of video games as an entertainment medium, but also about the power of independent development, the power of our fans and players, and the power of listening to and working with developers to empower them, and good things can happen. There is also evidence that it does happen.

The initial goal of this program is to make shipping your game on Xbox as easy as possible, whether it’s getting builds that technically work on Xbox, doing backend store provisioning work, or signing contracts. and to make it easy. We are still working towards this goal every day. But we also want to listen and meet other developer needs. That’s how we introduced self-publishing in the first place.

Over the years, several programs have launched on Xbox in direct response to independent developer feedback. From an early access program, Xbox Game Preview, to cross-platform play and cross-progression on PC and consoles from other manufacturers, Xbox has launched several programs. , which allows the Xbox to carry over the player’s game progress elsewhere. The last one came true in 1 minute. Thanks to all the developers who worked closely with us to make it happen in a robust and secure way for our player community. Ironically, we made it possible for developers to publish retail discs. [email protected]Xbox Digital self-publishing program. While this retail program is still in a pilot stage with a limited number of partners, the developer will be able to create physical versions of the game with only a small “minimum order quantity” of physical units from his Xbox. We look forward to rolling this out to more participants in the near future (developers, see his April newsletter for more details here).

We are also excited to help developers participate in programs like Game Pass. This will help you find your audience as much as your players will find their new favorite game. One of the things that became clear as [email protected] The program has grown, especially in the last few years as the pandemic has restricted travel, but it has made it difficult to know all the developers participating in the program, and it has become difficult for developers to share their concepts with us. We frown when we hear developers say, “I don’t know who to talk to on Xbox.” This time at his GDC, he has booked more than 200 meetings, but has no time to schedule and still has dozens of partners he would like to meet, not to mention amazing chance encounters. There’s no such thing as magical events like GDC.

Meeting new and old partners and watching the game [email protected], and I’m not going to slow it down. However, in order to ensure that all developers have equal access to decision-makers on Xbox and to provide rapid feedback to developers on submitted concepts (especially evaluation of Game Pass deals), we are starting a new process. It’s a schedule. Information developers must submit concepts for consideration for trading. This is game pass, business development, [email protected] and portfolio team.

This allows developers to immediately put their game into consideration for a deal, whether or not the developer knows anyone at Xbox personally. This allows us to continue to offer a wide variety of games to Xbox and Game Pass players, and to meet many new developers! A mutual NDA will be required to confirm. More details will be announced in April. [email protected] Newsletter. Not a member? Join now at xbox.com/id.

10 years since the dawn of time. [email protected], one thing is clear. Games by independent developers are the foundation of Xbox products. At GDC, we are excited to share our commitment to ensuring players experience the games and stories from the greatest number of creators. [email protected] Developer Acceleration Program. We’re also excited to continue meeting and listening to developers face-to-face and planning ways to improve Xbox’s independent developer offerings. That includes helping developers maximize their success on our store through improved discovery, enhanced promotions, and sharing more data. , or methods we have not yet considered. I hope everyone can enjoy a great show. We still have a lot of work to do and can’t wait to get started!