Microsoft's reveal of its next-gen console, the Xbox One, was high on broad entertainment apps such as Skype, interactive programming, media management and Kinect-powered features. Games saw a smaller showing, with two new announcements and a trailer for Call of Duty: Ghosts. Indie games got an even smaller nod – that is, none at all.

E3 is right around the corner, with the Microsoft conference on June 10. Maybe that's where all of the Xbox One games are hiding, along with the console's indie plan. We asked a handful of indie developers what Microsoft's presentation today said to them specifically, and what they want to see at E3. Below we have responses from Rami Ismail of Ridiculous Fishing fame, Octodad's Philip Tibitoski, DLC Quest's Ben Kane, Charlie Murder's James Silva, Retro City Rampage's Brian Provinciano and Fez's Phil Fish.

Rami Ismail, Vlambeer

"We think it's interesting that Microsoft is taking the Xbox away from gaming as its core business, but it was sort of weird watching this event go down. We did see some indie developers in the opening video, so there obviously is an indie strategy somewhere, but I don't think we know a thing about Xbox One and gaming – they still have to show their hand with regards to that at E3. The whole presentation felt sort of awkward, but the D-pad looks really nice. Sadly, at this point the thing we're looking forward to most for the Xbox One is Skype on our TV."

Philip Tibitoski, Young Horses

"As an indie and developer the Xbox One reveal didn't really say anything to me. The stuff with fantasy sports is cool and all, but I was more interested in seeing how the marketplace/store might have changed or how discovery was being handled. This reveal was for a different audience and I'll be interested to see what they talk about at E3 when they're ready to talk software.

"Are they opening up avenues for smaller developers? We've seen efforts from the other big players like Steam Greenlight, or what Sony has been up to with PS3 and Vita, or even the recent announcements of PS4 indies like Hohokum. Mobile is open and Sony is opening up while making developer-related processes more simplistic to focus on games. What exactly is Microsoft planning for this to be on parity with others? I can't tell from what they've revealed so far, except that there are smaller developers shown in the opening video reel."

Ben Kane, Going Loud Studios

"While it wasn't the content I hoped to learn about, I do accept that Microsoft's living room strategy has many facets beyond gaming, and that's what today was about. I'll wait to hear more about Xbox Live, digital distribution, the marketplace, and where indies fit in. I don't think there was a message here for indie developers, but I also don't read anything nefarious from that. The presentation was simply directed at a different aspect of 'living room entertainment.'

"An Xbox Live Indie Games successor, whether direct (a premium-but-open service where anyone can make and sell games) or spiritual (a more open XBLA-style partnership hopefully with a much lower barrier for entry) would be at the top of my list for things I'd like to see at the E3 presentation."

James Silva, Ska Studios

"As a consumer, I'm excited. We use an Xbox 360 as an entertainment hub anyway, so getting a more robust, snappier version of that is a win. And lag-free Kinect is something I really, really wanted the instant Kinect 1.0 debuted, so that's great.

"As a developer of semi-simple 2D indie games, I'm looking forward to playing with one, though our style isn't going anywhere – it'll just end up with some more gratuitously excessive particle systems."

Brian Provinciano, Vblank Entertainment

"Their intention from the first Xbox was to own the living room, and the evolution of the 360 showed this trajectory in motion. The Xbox One is them realizing this vision. The problem is, they're leaving core gamers behind. You would've thought that the reaction to their E3 2012 press conference would've been a wake up call, but they're on a different course. They see more money in general entertainment, media and ads than core gamers. They see dollar signs with subscription fees. They want the revenue stream that cable providers and phone carriers have been enjoying. I'm certain that the Xbox One will launch with the base price plus a 2 - 3 year contract. The unfortunate thing about this is that many consumers will be fooled by the lower price point, even though they'll end up paying more in the long run.

"They're preaching TV services to gamers and gamer press, the exact group of people who will be least receptive to it. Microsoft's direction isn't in line with E3, it's in line with CES.

"Despite delaying their announcement a month, they still failed to capitalize on the opportunity to recalibrate after the PS4 announcement. I'm quite surprised by how limited their attempts were to one-up the PS4.

