VG247

Speaking with the [a] List Daily, the CEO of Wasteland 2 developer inXile Entertainment Brian Fargo spoke about the changes he is already starting to see in how Microsoft treats independent developers in the wake of their policy shift on self-publishing we learned about a few weeks ago. And he says they’re being way nicer now.

“They’ve come full circle in a matter of ninety days, on every part of it, including the ability to be on the platform at all,” Fargo said. “Sony was already there; they go one step further with their Dev Pub fund, where they actually give developers money upon delivery of a game. You’re actually hearing executives at both those companies – and Nintendo, I should say – talk about why indies are important. Someone called it the Cambrian explosion of creativity.”

But wait, there’s more: “You’re hearing Microsoft reaching out, they’re saying ‘Hey, we want you on the machine.’ They’re making the calls.

“You can use the hardware as a development kit, making it more accessible, because indies can’t afford to buy [development kits]. It used to be that if you shipped on Sony first you could never be on the Xbox. Now they’re like ‘Well, we’re flexible, maybe there are features…’ There’s a different dialog there.”

I think what Fargo is describing could help to allay some of the concerns that he and other indie folks shared with Dave last month, but this walk is not a short one.

There’s plenty more to the Fargo interview, so check it out.

http://www.vg247.com/2013/08/13/inxile-ceo-microsoft-is-walking-the-walk-with-new-indie-friendly-stance/

Microsoft has always been making calls. This is why you see plenty of games being published by MSFT on XBLA. Or timed exclusives. BattleBlock Theater, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and State of Decay is all recent examples of this.

They specificly have publishers looking for potential in these games before release and it has been stated months ago.

XBLA has been huge this generation and always has been respected for it. The complaints was about policies from a few indie devs. Customers was never the ones complaining.

I'm very appalled to read this misconception that MS doesn't support indies. Although most of them suck, there's ton of them on XBL Game store. Between the big 3 MS has the most hits and success among published indy and arcade titles. No contest.

I will chime in that MS published XBLA games usually have a bit of quality and are some of the most successful based on the 3 platforms. Personally, I saw no reason for MS to change XBLA and needing a publisher for it. I like the fact that MS push a little harder for a quality product on XBLA and I believe it should stay that way. Instead what I wanted was for MS to bring XBLIG up to standard and a level field between the 2 gaming parts. Let anyone and everyone develop to XBLIG, give it visibility and create ways for good games to bubble up to the top and get noticed and the junk get thrown to the bottom and forgotten. Let indie developers have access to all parts of the hardware so they can make games just as compelling as the XBLA ones. MS then could cherry pick the really good ones to publish on XBLA.

They always have. By far XBLA provides the biggest return on investment.

Aside from Halo, Xbla is my main reason for owning the 360. MS has made a quality digital market that noone can compete with and that consistently give us better and better games. Btw, just finished Castle Crashers tonight, old game but soooo awesome :).

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There is nothing like people saying that all these developers, who do this for a living, don't know what they're talking about. Absolute gold.

I've seen more devs happy with MS and the profit they made with them than the opposite.... beside a handfull of vocal whiner this has always been true.... not saying that the policies where good or bad.... I honnestly don't care as a customer as long as I get enough games to fill my appetite.... but there was more satisfied devs than unsatisfied... none of the indie dev studio of games I purshased this gen have voiced any complains so far....

Eh, I don't really care about Indie games personally and never got why it was a big deal when they needed a publisher but if it brings more gamers and games to Xbox then I'm all for it.