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Forums - Microsoft - Microsoft's "indie" gaming strategy for Xbox One

theprof00 on 03 July 2013

So if I want to make a ps3 game, I have to make a vita game first.
How does this make sense to you guys, when instead I could just make a nintendo game like I wanted to in the first place.
Why the restrictions? You know, they'll just make games for a competitor if they feel like they're not being allowed to make the game they want.



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anthony64641 on 03 July 2013




'Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock-n-roll.'
-Shigeru Miyamoto

Zappykins on 03 July 2013

So they are leveraging using the Xbox platform to expand apps for Win 8/RT/Phone. Interesting, not without some risk, but could be quite successful for them.

As Pappamud pointed out. I would think Android would try to do the same thing. They already have an Ouya. I've seen some Chrome Books, but not heard to many good things about them.



 

Really not sure I see any point of Consol over PC's since Kinect, Wii and other alternative ways to play have been abandoned. 

Top 50 'most fun' game list coming soon!

 

Tell me a funny joke!
EricFabian on 03 July 2013
disolitude said:
EricFabian said:
Does not look a smart move, but I hope it works. I hpe everyone could play games like "Soul Saga", "A Hat in Time" etc


Im curious why you think this isnt a smart move? Ive played some awesomely fun games on my iPad and Surface RT which could work on consoles perfectly fine. Something like Jetpack Joyride or Endless Skater is really fun to play.

It also gives Microsoft some extra leverage to get apps made for Windows 8 and phone...


I've played some awesome games on my 3DS and I think they could work on consoles, buy hey why not make a Wii U version first?



PeterSilenced on 03 July 2013

I think that what we saw was MS promoting smartglass integration troughout its platforms,opening oppurtunities for indies. So if im a Indie and pay 10K to MS to publish they will probably give me the tools to easily port or create different applications that in turn will complement my game ...its a win win situation.



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Vetteman94 on 03 July 2013
disolitude said:
Vetteman94 said:
disolitude said:

Win 8 apps and games are self published. There are members on this forums that made windows 8 apps.

MS just wants people who want to self publish games to treat them like apps and make them for Windows first. They will probably talk about cross platform play, unified leaderboards and other cool things to justify it as well as the obvious broader reach of users that the games can be sold to.

In terms of hassle, yeah some devs may only want to make console games and not optimize for touch screens. Those devs obviously don't realize the huge market they are leaving on the table by not publishing on Windows 8, Android, iOS...I'm not sure Microsoft can do much there other than show them some numbers in terms of potential gamers they are missing out on.

 

It may be a huge market but is it one that will buy their games?   Most Indie games start out between 9.99-14.99. How well do games at those prices sell?  I believe every game on the top 100 games sold on Android is 4.99 or less, Minecraft being the exception at 6.99.  That would be a pretty hard sell to an indie developer to have to design the game to work on so many different devices with ouy a decent return on it. I just dont see games priced in that range being something that mobile users or even Windows 8 app users as something that will justify the work put in on it.

Most indie games on xbox live start at 99 cents and go as high as 9.99

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_Live_Indie_Games

Not much different than the smartphone games pricing model.

I feel weird calling them smartphone games, since the only reason they are considered smartphone games is because they dont have a distribution method on to consoles. This line should very much dissapear next gen.

Its not much different but how well do those games at the higher end sell?  And would it justify the higher cost of development to publish it on multiple devices, especially when that wasnt your intent.    

I just fail see this as a win win situation,  considering MS is the one who benefits the most out of it instead of the developer.   If they wanted to develop for mobile devices, I think they would be doing that already.  Basically I see the driving Indie developers away with this,  why develop for a console who forces restrictions on you when there are others that don't.



disolitude on 03 July 2013
Vetteman94 said:
disolitude said:
Vetteman94 said:
disolitude said:

Win 8 apps and games are self published. There are members on this forums that made windows 8 apps.

MS just wants people who want to self publish games to treat them like apps and make them for Windows first. They will probably talk about cross platform play, unified leaderboards and other cool things to justify it as well as the obvious broader reach of users that the games can be sold to.

In terms of hassle, yeah some devs may only want to make console games and not optimize for touch screens. Those devs obviously don't realize the huge market they are leaving on the table by not publishing on Windows 8, Android, iOS...I'm not sure Microsoft can do much there other than show them some numbers in terms of potential gamers they are missing out on.

 

It may be a huge market but is it one that will buy their games?   Most Indie games start out between 9.99-14.99. How well do games at those prices sell?  I believe every game on the top 100 games sold on Android is 4.99 or less, Minecraft being the exception at 6.99.  That would be a pretty hard sell to an indie developer to have to design the game to work on so many different devices with ouy a decent return on it. I just dont see games priced in that range being something that mobile users or even Windows 8 app users as something that will justify the work put in on it.

Most indie games on xbox live start at 99 cents and go as high as 9.99

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_Live_Indie_Games

Not much different than the smartphone games pricing model.

I feel weird calling them smartphone games, since the only reason they are considered smartphone games is because they dont have a distribution method on to consoles. This line should very much dissapear next gen.

Its not much different but how well do those games at the higher end sell?  And would it justify the higher cost of development to publish it on multiple devices, especially when that wasnt your intent.    

I just fail see this as a win win situation,  considering MS is the one who benefits the most out of it instead of the developer.   If they wanted to develop for mobile devices, I think they would be doing that already.  Basically I see the driving Indie developers away with this,  why develop for a console who forces restrictions on you when there are others that don't.

There is no higher cost of development. SDK takes care of everything...

My company developed a windows 8 app and to make it available on Windows RT its literally just a checkbox. To make it available on Windows Phone, only a few lines of code need to be changed... I assume Xbox One will be the same since it runs on Windows. Should be 0 extra development cost.

Also, if you look at Xbox Live Indie games, a very good portion of those games are already on mobile platforms (30% I'd estimate). Microsoft just doesn't want these games going to iOS, Android and Xbox only...they want some tracking on Windows platforms since it literally a checkbox to port them over.

Again, I don't see any fails...



disolitude on 03 July 2013
theprof00 said:
So if I want to make a ps3 game, I have to make a vita game first.
How does this make sense to you guys, when instead I could just make a nintendo game like I wanted to in the first place.
Why the restrictions? You know, they'll just make games for a competitor if they feel like they're not being allowed to make the game they want.


If Sony made dev tools where a dev could make a game for Vita and PS3/4 in one swoop, they totally have the right to ask for the dev to make a Vita/PS3/4 game. Problem is that they don't.

Microsoft won't asking devs to make 4 different versions of the game, but to start the development on Windows 8 and let the SDK take care of the porting. 



Xenostar on 03 July 2013

So forcing people on to there failing store instead of just letting them make games for the store they want to, nice.



Multimedialover on 03 July 2013
Darth Tigris said:
Xbox One DOES support self publishing then, but only if a dev makes the game for a larger audience. How horrible!!!

How horrible extra money must be to a developer. 

 

Microsoft are saying developing for all 3 literally requires hardly any extra work. Probably just the control method. As the Kernells across Windows 8, WP8 and Xbox One are the same. Meaning they dont need to code it differently. Hence why Microsoft want them to make them as apps. Xbox One has that 3rd OS that can play the same apps as Windows 8.

 

More money for next to no work for developer. Sounds win win for devs.