"Prior to this conference, I was expecting that at least during the E3 presentation, Microsoft would pander to indies in some way. They remain the only platform which prevents self-publishing. I wouldn't expect anything other than just talk from them, but I was expecting them to address indies nonetheless. However, after this, I could see them leaving indies out completely. After all, they have their eye on the average consumer, not the core gamer. Average consumers aren't as versed in the 'indie' game scene."

Phil Fish, Polytron

"What a giant load of shit that was! All buzzwords! They talked for an hour and basically said nothing. What does 'always ready' mean?"

Fish shares his frustration with the world on Twitter, too: "There was absolutely nothing relevant to me in that presser. Nothing about digital distribution or indies. Nothing at all." And this tweet, which we'll let you read on your own time, preferably when you're not at work.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/05/21/microsofts-message-to-indies-with-xbox-one-it-was-sort-of-wei/

With the negativity, will MS stay the course or do you think they may change things a bit by E3?

UPDATE: More words from developers.

Other dev comments:

Other developer reactions;

Quote:
From the cheers of the crowd (or coming perhaps from somewhere else), it's clear that those who were in attendance during Microsoft's Xbox One unveiling were indeed impressed. But what about the people who will be making games for it, what did the developers think about it? A number of them took to the modern soapbox of our day, Twitter, to express their personal feelings towards the new console.

* Minecraft's Markus "Notch" Presson - "I wanted a game console, not a voice and gesture based tv remote box. :/
Like Us on Facebook 


* Mortal Kombat Kreator Ed Boon - "Are you people trying to tell me that in the console wars... the XBOX Won?"

* Gears of War lead designer, 'ol Cliffy B (Cliff Bleszinski) - "When I watch TV I don't want a game controller or a remote in my hand. I want my phone or my Ipad." Followed by - "My gut is telling me that today's show was "get the stuff out of the way that we didn't really want to hear about at E3" for Xbox One."

* Ubisoft Creative Director Paul Cross - "Dear Microsoft, yes. Thank you. #xboxone"

* Twisted Metal creator David Jaffe (over several tweets) - "Have not really said much about today's XBOX ONE stuff other than I dig the TV/media aspect of it- I think that is really eally cool stuff. And If the voice recog works as good in real life as on stage, I can imagine some very cool games!Sure,I wudda loved to have seen lots of games but I read that's coming in a few weeks at E3 & am excited to see the games! If I could easily, accurately just talk to my tv ala Suri ('Play latest episode of Scandal'), I'd LOVE that!"

* Bethesda Softworks VP Pete Hines - "I imagine there are some cable box manufacturers who are starting to sweat right now."

* Sledgehammer Games co-founder Michael Condrey - "fantasy football. Done. Buyin' it."

* the man behind Garry's Mod, Garry Newman - "Disappointing that MS had the chance to shake up console gaming but just pump out the same old shit. Apple are gonna gobble it all up."

* Minecraft's Nathan "Dinnerbone" Adams - "We're turning your games into TV series so that we can pour more money into cutscenes."

* Super Meat Boy creator Tommy Refenes - "Little brothers everywhere have been given the ultimate trolling tool While older brother and friends play COD "XBOX NETFLIX MY LITTLE PONY"

* Braid creator Jonathan Blow - "'Hi, I'm Steven Spielberg. I wish I cared enough about this event to fly to Redmond, but I don't, so you can watch me on TV....And please ignore the weird message this sends about the status of Hollywood relative to video games."

* Rock Band's Dan Teasdale - "Realised that the best shortened name for the Xbox One is the XBONE. X. BONE. Putting dogs front and center makes way more sense now."

* Borderlands 2 lead writer Anthony Burch - "xbox, put guy fieri on screen" "xbox i made a horrible mistake, summon alton brown" "alton brown, fight guy fieri in single combat" "marc summers, wash your hands"

* Adam Orth - ...

http://www.gamenguide.com/articles/6818/20130522/game-developers-react-microsofts-xbox-one-reveal.htm

Brian Provinciano, creator of Retro City Rampage:

"No self-publishing" doesn't just hinder developers. A lot of publishers must go to BIGGER publishers to be able to publish on Xbox.

Mike Bithell, creator of Thomas Was Alone:

not that I'll ever sell well enough to make a blip on MS's radar, but somewhere, the next Minecraft is being made, for another platform.

George Broussard, co-creator of Duke Nukem:

Microsoft you *must* prioritize a low friction indie self publishing path. Otherwise you hand Sony games, devs and $.

Robert Boyd, co-creator of Breath of Death VII, Cthulhu Saves the World, and Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3:

Microsoft just handed the indie dev community to Sony, Nintendo, and Steam on a silver platter.

David Frampton, creator of The Blockheads:

There doesn't appear to be anything actually new here regarding Microsoft's attitude towards indies. The news is that nothing has changed.

David Frampton again:

But the fact that Microsoft's attitude towards indies hasn't changed is definitely affecting this indie's attitude towards Microsoft.

Phil Fish, co-creator of FEZ:

microsoft doesn't care about indie developer.

Markus Persson, creator of Minecraft:

Also, I tried to get excited about the xbox one, but failed.

Tommy Refenes, co-creator of Super Meat Boy:

So as someone who doesn't play Forza or any EA Sports game and already has a computer hooked to my TV, what does Xbox One offer me?

Zach Gage, creator of SpellTower and co-creator of Ridiculous Fishing:

@BenKuchera that was the only thing i was hoping for :( things are not looking great for the XO

Tim Schafer, founder of Double Fine Productions:

"@Polygon: Indie developers cannot self-publish on Xbox Onehttp://sbn.to/YZERGv" Booo! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! BoooOOOoooOooooo! Boo!

Terry Cavanagh, creator of VVVVVV and Super Hexagon:

But honestly, after their reveal yesterday, does anyone really WANT to make games for it?

And to top it off, here is Dan Adelman, head of business development at Nintendo and manager of the eShop:

One might think I'd be glad Xbox won't allow indies to self-publish. It's actually a big negative, as indies need more exposure. #growthepie

http://www.destructoid.com/devs-express-disappointment-with-xbox-one-over-twitter-254326.phtml

Gotta love how Phil Fish doesn't varnish anything he ever says.

I don't have anything against Indie games but why are they suddenly a bid deal?

For me indie gaming is just the only way I get to revisit old genres from the 80s and 90s which I still prefer to the main genres now. 2D games especially. The fact that some of these games are now shifting in great numbers proves I'm not alone.

Indie games also get to take a lot more risk meaning originality is higher than a big budget game could risk.

Lately they've been the main type of game I have been playing as the main games just leave me feeling cold.

Microsoft should have explicitly titled this event something along the lines of " Xbox: The Future of TV and Entertainment". This would have kept most people's expectations in check.

Because a XBLA game with a 90 metacritic means just as much as a AAA retail game with a 90.

Xbox fans don't descriminate based on file size and budget.

Which fans do? I'm not aware of any console that desn't have solid performing indies. PS3 biggie last year won many GOTY awards as well as selling silly numbers.

UPDATE: More words from developers.

Other dev comments:

Other developer reactions;

Quote:
From the cheers of the crowd (or coming perhaps from somewhere else), it's clear that those who were in attendance during Microsoft's Xbox One unveiling were indeed impressed. But what about the people who will be making games for it, what did the developers think about it? A number of them took to the modern soapbox of our day, Twitter, to express their personal feelings towards the new console.

* Minecraft's Markus "Notch" Presson - "I wanted a game console, not a voice and gesture based tv remote box. :/
Like Us on Facebook 


* Mortal Kombat Kreator Ed Boon - "Are you people trying to tell me that in the console wars... the XBOX Won?"

* Gears of War lead designer, 'ol Cliffy B (Cliff Bleszinski) - "When I watch TV I don't want a game controller or a remote in my hand. I want my phone or my Ipad." Followed by - "My gut is telling me that today's show was "get the stuff out of the way that we didn't really want to hear about at E3" for Xbox One."

* Ubisoft Creative Director Paul Cross - "Dear Microsoft, yes. Thank you. #xboxone"

* Twisted Metal creator David Jaffe (over several tweets) - "Have not really said much about today's XBOX ONE stuff other than I dig the TV/media aspect of it- I think that is really eally cool stuff. And If the voice recog works as good in real life as on stage, I can imagine some very cool games!Sure,I wudda loved to have seen lots of games but I read that's coming in a few weeks at E3 & am excited to see the games! If I could easily, accurately just talk to my tv ala Suri ('Play latest episode of Scandal'), I'd LOVE that!"

* Bethesda Softworks VP Pete Hines - "I imagine there are some cable box manufacturers who are starting to sweat right now."

* Sledgehammer Games co-founder Michael Condrey - "fantasy football. Done. Buyin' it."

* the man behind Garry's Mod, Garry Newman - "Disappointing that MS had the chance to shake up console gaming but just pump out the same old shit. Apple are gonna gobble it all up."

* Minecraft's Nathan "Dinnerbone" Adams - "We're turning your games into TV series so that we can pour more money into cutscenes."

* Super Meat Boy creator Tommy Refenes - "Little brothers everywhere have been given the ultimate trolling tool While older brother and friends play COD "XBOX NETFLIX MY LITTLE PONY"

* Braid creator Jonathan Blow - "'Hi, I'm Steven Spielberg. I wish I cared enough about this event to fly to Redmond, but I don't, so you can watch me on TV....And please ignore the weird message this sends about the status of Hollywood relative to video games."

* Rock Band's Dan Teasdale - "Realised that the best shortened name for the Xbox One is the XBONE. X. BONE. Putting dogs front and center makes way more sense now."

* Borderlands 2 lead writer Anthony Burch - "xbox, put guy fieri on screen" "xbox i made a horrible mistake, summon alton brown" "alton brown, fight guy fieri in single combat" "marc summers, wash your hands"

* Adam Orth - ...

http://www.gamenguide.com/articles/6818/20130522/game-developers-react-microsofts-xbox-one-reveal.htm

Brian Provinciano, creator of Retro City Rampage:

"No self-publishing" doesn't just hinder developers. A lot of publishers must go to BIGGER publishers to be able to publish on Xbox.

Mike Bithell, creator of Thomas Was Alone:

not that I'll ever sell well enough to make a blip on MS's radar, but somewhere, the next Minecraft is being made, for another platform.

George Broussard, co-creator of Duke Nukem:

Microsoft you *must* prioritize a low friction indie self publishing path. Otherwise you hand Sony games, devs and $.

Robert Boyd, co-creator of Breath of Death VII, Cthulhu Saves the World, and Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3:

Microsoft just handed the indie dev community to Sony, Nintendo, and Steam on a silver platter.

David Frampton, creator of The Blockheads:

There doesn't appear to be anything actually new here regarding Microsoft's attitude towards indies. The news is that nothing has changed.

David Frampton again:

But the fact that Microsoft's attitude towards indies hasn't changed is definitely affecting this indie's attitude towards Microsoft.

Phil Fish, co-creator of FEZ:

microsoft doesn't care about indie developer.

Markus Persson, creator of Minecraft:

Also, I tried to get excited about the xbox one, but failed.

Tommy Refenes, co-creator of Super Meat Boy:

So as someone who doesn't play Forza or any EA Sports game and already has a computer hooked to my TV, what does Xbox One offer me?

Zach Gage, creator of SpellTower and co-creator of Ridiculous Fishing:

@BenKuchera that was the only thing i was hoping for :( things are not looking great for the XO

Tim Schafer, founder of Double Fine Productions:

"@Polygon: Indie developers cannot self-publish on Xbox Onehttp://sbn.to/YZERGv" Booo! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! BoooOOOoooOooooo! Boo!

Terry Cavanagh, creator of VVVVVV and Super Hexagon:

But honestly, after their reveal yesterday, does anyone really WANT to make games for it?

And to top it off, here is Dan Adelman, head of business development at Nintendo and manager of the eShop:

One might think I'd be glad Xbox won't allow indies to self-publish. It's actually a big negative, as indies need more exposure. #growthepie

Journey sellin silly numbers? lol

What did it sell?